The Founder of Fastest-Growing Real Estate Tech Company Talks About the Future of Real Estate

In the surging commercial real estate tech industry, no company in the world is growing faster than Bisnow partner VTS. The New York-based company is now live in more than 40 markets in the US and internationally, and more than 2B RSF is managed by the company’s leasing and asset management platform. The VTS solution puts broker's or landlord's entire portfolio in the palm of their hand, allowing them to seamlessly collaborate, track deals and spot market trends. We sat down with the company's founder, Nick Romito (shown), to discuss the company's mission, VTS's role as a tech company and even his love of surfing.

Nick will be speaking with real estate titans Larry Silverstein and Tony Malkin at Bisnow's national full-day Office Leasing, Development and Investment event on Dec. 1 at 4 Times Square in NYC. Sign up here!

Bisnow: When you started VTS, what did you feel was lacking in the leasing industry?

Nick: What was lacking was a platform for our industry to call “home,” a central place for us to manage leasing across our portfolios, identify all the things happening across our tenant base, and seamlessly collaborate with our internal and third-party brokerage teams. Pre-VTS just about every part of the process was fragmented, making it burdensome to answer even the most basic of questions about leasing or our portfolios. This became our obsession.

Bisnow: A lot of VTS's success has come from your own connections to a variety of top companies. You even have real estate behemoth Blackstone as your investor. Did you workshop the VTS concept with all of these connections to create a product that they would love or was there just a fundamental understanding of what was needed that you tackled when no one else would?

Nick: The initial concept for the business comes from a depth of industry experience in the founding team. Today’s team has over 90 years of leasing and asset management experience (more than any CRE tech firm in history). When you live a problem long enough the solution becomes very clear. That being said, what VTS has become is an ecosystem made up of the smartest real estate people in the world. Our users are the most successful brokers and landlords in the market, and they’re involved in just about every part of our process. From product road map sessions to beta testing some of the crazy ideas we come up with, they’re engaged at the highest levels. We’re humbled to have them play such a pivotal part in our story and they really see the platform as their own.  

Bisnow: VTS has changed significantly in its product and business strategy in such a short time. What was, to you, the most significant change and why was it needed and tackled?

Nick: Our strategy has actually stayed the same but the product evolves just about every day. The largest difference from VTS today compared to our inception is that now you’re running your entire leasing business on VTS compared to just the marketing element. It’s a true end-to-end solution, which means a lot more data for you and your team and a significantly higher ROI.

Bisnow: VTS occupies an awkward space as both a massive tech company and as a real estate company. How would you define yourself and VTS?

Nick: I would define us as a technology company obsessed with commercial real estate. Combining the most talented engineers in NY with a deep bench of commercial real estate knowledge is an awesome recipe. VTS is the intersection of commercial real estate and technology. Our “tech guru” is our co-founder and CTO, Karl Baum, who leads our engineering team. These are the guys who make the ideas come to life.

Bisnow: In a similar vein, how do you feel about the continuous overlap and interaction between real estate and tech? 

Nick: Real estate and tech are quickly becoming two things that don’t sound weird together. The venture capital community sees the shift happening in our industry as one of the fastest in history. VTS has 2B SF being tracked on its platform every day and that’s in under three years. We’re amidst a paradigm shift and it’s only growing stronger. This isn’t an overlap, it’s a perfect match.

Bisnow: What other issues with leasing do you feel VTS can help with or fix?

Nick: We’re interested in every aspect of not just leasing but also asset management. We’ve been heavily focused on the supply side (investors and operators) and we’re now investing in the demand side (tenant reps) which is super exciting given our backgrounds. Lots of big updates coming down the pipe!

Bisnow: How will VTS continue to develop with new technologies, such as VR/AR?

Nick: The VR technology being pushed out is absolutely amazing. We definitely see that being a core part of how people identify and understand space in the future. Whether we build or buy or partner will be the question, but our goal is to provide value to our users and that definitely exists here.

Bisnow: If you could start your business all over again, would you keep the VTS HQ in New York, or is there another market that you think could have made the company even stronger?

Nick: Definitely not, I wouldn’t change a thing, not even the mistakes I’ve made. This is a long game for us and we’re learning every day. As for location New York is the real estate capital of the world and the tech platform centralizing it belongs there. New York is not just in the DNA of our team members but the platform itself. VTS belongs here.

Bisnow: We've heard you're a huge surfer. With VTS being as big as it is, do you find that you have time for surfing anymore?

Nick: Surfing has been my life since I was a little kid (my co-founder Ryan and I met at a surfing contest when we were 10 years old). I’m more of a weekend warrior these days but having an LA office has been fantastic during the winter months. You can never surf enough, let’s put it that way. My favorite surf spot was my home break, Casino Pier in NJ (pre-hurricane Sandy), but these days I’m more of Rockaway Beach local. In the winter time I get to surf a ton of Malibu (LA office perks) and travel to Rincon, Puerto Rico, quite often when the swell is right. 

To learn more about our Bisnow partner, click here.