The Munich-based startup Everreal has digitized the apartment rental process. The founders have mapped and automated the entire process digitally. Customers are very satisfied, as their workload has been reduced by up to 80%, says CEO Nessim Djerboua. He answers our 7 questions.
1. Who are you and what do you do?
We—Nessim Djerboua (36, MBA) and Liviu Ignat (35, computer science graduate)—met through our previous jobs at Silicon Valley unicorn Appdirect. After almost five years at Appdirect and successfully building the European business, I decided it was time to drive digitalization in the real estate industry.
Everreal creates digital rentals, including marketing, contract and apartment handover
And that’s exactly what we’re working on: Everreal is the platform for tomorrow's digital rentals. We bring together all the necessary data, processes, and stakeholders: Landlords, i.e., housing companies, property managers, or real estate agents, can digitally manage the entire rental process, from termination to marketing and handover of the apartment. Prospective tenants are guided digitally through the rental process.
2. But that's been around for a long time!
Not to this extent, and not to this degree of automation. We are the only provider that covers the entire rental process – from marketing and automated contract creation to digital apartment handover. Our customers tell us weekly that their daily work has become easier and more enjoyable thanks to Everreal. We are, of course, very pleased. With Everreal, our customers save 60 – 80% of their workload. A figure that speaks for itself.
Real estate industry feels little pressure for digital transformation
3. What has been your biggest challenge so far?
Our biggest challenge was and remains to encourage change in an industry that is still somewhat sluggish today. Moving away from paper and manual processes toward digital solutions that free up time for more important things. The real estate industry is generally doing very well economically, so companies are feeling less pressure to embrace digital transformation. But things are slowly gaining momentum.
4. Let’s get down to business: How is business going?
We've been live on the market since the beginning of 2018, and over the past twelve months we've managed to attract and inspire renowned clients from the real estate industry to Everreal. Our clients include large companies such as MEAG (the asset manager of the asset managers of Munich Re and Ergo) and Foncia Deutschland (one of Germany's largest residential property managers). Small property managers and brokers are also our customers.
In total, our clients manage approximately 150,000 apartments throughout Germany. In a customer survey we conducted at the end of 2018, we achieved a 'Net Promoter Score' of 9, a very high customer satisfaction rating. This clearly demonstrates that Everreal offers significant added value.
5. What does Munich mean to you?
Munich is an exciting city from both a startup and real estate perspective. We're both Munich residents by choice and have lived outside of Germany for many years. Munich's high quality of life and its excellent universities make it an ideal city for us.
The path to becoming a unicorn? Strictly confidential!
6. How will your startup become the next unicorn? Or will we see you soon at Epic Fail Night?
How Everreal becomes a unicorn is, of course, strictly confidential. However, our vision for the Everreal platform and the huge need for efficiency and new business models in the real estate industry have great unicorn potential. Our drive, however, is to enable any type of real estate transaction in just a few minutes and make it as easy as shopping on Amazon.
7. Helles or Prosecco?
Definitely not a fundamental question for us, but a decision of the moment.
