From PlayStation to PropTech

Greetings, readers! In this edition of our newsletter, we are excited to introduce Daniel Godbout, the CEO and co-founder of Foliolens. Daniel's journey from his career in IT to real estate investing and now as the leader of Foliolens is truly inspiring. Let's dive into his story and learn more about his innovative company.

Check out the full episode below! 👇

Background: From IT to Real Estate Investing

Daniel's professional background was rooted in information technology, and he spent a significant portion of his career at Sony PlayStation, leading the global infrastructure team for ten years. Alongside his IT career, he delved into real estate investing as a means to achieve financial freedom. For eight years, Daniel pursued his real estate investment goals, but he encountered numerous challenges along the way.

The Birth of Foliolens

Daniel's firsthand experience with the hurdles faced by real estate investors led him to establish Foliolens. The idea behind Foliolens was to create a platform that would consolidate and streamline data from different tools and markets, enabling investors to manage and scale their investment strategies efficiently. With a strong background in both technology and real estate, Daniel recognized the perfect opportunity to solve the challenges he had personally faced.

Foliolens: Empowering Real Estate Investors

Foliolens caters to real estate investors who are committed to expanding their portfolios beyond a few properties. Their typical customer is someone who attends real estate meetup groups and is eager to grow their investments to around ten units or more. Foliolens steps in to help these investors bring their data together in one place, across multiple tools and markets, while providing automation features to facilitate scalability.

One of the initial features developed by Foliolens addresses the issue of document organization. Real estate investors often struggle to manage and keep track of various documents, such as insurance policies, mortgage details, and tenant records. Foliolens built an OCR (optical character recognition) and machine learning engine that extracts valuable data from these documents and assigns them to the corresponding properties. This feature exemplifies Foliolens's mission to provide investors with valuable insights into their portfolios by leveraging data from diverse sources.

Affordable and Transparent Pricing

Foliolens follows a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model with a simple and transparent pricing structure. Customers are charged on a per-unit basis, making it cost-effective for investors with multiple properties. The pricing is straightforward, with no hidden fees, and the company ensures that the value provided significantly outweighs the cost.

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Participants in the Mastermind will be:

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✔️ Have raised or are raising $500k up to $5M

We'll meet in small groups of 5-6 founders by zoom remotely 1x a month and have facilitators for each session, as well as experts (such as Matt McGarry) in different topics.

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Help us build this community where you could possibly find your next partner or investor!

Looking Ahead: Expansion and Enhanced Features

After recently graduating from the Techstars 2023 Boulder cohort, Foliolens has entered an exciting phase. They are focused on introducing new features and are actively growing their team, particularly in development roles. By bringing development in-house, they aim to enhance the speed and efficiency of product iterations and better align with customer needs.

Advice for Founders: Customer Discovery

Drawing from his experience, Daniel emphasizes the importance of customer discovery for fellow founders. He highlights the significance of listening attentively to customers and engaging in open-ended conversations rather than leading them with predetermined questions. Daniel's advice underscores the need for startups to deeply understand their target customer personas, identify pressing problems, and validate potential solutions through direct customer feedback.

Join the Foliolens Community

With its customer-centric approach and commitment to empowering real estate investors, Foliolens is making a significant impact in the industry. If you are a real estate investor seeking to streamline your portfolio management and scale your investment strategy, consider exploring the offerings of Foliolens. Their platform may be the missing piece that helps you achieve your financial goals efficiently.

To get in touch with Daniel or his team check out their Linkedins below!

👉 Daniel Godbout

👉 Foliolens

That's all for now. Stay tuned for more inspiring stories and innovative solutions in our next newsletter!