Bright Spaces streamlines the entire leasing process for commercial spaces developers and landlords
Please introduce yourself and your startup Bright Spaces to our readers!
Hello, Bright Spaces is a PropTech startup that I launched in 2019 together with my cofounder, Andrei. We started this adventure after 12 years of working together, because we realised the potential of a completely remote, integrated visualization and leasing platform for the commercial real estate industry.
I’ve been an entrepreneur for almost 20 years, I am passionate about finding new, innovative ways of solving existing problems. Bright Spaces was truly a leap of faith, we started all fresh, successful exited our previous businesses and started investing all our time, effort and energy into growing this solution at a global level. Through Bright Spaces, we are enabling commercial landlords worldwide to promote and lease their spaces digitally.
How did you get the idea of Bright Spaces?
Part of our actual team participated at the Real Estate Hackathon organized by Proptech Romania, in April 2019 and won the competition with a more incipient concept. Still, at that point, we saw its great potential and decided to pursue this path. The idea got validated again and again, as we later on won a PropTech Hackathon organized by Skanska Romania and Proptech Romania, raised our first financing round of 185.000 EUR and got accepted in the Pi Labs Accelerator, out of over 600 applicants.
The platform we’ve developed allows tenants to see spaces in 3D, in various fitouts, check real time availabilities, learn about a building’s main tech specifications and outside points of interests (restaurants, cafes, accessibility) and also book a visit or require a personalized offer. Thus, we are optimizing the time and money resources invested by landlords, their leads number increases and also, they are able to offer a fully digital and safe experience.
Why did you decide to start with Bright Spaces?
The process of Managing, Showcasing & Leasing Office Space still relies on basic tools, costly manual tasks & in-person meetings. The real estate industry has to digitize its processes and the pandemic accentuated the rhythm in wich it adopts new technologies.
Although we are talking about a more traditional industries, change is happening. We knew that the need for such a solution existed and we had the ambition not only to create it, but to take it at its finest level. This is why we’ve had countless meetings and talks with mentors, partners, investors, gathering feedback and integrating answers to their requests in our platform. We are still developing new features and have some really wild dreams about where we can get.
What is the vision behind Bright Spaces?
Our goal is to become a global player and the standard end-to-end digital leasing solution for CRE.
How difficult was the start and which challenges you had to overcome?
Our journey has been challenging – we sold our previous businesses and started working in a field none of us had a lot of experience. Furthermore, the real estate industry changes at a rather slow pace, so we had to adjust our product and be really patient. At the same time, the pandemic impacted many developers’ budgets (but at the same time, emphasized the necessity of such a solution), not to mention that we had limited resources to start with.
But in the end, it all pays off – we have our first 7 clients from Romania and the UK and are looking forward to international growth.
Who is your target audience?
Bright Spaces is targeting commercial space developers and landlords worldwide (regardless the size or location of their buildings) who want to optimize their showcasing and leasing processes through technology.
What is the USP of your startup?
Bright Spaces streamlines the entire leasing process for commercial spaces developers and landlords.
Can you describe your typical workday ?
My day starts with my wife and my baby boy, with meditation and yoga and occasionally, a little bit of sport. Then I usually navigate through meetings with my team, with clients, investors and partners, through daily tasks and long-term strategy and decision making. It is very important for me to take time to read – both industry related news and updates and also, recently, SF books.
Where do you see yourself and your startup Bright Spaces in five years?
Our dreams are big and wild and at the same time, we maintain our focus on daily tasks in order to grow to a global, top-of-mind digital solution in 5 years and prepare for an IPO.
What 3 tips would you give to founders?
Keep going – if you’ve really validated your idea (and aren’t just blinded by your love for it), keep persevering even if everybody around you discourages you.
Build a great team – having the right people working for the same vision is vital for your business. And it’s not about having people like you or who’ll agree with anything you do or say, but having passionate specialists who will challenge you and themselves in order to achieve a shared goal.
Think big – putting yourself in this grandiose mindframe will take you further than just settling with small, comfortable steps.
Thank you Bogdan Nicoara for the Interview
Statements of the author and the interviewee do not necessarily represent the editors and the publisher opinion again.
