Tommy Sowers, who worked for McKinsey & Company and was the youngest senate confirmed assistant secretary in the Obama administration. On top of this, he is the founder of GoldenKey.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Getting Things Done
What CEO do you follow? – Yvon Chouinard

Favorite online tool? — Evernote
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— I try to
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “There is no risk and don’t wait for it to be easy”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:40 – Nathan introduces Tommy to the show
02:01 – GoldenKey is a no-commission real estate network
02:30 – Tommy didn’t want to commission a real estate agent 2 years ago
02:50 – “People hack real estate agents in a lot of different ways”
03:49 – GoldenKey’s revenue model is a marketplace
- 03:55 – Consumers pay on the services that they need
- 04:22 – “When you buy or sell your home, the commission rebate will go to you”
04:44 – In GoldenKey’s platform, the supply are agents
- 04:50 – Agents offer unbundled services
- 04:56 – From zero, GoldenKey managed to have 1798 agents in 47 states, much higher than Red Fin
05:25 – The consumers are the home buyers or sellers
- 05:30 – GoldenKey currently has 1/3 buyers and 2/3 sellers
- 05:39 – Average of 1900 buyers and sellers
- 05:44 – GoldenKey has currently executed over 900 service transactions
- 06:11 – GoldenKey has saved consumers over $100,000 of commission
06:25 – GoldenKey doesn’t share the number of monthly transactions publicly
07:30 – They get different fees for different types of services
- 07:45 – “This is not a do-it-yourself real estate and you actually have an agent with you”
08:25 – If I buy a property for $500,000, how much would go to GoldenKey?
- 08:30 – For search services, it is $50 which goes to the agent
- 08:50 – On average the consumers pay $2000 to have agents represent them through the transactions
- 09:07 – “The entire agent commission will be rebated back to you, which is usually 3% of the total transaction”

09:30 – Agents choose GoldenKey because they get something rather than nothing at all

- 09:40 – Agents can still do the traditional real estate commissioning
09:58 – “There are a lot of consumers in the USA who don’t want to pay commission but need an agent’s help”
10:31 – There are millions of real estate agents but they won’t always have a client
11:51 – GoldenKey was founded in April 2015
11:58 – 18 full-time employees
12:00 – GoldenKey raised $3.4 million in venture capital
13:13 – GoldenKey is not a brokerage and CAC is zero
13:59 – GoldenKey is not a big technology company so they need money for the appropriate platform
14:33 – The product design team is based in San Francisco
- 14:54 – Others are distributed to other states
15:13 – “Rule of thumb is when you don’t need to ask for money when you need money”
15:35 – GoldenKey spends around $100,000 a month
16:14 – GoldenKey joined NFX guild which is for companies building network and network effects
17:01 – Connect with Tommy on Twitter and his website
19:25 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Rule of thumb is you don’t need to ask for money when you need money.
A LOT of consumers in the USA want an agent’s help, but DO NOT want to pay commision.
There is NO risk. Don’t wait for it to be easy—just jump right in!

Resources Mentioned:

Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn’t have to hire a co-founder due to the quality of Toptal developers.
Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible.
Freshbooks – The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.
Leadpages – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+
Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books.
Assistant.to – The site Nathan uses to book meetings with one email.
Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
Drip – Nathan uses Drip’s email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel.
@Sowers – Tommy’s Twitter handle
GoldenKey.com – Tommy’s business website
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

EP 490: GoldenKey $3.4M Raised, 1000 Units Sold By Agents Using New Technology with CEO Tommy Sowers

SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders