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The founder of popular industry CRM LionDesk has left the company to which he sold it and joined Venture MLS as a new venture partner.
Venture MLS announced the placement of David Anderson, previously with Lone Wolf Technologies, in an announcement sent to Inman. California Regional Multiple Listing Service (CRMLS) created the proptech venture capital initiative in 2021, marking the first time an MLS has done so. Its first investment backed Perchwell, a real estate business operating system.
David Anderson
Venture MLS’s forward-looking investments will lead to good things for its partners and the industry as a whole, Anderson said in a statement.
“The real estate industry is in a state of change right now, and new technologies are more important than ever. I look forward to advising startups and helping them scale quickly,” he said.
His role will include identifying investors and fundraising opportunities while promoting the objectives and varied portfolio investments of Venture MLS, according to the announcement. The position was designed to leverage Anderson’s intuition for gauging success, allowing him to advise backed companies and scan for new opportunities.
LionDesk was launched in 2016 to support individual agents’ business goals through contact management and outreach. It quickly expanded to offer multiple digital marketing tools, such as lead generation, automated text campaigns with video and later, transaction management, all at price points reasonable to the everyday agent.
Anderson sold LionDesk to Lone Wolf in 2021 at the same time it acquired HomeSpotter. The two would become part of a five-company buying spree by the enterprise proptech.
CRMLS, the nation’s largest MLS with more than 110,000 agent, broker and appraiser subscribers, said it created its venture fund “as a hedge against changing market forces” in the real estate industry and views new technology investments as “necessary and beneficial” for its subscribers, their clients and the industry at large.
“The 100,000+ professionals who rely on CRMLS have a right to expect us to serve them with the best technology products available,” CRMLS CEO Art Carter told Inman upon Venture MLS’s emergence. “We’ve been able to meet their expectations by working with technology providers in the same way other MLSs do.“
Anderson’s insight will help the fund find those “best technology products,” Carter said in the announcement.
“The goal of Venture MLS is to find exciting new investments and nurture them to be real industry game-changers. David’s knowledge in the technology space will be invaluable as Venture MLS grows,“ Carter said.
Anderson has been named to the Swanepoel Power 200 report twice and currently serves as an adviser to several startups through his new endeavor ReTechAlliance, according to the announcement.
