一位多年经营服务型业务的创始人，决定用软件解决客户反复出现的问题。文章分享他如何验证想法、以无代码方式构建产品，并在开发SaaS的同时兼顾现有公司。
TL:DR
Founder: Chase Heckendorn
Business: RentResults
Business Stage: Early-Stage
Industry: Real Estate
Location: Dallas, Texas
Since college, Chase Heckendorn has always run his own businesses. These days, he runs a successful apartment locator and property management real estate business in Dallas, Texas. He’s also the co-owner of a local CrossFit gym.
But up until January 2022, he had never ventured outside of local service businesses. That's until a conversation with a property manager in his property management apartment locator business became the initial idea for RentResults.
RentResults builds tools for multifamily property managers, including a market survey and reporting tool.
"Long story short, this property manager told me that they have to build these Excel sheet reports every Monday," says Chase. "And I was talking to him, and he was just like, 'It's a huge time suck. And then if I ever try to take time off on a Monday or have a day off, I still have to log in and get my report done and get it submitted to my regional manager.'’
"These property managers are manually gathering data for similar comparable properties. So comp properties that are close to them. So they have a short list of, let's say, four or five properties that they check every week. And they're basically trying to figure out what's going on in their comparable local market. It's usually properties that are similar in size, similar in amenities, or similar in age as well. And they're just checking to see how many units you have, what's your occupancy rate, what's your rent out, and what specials you are running.
A big element of it is gathering every single vacant and upcoming listing at each of those buildings. So that's one of the data points that they're putting into his Excel file and then pulling it together."
This was a pain point that resonated with Chase as he had a similar experience in his businesses.
De-risking the build
When you are running multiple service-based businesses, investing capital and taking time away from a profitable business to build software when you’ve never done it before and aren’t a technical founder is risky.
Chase recognized that early on and spent a lot of time doing more calls with other property managers in his network to validate that this was indeed a real problem before he got to work building an MVP.
Another smart decision that Chase made to lower the risk is that the software he is building is something his team in his property management apartment locator business can also use. So, he’s getting a benefit regardless and has built-in internal beta testers.
"I think a lot of people build products in their own space," says Chase. "But definitely it's been beneficial for me. It's been a good way to do it. Even let's say the market survey thing flops. This thing that I've built for my internal team is a success already."
Deciding to join a MicroConf mastermind
Despite running successful businesses since 2010, Chase had never joined a mastermind before. As a non-technical founder balancing service businesses alongside a brand new software product, he was outside of his comfort zone and looking for extra accountability.