Ben Kinney launches new brand-agnostic platform

Place Inc. will handle a variety of business tasks for teams, which will be able to keep their existing branding and remain in their brokerages.

The new platform meant to help teams deal with an array of business tasks while also allowing them to keep their existing branding.

The new platform is called Place Inc., and in a statement is described as “a full service real estate and technology platform that partners with the top 1 percent of agents and teams.” The idea, the statement continues, is to help agents become more profitable, boost their value proposition to customers and “grow their unique local brand, all without having to leave the brokerage where they are currently affiliated.” Ben Kinney In a conversation with Inman, Kinney said that Place’s goal is to help agents grow their business.

“The majority of these individuals struggle with the business side,” Kinney explained. “They lose staff or can’t grow or double their business.” Place is meant to solve that problem.

Redfin blows away expectations, posts $233M in revenue

The company's revenue jumped a whopping 88% year-over-year during the final 3 months of 2019.

$233 Million: Redfin’s 2019 Q4 revenue

Between October and December last year, Redfin raked in $233 million.

The company also had a gross profit of $40 million, and a net loss per share of $0.08, compared to $0.14 during the same period one year prior.

In a statement Wednesday afternoon, Redfin also claimed that it saved consumers “over $44 million in the fourth quarter and over $180 million in 2019.” Those numbers include savings the company counts from the refunds it directly hands over to customers after a deal closes, as well as from lower listing fees.

During the first quarter of 2020 — which we are in the middle of now — Redfin expects to bring in between $179 million and $188 million in revenue, which would represent a jump of between 63 percent and 71 percent.

Jeff Bezos' $165M mansion deal shatters Los Angeles sales record

Bezos bought the Beverly Hills estate from Hollywood mogul David Geffen in an off-market deal without the involvement of any agents.

Amazon’s CEO and the richest man in the world just bought a Los Angeles mansion for $165 million, shattering a previous residential sales record for the city set just months earlier.

Jeff Bezos bought the Beverly Hills estate from Hollywood mogul David Geffen and, in doing so, set records with the most expensive residential deal to ever take place in the Los

Angeles area, according to the Wall Street Journal. The sale took place off the market and without an agent.

KW Posts Net Agent Loss for 4th Consecutive Month in January 2020.

Agent count has dropped by 3,499 over this span.

Ben Kinney launches new brand-agnostic platform

Place Inc. will handle a variety of business tasks for teams, which will be able to keep their existing branding and remain in their brokerages.

The new platform meant to help teams deal with an array of business tasks while also allowing them to keep their existing branding.

The new platform is called Place Inc., and in a statement is described as “a full service real estate and technology platform that partners with the top 1 percent of agents and teams.” The idea, the statement continues, is to help agents become more profitable, boost their value proposition to customers and “grow their unique local brand, all without having to leave the brokerage where they are currently affiliated.” Ben Kinney In a conversation with Inman, Kinney said that Place’s goal is to help agents grow their business.

“The majority of these individuals struggle with the business side,” Kinney explained. “They lose staff or can’t grow or double their business.” Place is meant to solve that problem.

Redfin blows away expectations, posts $233M in revenue

The company's revenue jumped a whopping 88% year-over-year during the final 3 months of 2019.

$233 Million: Redfin’s 2019 Q4 revenue

Between October and December last year, Redfin raked in $233 million.

The company also had a gross profit of $40 million, and a net loss per share of $0.08, compared to $0.14 during the same period one year prior.

In a statement Wednesday afternoon, Redfin also claimed that it saved consumers “over $44 million in the fourth quarter and over $180 million in 2019.” Those numbers include savings the company counts from the refunds it directly hands over to customers after a deal closes, as well as from lower listing fees.

During the first quarter of 2020 — which we are in the middle of now — Redfin expects to bring in between $179 million and $188 million in revenue, which would represent a jump of between 63 percent and 71 percent.

Jeff Bezos' $165M mansion deal shatters Los Angeles sales record

Bezos bought the Beverly Hills estate from Hollywood mogul David Geffen in an off-market deal without the involvement of any agents.

Amazon’s CEO and the richest man in the world just bought a Los Angeles mansion for $165 million, shattering a previous residential sales record for the city set just months earlier.

Jeff Bezos bought the Beverly Hills estate from Hollywood mogul David Geffen and, in doing so, set records with the most expensive residential deal to ever take place in the Los

Angeles area, according to the Wall Street Journal. The sale took place off the market and without an agent.

KW Posts Net Agent Loss for 4th Consecutive Month in January 2020.

Agent count has dropped by 3,499 over this span.

In Today’s Episode, We Talk About;

- John’s journey as an entrepreneur prior to real estate and starting Yodle at 21. 

- Exiting Yodle and the importance of being led by value not the goal to exit the business. 

- Entrepreneurial PTSD and the challenges founders face 

- The journey of OJOLabs and why John chose it as his next venture after Yodle.

- The difference between real AI and what people say AI is.

- Scaling and its connection to a lack of entrepreneurial desire. 

- What John is excited about, what he has changed his mind on and something surprising about him. 

- The value of earned trust, and why it’s what makes a real difference in business. 

What doesn’t exist today is a consumer trusting a product or company 

Guest Info

John Berkowitz is the Co-founder and CEO of OJO Labs, an Austin-based company that has quickly become a leader in conversational AI technology. With the application of its patented AI, OJO empowers people to make better decisions through the fusion of machine and human intelligence by automating lead conversations for agents and creating data-driven, personalized experiences for consumers. John’s track record of building and scaling successful, mission-driven technology companies with award-winning workplaces paved the way for the formation of OJO in 2015. John’s dedication toward building a positive work environment led to OJO being named to Comparably’s 2018 Best Company Culture list, and Built In Austin’s Best Places to Work in 2019. 

Prior to founding OJO, John co-founded Yodle, and was instrumental in building it into a $200M+ revenue leader in the online marketing space with more than 50,000 SMB customers and over 1,400 employees. In February 2016, Yodle was acquired by Web.com in a $342 million all cash transaction. Recently, John was named to Swanepoel’s SP200 and The Most Powerful Technology Executives in The Residential Real Estate Brokerage Industry list. John is actively involved in nonprofits, and currently serves as CASA’s board president, using his entrepreneurial background and resources to fight for the welfare of children in the communities he operates in.

About the Episode

On this episode, I’m joined by tech entrepreneur, and founder of Yodle Inc and OJOLabs, John Berkowitz, a man who is revolutionizing how consumers make decisions with what he calls “the most expensive refrigerator magnet for agents.” After starting Yodle in college and growing it to a tech brand that sold for over $300 million, and dealing with some of the challenges and stresses that come with being a first-time founder, John decided to build a business that could allow him to make a bigger impact, and he found something that fulfilled his priority for a high-magnitude opportunity.  

Building meaningful business platforms that defy the status-quo has long been in John’s DNA. Fueled with the vision to build a product that would truly meet and serve consumers’ needs for valuable information, John co-founded and launched OJO Labs in 2015. OJO Labs has quickly become a leader in conversational AI technology with a powerful team working toward developing the best product possible, and a sizable opportunity meeting the perfect set of resources along key partnerships at the right time. John’s dedication to establishing a positive work environment has resulted in OJO Labs being recognized among the best places to work nationally by Inc. Magazine, Fortune Magazine, Built In and Comparably, and regionally by the Austin Chamber of Commerce and Austin Business Journal multiple years in a row. Recently, John was named to Swanepoel’s SP200 and The Most Powerful Technology Executives in The Residential Real Estate Brokerage Industry list.

Understanding the pains of what it means to run your own business and be fully accountable, and the level of responsibility to serve the end user is what drives him, and that’s what drove the creation of OJO. 

There are so many challenges that come with running a business, and what people don’t talk about is how much long-term stress the people who run these businesses take on. In order to overcome the stress, it’s important to have a greater goal or purpose behind the business because that’s what will fuel them through all of the phases, and fuel them to stay focused on what matters.  

The thing about business is, whether you run a small company or a large operation; no matter what reason you have for being in business, the journey is not easy. Companies are really hard to build and maintain, and what makes it easier is really having a North star that guides you, and being driven by the mission to solve a problem, not the outcome. If we’re driven by that we’ll always focus on what will benefit the end-user.

In Today’s Episode, We Talk About;

- John’s journey as an entrepreneur prior to real estate and starting Yodle at 21. 

- Exiting Yodle and the importance of being led by value not the goal to exit the business. 

- Entrepreneurial PTSD and the challenges founders face 

- The journey of OJOLabs and why John chose it as his next venture after Yodle.

- The difference between real AI and what people say AI is.

- Scaling and its connection to a lack of entrepreneurial desire. 

- What John is excited about, what he has changed his mind on and something surprising about him. 

- The value of earned trust, and why it’s what makes a real difference in business. 

What doesn’t exist today is a consumer trusting a product or company 

Guest Info

John Berkowitz is the Co-founder and CEO of OJO Labs, an Austin-based company that has quickly become a leader in conversational AI technology. With the application of its patented AI, OJO empowers people to make better decisions through the fusion of machine and human intelligence by automating lead conversations for agents and creating data-driven, personalized experiences for consumers. John’s track record of building and scaling successful, mission-driven technology companies with award-winning workplaces paved the way for the formation of OJO in 2015. John’s dedication toward building a positive work environment led to OJO being named to Comparably’s 2018 Best Company Culture list, and Built In Austin’s Best Places to Work in 2019. 

Prior to founding OJO, John co-founded Yodle, and was instrumental in building it into a $200M+ revenue leader in the online marketing space with more than 50,000 SMB customers and over 1,400 employees. In February 2016, Yodle was acquired by Web.com in a $342 million all cash transaction. Recently, John was named to Swanepoel’s SP200 and The Most Powerful Technology Executives in The Residential Real Estate Brokerage Industry list. John is actively involved in nonprofits, and currently serves as CASA’s board president, using his entrepreneurial background and resources to fight for the welfare of children in the communities he operates in.

All successful realtors have one thing in common.

For most of us, we learned this lesson early on...

For others. It took longer! 

The good news is, that you can choose to dive into this today and see yourself up for success.