The Registry: Techview Q&A with Griddig
Publisher: The Registry SF Date: 12/7/2017
Commercial real estate tech is a phrase becoming more and more ubiquitous throughout real estate markets nationwide, as professionals within the industry look to more innovative and instantaneous ways to streamline and interact with their real estate transactions. Griddig is one such platform: a real-time, virtual office leasing template that allows its clients (landlords, tenants and brokers, among others) to more successfully navigate the office space leasing process on a mobile interface.
We recently spoke with Dan Mihalovich, founder and CEO of Griddig, about some of the core features of the product; how it strives to serve its clients, and how it is making a name for itself in the commercial office-leasing market, an arena increasingly impacted by other CRE tech trends.
How are the objectives of the company influenced by—or a reflection of—the booming commercial real estate market? How applicable is the template within and across other commercial real estate markets?
Griddig was born out of necessity—everyone who has ever touched an office leasing deal has the scars to prove it. Whether markets are tight or sloppy, it was time to modernize our leasing process. The office leasing process is 99 percent replicable throughout the U.S., subject to idiosyncrasies, which are easily addressed on Griddig. Our plan is to address adoption within the Bay Area and continue to expand into all 54 major markets around the country.
A core concept behind Griddig is its goal of making real estate leases more transparent. Does this element of the platform reflect an evolution or revolution of the real estate transaction process?
Moving CRE transactions to a more transparent and open platform allows for deals to happen faster and more efficiently, and that means stakeholders stay “in the loop” every step of the way. The Griddig platform allows all parties to consummate the deal quicker and without surprises. The CRE industry maintains a well-deserved reputation as being a dinosaur industry. So, yes, transparency has been in short supply in the office leasing process while virtually every other industry has evolved and benefitted by adopting collaborative, shared processes. For most companies, their office lease represents an enormous expense relative to gross revenues.
Griddig is a public marketplace, versus other domains that remain inaccessible except for paying subscribers. Building information and listings should be free and publicly viewable. Clients aren’t well served by hiding information from them.
Griddig recently released its Letter of Intent feature as a mobile app. In what ways does this represent a new chapter for the platform? How does Griddig’s software scale across different platforms?
We wanted the entire universe of office leasing deal-makers to see our LOI and start using it, rather than simply focusing on the San Francisco Bay Area. So we engineered the tool to work for anyone, anywhere, and for any building or space. Our audiences are working on deals all the time. The LOI comes together very quickly, with its cloning feature to create new LOIs; and simply clicking buttons to “Agree” on terms until they’re all agreed. One can fully execute LOIs on his or her handheld device.