The Built Environment with Bobbi Steward, Revyse

Welcome to ‘The Built Environment Bulletin’, with Tabitha Francis, our Q&A focused on the PropTech and Built Environment space.

Our Q&A series is an opportunity for our Head of PropTech, Tabitha Francis, to discuss all things Built Environment, Start-ups, and Career with different founders from across the region. Each week we will ask Built Environment innovators burning questions and quiz them about their products. We hope you find it insightful and enjoy getting to know the founders as much as we have.

This week we have been in touch with Bobbi Steward, Co-Founder and CEO of Revyse.

Revyse’s vendor lifecycle management software helps multifamily decision-makers discover, buy, and manage the best products and services across both corporate and onsite teams.

How did you find yourself in the Built Environment sector?

I started out on the vendor side of the real estate industry, actually working in marketing technology and product management at a company called G5, which was later acquired by RealPage. While I was there, I spent about five years designing products and services for owners and operators. After that, I had a really short-lived experience in the ILS world working at Realtor.com, navigating the world of consumer data and really understanding the renter’s journey. But it was after this period that I had what I call my big breakthrough; when I went to the client side of the industry. I joined BH Management as a senior executive and head of marketing and customer experience at a company that owned and operated about 100,000 multifamily units across the United States. It was at this point, when I became the person buying prop tech instead of building it, that I realized firsthand how fractured and difficult it was to navigate our ecosystem. That was the catalyst for starting Revyse.

What was the mission when you set out to create the business and what is unique about your business vs competitors?

Being on the operator side, I realized that the vendor discovery and selection process is super arduous. It wasn’t easy to vet new solutions, let alone to even understand what our options were. Post-COVID, there was a massive boom in the adoption of new technologies—self-guided experiences, contactless experiences, and now even AI. But it was really hard to manage that ecosystem and to understand how to evolve our operations in tune with the advancement and innovation of the partners we chose to do business with.

Revyse’s mission is to bridge the gap between vendors and operators, making it easier to discover, procure, and manage the technologies and tools that our teams need to get their jobs done. We are a software company that sits at the intersection of property management, vendors, and suppliers.

What are some of the challenges you have faced within the Built Environment sector given the macro-climate?

I actually feel really lucky to have started Revyse during what’s been considered a low, because we didn’t get caught up in the hype of PropTech. Fortunately, we have grown the business really meaningfully and thoughtfully, and so we’re in a fantastic place now.

A lot of our success has to do with the type of software we’re building. It’s not the sexy, leasing renter-focused tools that are really hot. It’s the boring back office, operational day-to-day stuff that really impacts the way we work. I think that’s been our secret sauce. We have been able to create a platform for vendor lifecycle management software that really touches every area of the organization—from property operations, to marketing, to IT, to transitions teams and acquisitions teams. We’re really digging into the way operators work. This will help Revyse with longevity—we’re not just a flash-in-the-pan solution, but we’re here to play the long game.

Congratulations on your recent funding! What advice would you give to other startups seeking capital in this challenging landscape?

For us, it was really about finding the right partners. We wanted to be thoughtful and responsible, taking a measured approach to how we released our products and how we built our models. We know when to release products fast and when to go slow.

When we set out to fundraise, it was about finding partners who could provide the right type of momentum. We sought strategic partners who could weigh in on our product, give us real-world feedback, and had established relationships in the industry. One of our partners even has a built-in Channel Sales Team, giving us a significant leg up without needing to heavily invest in our go-to-market teams. This allowed us to expand our reach quickly and effectively.

With capital secured, what does the road ahead look like for your company?

Absolutely. We joke all the time that we have one single employee outside of product and engineering, with everyone else heads down building product. This focus has allowed us to make a big impact quickly.

We will continue to invest in product and engineering, building out our platform to add significant value to all segments of the market—from freemium customers to core customers on the vendor intelligence platform. Our goal is to own the entire vendor lifecycle, from discovery to relationship and contract management.

What are your predictions for the rest of 2024?

I think a lot of operators have been sitting on the sidelines for the last six months, waiting to see how the year would unfold and deciding which big bets to make. Now, we’re starting to see a lot of activity that we didn’t see in Q1. Going into Q3, operators are making big decisions about where to focus—whether on back office operations, front office resident experience, or nurturing their on-site teams.

However, the external environment, particularly in an election year, will have some influence on these decisions. We’re seeing murmurs on the legislative side of the industry, which could be a wildcard this year.