NEW YORK — You’ve got a brilliant idea, all the passion in the world and the money in your bank account. What’s next?
Adrienne Meisels
At Hacker Connect, Adrienne Meisels, creator and CEO of data platform and mobile app myPlanit, shared the story of how she “bootstrapped” her company and product into existence, a feat that took a little more than elbow grease.
MyPlanit, which will launch and officially debut Thursday at Inman Connect New York, gave the room full of technophiles, established and aspiring entrepreneurs, and real estate industry listeners a look into how the “world’s first visual search of your life” came to be.
“All of search is word-based,” Meisels said. “We don’t remember names; what we remember is context. If content is king; context is God.”
She explained how myPlanit silos all of a person’s information, syncing calendar to contacts to location to photos to videos. Think about scratching your head, trying to remember the name of the person you met at Inman Connect last year — myPlanit serves up that search capability without words by indexing all your personal data: the places you went, things you attended, etc.
Brad Inman, a beta user who interviewed Meisels onstage, gave his initial reaction to the platform: “My first thought was: My life is way too busy; I need to take a break,” he said, inciting some chuckles from the audience.
Meisels has a team of 10, including a social media intern, who came together on their own. The funding source? Her own money and financial help from friends and family.
The road to this point hasn’t been a straight shot to success, but a series of lessons, tweaks and learning experiences.
“My entire team is working for equity,” she said. “I’ve had a long journey; this is the third time I’m trying it,” something she called a blessing in disguise, adding “When we first started it would have been too early [to launch].”
“I learned the hard way who you bring onto your team is really important. Hire slowly; fire quickly. I had the good fortune of working for very large companies beforehand working for really quality people.
“Do your due diligence in who you hire.”
Another pro tip? Tap into a pool of consultants who have the time and bandwidth for a passion project.
“We’re excited about what we are building and where we’re gonna go,” Meisels concluded.
Stay tuned for Thursday, Jan. 19 for the official myPlanit app unveiling, and Meisels’ expanded presentation on the age of “Personal Big Data.”
Hacker Connect was created by and for the real estate technology community at the beginning of Inman Connect. The group includes 370 engineers, developers, designers, product managers, database architects, webmasters, and technology executives from across the real estate space.