3 years of properti – The start-up scene in Switzerland is going through turbulent times. Although around 25,000 new companies were entered in the Swiss commercial register in the first half of 2022, the percentage of successful start-ups remains low: eighty out of one hundred start-ups fail within the first three years. How do you stay on course, maintain or even accelerate the pace?
The gathering storm of economic hardship is also sweeping across the start-up sky. The pandemic, the war in Ukraine, energy and supply chain bottlenecks have left their mark. Added to this are inflation and rising interest rates worldwide, which are making business more difficult. But crises also create opportunities.
Customer focus, employee development and innovation
properti was founded shortly before the coronavirus pandemic and, thanks to the right mentality, was able to turn the additional challenges of the crisis into new paths and perspectives. Levent Künzi, CEO & Co-Founder of properti: “We have not reached this position by luck or chance, but because we live customer centricity, employee development and innovation on a daily basis. This gives us the best chance of success, even in difficult times.”
With the idea of “human expertise empowered by technology”, the now 140-strong team is developing into an important player in the real estate and PropTech sector. A specially developed end-to-end platform PROPCHAIN® covers all needs in the residential ecosystem. As an “orchestrator”, properti has direct contact with the end customer, establishes the connection to brokers and service providers and helps to automate – and thus simplify – the traditionally complex process of real estate transactions.
“Invest in people, not companies“
If you ask the team, properti’s strengths are its think-big and fail-forward mentality. The motto: “The sky isn’t the limit, your vision is.” Successful growth requires an exceptional degree of speed, hard work and agility from founders and employees.
The important thing is never to lose sight of the vision that drives the company forward in order to inspire customers at all times and at the same time attract new talent. But that alone is not enough. “Despite industry knowledge and the necessary aptitude for business, the most important task for me and my brother is to invest in people,” says Adrian Künzi, CSO & Co-Founder of properti.
Software & People
Digital ecosystems must improve collaboration between internal and external parties. Among other things, this allows real estate agents to work faster and to a higher standard, giving them more time for individual advice. Despite these exciting advances, it is important to understand that the people behind the real estate business cannot simply be “digitized away” – at least not yet. The advisory function of real estate consultants remains a special service for the client.
From start-up to scale-up
properti is celebrating its 3rd anniversary today. In 2022, the team and founders were voted one of the 100 best PropTech companies in Europe by BUILTWORLD and PwC and , according to Levent Künzi, are currently in a transition phase: “We are in an extremely intensive phase and are moving from start-up to scale-up. In view of the current market turbulence, the ‘experienced founders and management team’ factor is becoming increasingly important. Experienced managers who have already been through ‘crises’ and successfully built up companies are a great advantage at this stage. Our greatest success is and remains that we have found great talent and people who are competent and passionate.”