One year later; the same topic

Today, the 18th of june, is the 1 year anniversary of this blog.
To celebrate(?) I put in a post about the same topic; Realcomm.

Realcomm has the mission "to provide a single place where industry leaders can come together to discuss, analyze and debate the latest innovations that are impacting the Commercial Real Estate industry". This conference is hosted in Dallas (USA) and starts on the 25th.

European dinner
If you are from Europe and going to the fair, why not gather with other EU members at a dinner on the 26th. Contact me or Andrew Wallet at Remit Consulting.

See you at Realcomm.

A promising start for Bostart.se

Two months ago a new Internet service with real estate  focus was launched in Sweden. The service, Bostart, aims to make it easier for the seller  of residential houses/flats to negotiate the brokage fee.

I'm happy to see that the service has attracted more than 100 brokage firms in the first months. The real estate industry, both residential and commercial, needs to be more efficient. This is, for sure, a service I'll use when it's time 'to upgrade' the state of living.

Further reading;
'Prispress på mäklararvode'    Vår Bostad, 2006-04-21   (In Swedish)

LoopNet - The first week on the List

Last week, the 7th of June, LoopNet went public (and raised $72 million) by offering 6 million shares at $12 per share. A proposed market cap of $485 million which is more than 10 times its current revenue run rate.

After the offering, the company expects to have 34.8 million shares outstanding. Executives and directors, who didn't sell any shares in the IPO, continue to own 43 percent of the company's stock.

The first day generated an increase of close 30% but hos gone back to around $15.

Revenue
LoopNet reported net income of $18.9 million on $31 million revenue in 2005.
Revenue has almost tripled in the past three years.

The company has been profitable since the second quarter of 2003. Its revenue in the first quarter rose 65 percent to $10.2 million, and net income rose 59 percent to $2.97 million, compared with the same period in 2005.

The company makes money mostly (80%) through premium subscriptions to the site. The remainder of the company's revenue comes from advertising revenue from the site and certain product licensing fees.

Number of users
The site has 1.2 million registered members, with 64,000 of them paying a monthly subscription rate of $39.95 to $49.95 for premium service. The site averages more than 590,000 visitors per month, according to ComScore/MediaMetrix. Thirty percent of the company's paid subscriber base is concentrated in California

Number of listed properties
At the end of March, LoopNet listed 360,000 properties totaling 2.8 billion square feet worth more than $296 billion.

The IPO Prospectus
Is found here.

Seeking Alpha has published to analysis on Loopnet;
"An in-depth look at LoopNet IPO"             12th June
"LoopNet IPO: Strong out of the gate"         9th June

"It's the user experience, stupid"

Does software needs to look ugly?
Relevant question, because most of them actually do!
However, this may change faster then expected according to the article below.

'It's the user experience, stupid'    ZDnet, 8th of May 2006
'A friendly face of business software'    BusinessWeek, 3rd of May 2006

"Good design is becoming more than a nice-to-have feature. Thanks to slick Web sites like Amazon.com, people are coming to expect software that takes no or little training to use."

There is a never ending list of Property Management Software, but have you ever seen a well designed one?

Get Real wtih 37 signals

37signals is a much hyped company in Chicago (read about their passionate user rating here) . But keep an eye on them if you're into product development and Internet.

For a background of the firm read the Salon.com article "The next web revolution".

However, it's not the company or even their products that caught my interest.
It's their philosophy, which includes;

• less is more
• design first (then code)
• find people who are enthusiastic
• don’t try to find “tricky” ways to get more cash. Earn it.

To find out more about the hilosophy, read their blog 'Signal vs Noise' or even better, download their book (no hardcopy) for 19 USD. Excellent and straightforward reading. Like their products.