SeedBlink Blog

Vlad Costea is the CEO and Co-Founder of SigTree, a PropTech software company that helps real estate developers and managers better consider everyone's experience when buying a home.

Read on for interesting insights such as how SigTree came to be, what sets the platform apart, and what Vlad thinks about a business presence in Europe.

What problems does SigTree Technologies solve and for whom?

We help real estate developers and property managers improve interactions with their clients through a branded tenant engagement platform and help desk with an internal marketplace.

Data is very important in supporting real estate projects. We empower our clients to collect all this valuable information generated from day-to-day interactions and use it in their decision making to improve efficiency and calibrate their processes for future projects.

Our product is perfectly aligned with the latest trends we see in the market and we help our customers develop better and more sustainable projects.

What is happening in the Real Estate - PropTech industry where you are active? What are the most important trends at the moment?

The Proptech vertical has seen a lot of growth recently, with some analysts making the inevitable comparison to FinTech and its transformative effect on businesses.

Real estate has been traditionally slower to adopt new trends, but as we all know, technology eventually makes its way into any industry and this process is an inevitable part of business evolution.

The main trends that are playing a role in the Proptech industry are Big Data, AI and Machine Learning, virtual and augmented reality and the Internet of Things (IOT). If you think about it, all these trends are just components of a feedback loop and all pieces of this puzzle contribute equally. Digital tools, smart devices that measure various parameters, and even virtual reality projects in the real estate industry provide opportunities to generate data that was not available before. The dizzying amount of data generated in this way needs to be processed, sorted and cleaned so that it can then be transformed into actionable insights using machine learning techniques, closing the aforementioned feedback loop.

That is why we are convinced that we have the right product in the right time window.

How did SigTree come to be founded and what motivates you?

We (the founders) all worked at the same large company before we started Sigtree. While we worked there, we were constantly involved in various intrapreneurial and corporate projects, and we always wondered why that was. There's no easy answer to that, and certainly not one that applies equally to all of us. You could say that we thrive better in challenging environments, that we like to build things from scratch, or that we sometimes let our curiosity get the best of us. You could say all that and you wouldn't be wrong. But at the end of the day, what drives us most is that we know things can be done better, and we need to make that happen.

In any case, at some point we decided to dedicate ourselves completely to it and give it our full attention. Building a new startup is very difficult, more difficult than we initially imagined. But I would argue that eventual success gives more personal satisfaction than any kind of project.

What kind of technologies do you offer to your customers? What are the core competencies of your solution?

We offer a cloud-based branded software platform that includes help desk capabilities, multiple communication tools and an internal marketplace. Our product is equipped with a Business Intelligence and analytics module to complement data with actionable insights. We also have an IoT platform, the potential of which is currently underutilised, but we plan to add this to our offering in the future.

But technology is only a means to an end. We focus on solving our customers' problems in the best way possible. For them, that means hours saved, lower opportunity costs, happier end customers and more meaningful work.

How important is the role of software development in building a PropTech company?

The proliferation of technology has meant that everyone expects a certain level of connectivity, stability and accessibility to be present in all products. This means that software development is now a critical success factor in creating a meaningful product in any industry, and PropTech is definitely no exception. I do not think there's anyone who disagrees with that.

I would also like to point out that usability is very important and can make the difference between success and failure of a product. It is critical to offer a stable product that is also very easy to use, especially for a startup company that has to constantly iterate in search of a better product-market fit.

We take this very seriously and develop our products in-house. This gives us tight control over quality and budgets while being flexible enough to experiment with new features or respond quickly to feedback.

More about Vlad Costea | SigTree Technologies | Their investment round on SeedBlink

Did you find inspiration in these honest answers? If you like our approach, then become a member of an incredible tech community – join us HERE and let’s support together the innovators of the future!