Transitioned to tech companySandeep Grewal started his career as a mortgage broker and this expertise would eventually come to influence his career.
He decided to go back to his roots, loosely speaking, and co-founded Freeman Education in 2009. “I decided to teach what I had learned as a mortgage broker instead of just making property investments with some friends.”a few of those who started making investments after going through the Freeman course started asking Sandeep for help in managing their properties. Before he knew it, there were close to 100 properties under management, and things were getting overwhelming.
This tech side of the business, that started with only two full time developers back then, has grown into a room management platform with five modules today, including Long Term Rental Booking, Inventory Management and Revenue Management. The tech team is still a battle hardened two-person team and with some external talent as well.
AirBnB, was growing 100% year over year, and by 2019, there were half as many AirBnB units as there were hotel rooms. “The number of AirBnB units would have been on par or surpassed what the hotels had if there was no Covid. Imagine, the same number of customers in the market, but with more options,” he posed.
Another significant change that happened here was Sandeep declaring, “through our Room Management system, we are now a tech company, no longer an operational one as investing in property and managing them had become a red ocean market. Our tech platform is where we need to focus and deliver value.”In tandem with this business model shift Sandeep credits his co-founder Aravind for a change in strategy as well.