Case Study

How we turned around product development for startup Reverifi

Client
Industry

Real Estate

Area of Expertise

Software Development

Reverifi is a bootstrapped startup that’s rethinking the residential real estate marketplace to be more business-friendly to realtors and more transparent for buyers. Reverifi’s founder Jeff VanNote is a real estate veteran who lives by the values of communication, responsibility, and accountability, and he’s working to bake them into the industry through Reverifi’s technology.

Optimum went above and beyond to deliver where a fractional CTO couldn’t.

“I’m willing to pay top dollar for anything if the people on the other side take accountability for giving me results.”

Jeff VanNote, Founder
Jeff VanNote, Founder

There is no set process when it comes to residential real estate — everyone does things their own way. For years, Jeff had dealt with frustration working with lenders, agents, attorneys, buyers, and sellers. Jeff’s “aha” moment came after making an offer on a property, only to never hear back. After following up months later, he found that it sold for much less than his offer, meaning it had never been presented. It was then that the idea for Reverifi was born.

Being in the industry for well over a decade, Jeff has built up an impressive roster of clients in every sector, and he always likes to hire his own clients when possible. That’s how he ended up recruiting his CTO back when Reverifi started in 2020. But, almost a year and $100,000 into development, things weren’t working out. The product was live, but wasn’t running the way Jeff had envisioned it would. As a non-technical founder, Jeff’s experience was that “the learning curve and language barrier from tech to reality was tremendous.” The working relationship was frustrating too, laden with aloofness, miscommunication, missed meetings, and excuses.

“I needed to hire a company that not only had that experience, but also the proper team and staffing.”

After taking a few months to step back and consult his network, he realized he still wanted to take his company to the next level, and give it the best chance he could for it to succeed in a short timeframe. It was through his network that he found Marco and Eyad, who came highly recommended by friends and family who worked in tech.

From his growing pains, Jeff had learned that the biggest challenge in software development is all about  communication with the tech team. That’s usually not a founder’s skill set, so someone needs to serve as that liaison.

Optimum Partners worked to translate the company vision and strategy to the tech team with patience and generosity, both through the early hiccups of nailing product specifications while getting up to speed, and through business changes based on fluctuating market conditions.

According to Jeff, Optimum Partners went above and beyond their contract from a time perspective to make sure the job was complete. With the development work Optimum Partners did for Reverifi, Jeff was able to test out multiple bets on what the market would do and what his audience really wants, and one of them paid off —he has now identified his path to monetization and is doubling down on that strategy.

The number one thing Jeff has learned about building technology is that it’s not easy and is sometimes intense. What he’s appreciated most about Optimum Partners has been their ability to recover from problems with cool heads.

“Problems are going to happen,” says Jeff. “But to Optimum Partners, it’s always business, not personal. It’s water under the bridge, and then we’re onto discussing what we’re doing next.”

For Jeff, Optimum Partners has always assumed responsibility and accountability. Holding those values high has won them his loyalty.

Says Jeff: “They didn’t nickel and dime me. They just said, ‘Okay, let’s get it done.’ As a founder, I appreciate that.”

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