Ten Eight Founder Seeks to Transcend Tenant Rep

Take two parts commercial real estate software honchos and one part marketing/advertising guru, and what do you get? How about a new tenant rep firm in Atlanta.

Fresh from his sale of Ten Eight, Patrick Braswell (along with partner Ben Buie) has returned to the world which first made him, this time with his former software partner and a new kid on the block—Syrup Marketing and Codesmith founder Benj Miller. And now the new firm, Transcend, aims to grab market share repping companies seeking up to 50k SF of office space. “This really was a collective effort of the three of us,” Patrick, who was with Scotland Wright Associates before focusing on Ten Eight full-time in 2012, tells us. “There's no magic to it. We just felt we all could build a better brokerage shop together.” Ten Eight was sold to RealNex last year.

So, how is it different? For the broker, not much. The difference, Patrick says, is the marketing technology backbone. Whereas traditional brokers spend as much—if not more—of their time drumming up new business, Transcend designed a software system and a support staff who instead prospect for clients. And that's where Benj's (here) expertise comes in: branding and marketing. “It's truly hard to get to focus on a client when you're constantly looking over your shoulder for the next deal,” Patrick says. “It's our goal for our brokers to do what brokers do best: work the deal and focus on the relationships.” Right now, the firm's brokers are Patrick and a small group of what Patrick calls “cultural analysts” who prospect for new clients. But like Ten Eight, Patrick says the software and the platform are scalable to grow both locally and to other markets.