How we broke into an old-school B2B industry in 9 months

So many buildings, so much property maintenance services required. Image credit: ake1150 / 123RF Stock Photo

“The market is not ready for your product. Come back when you have traction.”

On hindsight, this was a fair statement by one of the venture capitalists I had pitched to.

At that point, the vision I painted with my startup Pegaxis seemed idealistic and near-impossible to accomplish – especially by a millennial who knew little about the traditional property management industry.

Pegaxis is a property management platform integrated with an online B2B marketplace which connects property managers and building owners to various services providers. The startup also provides online tools for property managers to keep track of their procurement activities.

An industry stuck in the past

I think most people will agree that property management is not the sexiest industry to do a startup. But it’s huge and growing. US$1.4 billion is spent on property maintenance in Singapore’s condominiums annually, according to my own estimates after reviewing the financial statements of properties.

I was only exposed to the industry because my parents run a boutique property management company.

Property management was stuck in decades-old practices, and there seemed to be no catalyst for innovation among the incumbents.

In this era where many things are “on-demand,” the industry is not immune to this change in consumption pattern too. My parents face increasing difficulty in meeting the expectations of their clients: condominium residents.

This growing problem motivated the genesis of my startup.

As part of my research, I worked as a condominium property officer for two months. During my “internship,” I learned that it was a demanding, manual job. I was firefighting most of the time. Some labor-intensive tasks include calling and emailing service providers individually to ask for quotations. It easily consumed 40 percent of my time.

After finding a good contractor, I frequently awarded contracts to him. To my surprise, a month later, one of the condominium’s council members banned me from using that contractor because he thought I was getting “under-table money.”

I was outraged. Not only was my integrity questioned, I was banned from hiring a competent contractor due to one council member’s suspicion.

Unfortunately, such corrupt practices do occur and that council member’s concern was not farfetched. These bribes could be in the hundreds of thousands and existing procurement practices have limited accountability checks.

First-mover disadvantage

Pre-acceleration and strategic alliances

Lean, adaptable, and unflappable