Former real estate broker-turned-entrepreneur Nick Romito saw a need in the market and came up with way to meet it. He founded a company, View the Space (VTS), in 2012, which started offering motion picture-quality video tours of commercial properties. His idea was to make it easier for potential buyers to view available premises.
In a recent interview, Romito said that when his company first developed the idea, no one believed that it didn’t already exist. Up to that point, the two fields had not intersected.
VTS decided to include building data beyond videos. The company digitally tracks tour dates, availability, different phases of lease agreements and documentation, which allows owners and brokers alike to stay on top of the performance of properties in real time.
To date, this service is available in 18 markets. In coming years, it will be offered in additional domestic and international locations.
Romito and co-founder Ryan Masiello put their life savings into the company – with a bit of help from their spouses. VTS was started with $700,000 in seed funding in 2012. Last year it secured $7 million in financing from Trinity Ventures and Greg Waldorf, the former eHarmony CEO, and other investors.
The company currently has about 230 clients, including some of the biggest landlords in the States, such as Equity Office Properties and Prudential. Services are provided on a subscription model where owners pay $200-$600 per month (depending on the number of features they choose) to gain access to the database.
VTS is determined to make its platform more interesting to the market by offering a mobile app, which it released earlier this year. Brokers can have instant access to data about properties they are trying to lease at their fingertips.
