"The product is simple, which means the pitch was simple" - Interview with PPW Pitch Club Winner Propertizer

You'd be forgiven for not having heard of Propertizer, the proptech with a profitability calculator for every property in the world.

But this bootstrapped startup based out of Hungary—operating with just six people—is about to land in the US, with a New York launch in two weeks and a nationwide rollout by the end of November.

Not bad for a business that only launched its private beta less than one month ago.

Propertizer caught our attention on its way to winning the Pitch Club competition at the Property Portal Watch conference in Madrid in October 2023, beating 12 other entrants from around the proptech and portal world.

I spoke with Peter Orban (CEO) and Daniel Kovari (CBO) after they picked up the trophy.

Pictured is Daniel with Pitch Club judge and iovox CEO, Ryan Gallagher

What does Propertizer do?

Peter: Propertizer tells you how much money you can make from any property, whether you're renting it, flipping it, or investing in it in the long term. We make money by selling our API to property portals.

When did the business launch?

Peter: We're quite young. We launched our private beta in September and we are closing very soon.

We're only in Hungary for now but in two weeks we are launching in New York, and in one month we launch to the whole of the US, so it has been a very fast journey for us.

How is the business funded?

Peter: We're a bootstrapped business. We fundraise in 2024.

What are you looking for from an investment?

Peter: Good question. Not just funds, but we're looking for connections across the whole industry so we can grow our knowledge of real estate globally.

Daniel: If we can get our foot in the door with the help of an investor, having a strong partnership like that would be the perfect fundraiser for us.

Which markets are you looking at?

Peter: Good question. It depends on the partners, but we're looking primarily at the US, European and LATAM markets—in this order.

Where did the idea for the business come from?

Daniel: We were friends before the launch. Peter built the first FSBO (for sale, by owner) hybrid model agency in Hungary that gathered a lot of key customer feedback from agents and mom-and-pop users. Meanwhile, I was working in mergers and acquisitions on the transaction side of commercial real estate.

I was trying to find an investment property in Hungary and I was shocked at how much information was missing for me to make a sound decision about where to buy and why. There was nowhere for me to go, nowhere.

When I thought about it, I realised that if it is difficult for me—with a professional background in finance—to find what I need before I purchase a property, then how can a regular buyer possibly understand the financial value of a property?

Once we realised that Peter's technological and business background—and my financial and investment background—were perfectly aligned for us to build on each other's knowledge, the idea for the business became much more complete.

We started development in October 2022, and one year later we are ready to roll out across the US.

What makes you think you won Pitch Club?

Daniel: I would love to know what the judges thought and why they felt that way about Propertizer, it would be great feedback.

I believe what makes us stand out is our authenticity and the simplicity of the product itself. Peter has coded products and built businesses for the past ten years so we were able to pitch the idea in quite a simple, straightforward way.

Obviously, the backend is the most complicated part, but the way our core business works is incredibly intuitive, to the point where even people with no financial background can understand the value of the information our product gives them.

Peter: The idea of simplicity is key. The product is simple, which means the pitch was simple, and it resonates with audiences because anyone can understand it.

How will AI impact the industry?

Peter: A super cool question.

AI will definitely change the market. Not with big things, but with small things.

AI will allow the industry to optimize processes but not change the landscape of how real estate technology works.

In Hungary, our real estate market has a big problem because we don't have locations for properties. With AI, we can extract location data from the text of the property description and so on. I think this is the direction of the AI for real estate companies.

However, I doubt AI will change the way we search for or sell property in the next 10 years.

What does 2024 look like for Propertizer?

Daniel: We can't mention the names of the countries and the companies we are talking to but we are finalising discussions with a few portals.

It's going to be all about expanding into other markets. We're live in Budapest, New York is coming soon, and then the whole of the US. That will definitely be our focus market next year.

We don't just want to penetrate the market, we want to build knowledge in the user base and teach people how our tech can be used in a way that is really, genuinely beneficial for them.

What will Propertizer look like in five years' time?

Peter: Our five-year timeframe is to work directly with the biggest real estate portals globally to provide them with real data not just for investors, but for visitors.

We'll also have a standalone portal—and that's how it will be!

Tell us about your experience at Property Portal Watch.

Daniel: We've been to other conferences before but the sheer amount of useful information that we've received is just astounding.

A particular highlight was Dubizzle Group talking about how they used SEO to dominate Google, and we'd never heard anything like that in our lives.

It's our first time here, and we've really enjoyed it. We've learned a lot compared to other conferences, and the networking opportunities here are just out of this world.

We'll for sure be back again and we'll hopefully make it for the LATAM conference in 2024.