How a non-technical founder is building his first software product alongside his service businesses
TL:DR
Founder: Chase Heckendorn
Business: RentResults
Business Stage: Early-Stage
Industry: Real Estate
Location: Dallas, Texas
Since college, Chase Heckendorn has always run his own businesses. These days, he runs a successful apartment locator and property management real estate business in Dallas, Texas. He’s also the co-owner of a local CrossFit gym.
But up until January 2022, he had never ventured outside of local service businesses. That's until a conversation with a property manager in his property management apartment locator business became the initial idea for RentResults.
RentResults builds tools for multifamily property managers, including a market survey and reporting tool.
"Long story short, this property manager told me that they have to build these Excel sheet reports every Monday," says Chase. "And I was talking to him, and he was just like, 'It's a huge time suck. And then if I ever try to take time off on a Monday or have a day off, I still have to log in and get my report done and get it submitted to my regional manager.'’
"These property managers are manually gathering data for similar comparable properties. So comp properties that are close to them. So they have a short list of, let's say, four or five properties that they check every week. And they're basically trying to figure out what's going on in their comparable local market. It's usually properties that are similar in size, similar in amenities, or similar in age as well. And they're just checking to see how many units you have, what's your occupancy rate, what's your rent out, and what specials you are running.
A big element of it is gathering every single vacant and upcoming listing at each of those buildings. So that's one of the data points that they're putting into his Excel file and then pulling it together."
This was a pain point that resonated with Chase as he had a similar experience in his businesses.
De-risking the build
When you are running multiple service-based businesses, investing capital and taking time away from a profitable business to build software when you’ve never done it before and aren’t a technical founder is risky.
Chase recognized that early on and spent a lot of time doing more calls with other property managers in his network to validate that this was indeed a real problem before he got to work building an MVP.
Another smart decision that Chase made to lower the risk is that the software he is building is something his team in his property management apartment locator business can also use. So, he’s getting a benefit regardless and has built-in internal beta testers.
"I think a lot of people build products in their own space," says Chase. "But definitely it's been beneficial for me. It's been a good way to do it. Even let's say the market survey thing flops. This thing that I've built for my internal team is a success already."
Deciding to join a MicroConf mastermind
Despite running successful businesses since 2010, Chase had never joined a mastermind before. As a non-technical founder balancing service businesses alongside a brand new software product, he was outside of his comfort zone and looking for extra accountability.
“I was getting close to having an MVP product that I was ready to start showing people. And I knew that I needed accountability. I was talking to my wife about it all the time, and I think she was starting to get really worn out with this really repetitive conversation about the product. I think I need to speak with some people who are in the same world doing the same things.”
As someone who spends a lot of time doing sales and talking to clients, Chase is comfortable talking to anyone and rarely gets nervous. However, he remembers being nervous jumping on the first call with his new mastermind.
The nerves subsided once he realized that despite everyone in his mastermind having different personalities, skill sets, and backgrounds, they had a shared goal of all being new to building and launching their own software product.
“The thing that stands out the most to me is that we all have different personality types, and we’re all in different places too, and that’s actually pretty cool to see across the board. But everybody is most scared or most fearful of selling and rejection.
Our fear is all the same. It’s that our product’s gonna flop, that it’s not gonna take off. We openly talk about it and I’m like, ‘Oh, this is so normal.’ And so then it makes it feel a little bit more fixable, relatable, and approachable, and we can all have ideas for how to just get past this.”
Getting an extra dose of accountability
This open and honest dialogue also makes it easier to hold each other accountable. When you are working on it by yourself, it is easy to make excuses for why things aren’t getting done.
“The accountability part of it is big,” says Chase. “It’s almost like where you might have been okay on your own, having a couple of weeks of nothing really happening, and you can make your own excuses. I was busy with work or life was busy or whatever. When we have these weekly Monday morning calls, you wanna have an update? And you’re like, I got this done. It definitely has that element, and I think everybody has felt that.”
Not to mention, as the mastermind goes on, everyone starts to learn more about each other and their businesses. So, they can help each other spot potential blindspots or brainstorm ways to combat specific challenges.
Looking to the future
While it is still early days, Chase wants to give RentResults the best possible chance of success. He feels like joining this mastermind is helping him with that.
“I wanted to give myself every possible push that I needed to make sure I was just continuing to try my hardest. And I thought that a mastermind would help with that and that it has.”
Want additional support and accountability as you are building your SaaS company? Join the MicroConf Mastermind Waitlist!
