Genius brand gets acquired
Founded as a side project, Robot Workshop made huge strides last year, launching an IDX product AGBeat introduced you to in 2011. The IDX product appeared as high quality as a major search portal and competitive with big brokers while fitting into an independent agent’s budget.
After a partnership with Onboard Informatics led to access of a rich Lifestyle Search API, IDX Robot was formed to offer a viable neighborhood search tool. The founder said, “In the offline and ‘real world’ search process, neighborhood selection and research is paramount. But online home-search is completely focused on the house. Remember ‘location, location, location?’ When someone walks into your real estate office, they tell you about what they want in a house, but always add that the neighborhood HAS to have ____ (good schools, nearby shopping, dog parks, etc.) In fact, how often do you have clients who settle for a smaller or rougher house just to make it into THE neighborhood that fits their lifestyle oh-so-perfectly?”
The company was named in the 60 Genius Brands to Watch in 2012 where we said, “watch for the Robot Workshop to launch other projects in 2012 and for IDX Robot to either get funded or acquired.”
Integrating Neighborhood Suggester into Showing Suite
The company did not disappoint and rapidly expanded at the beginning of this year, starting with a partnership with Denver MetroList. Now, as predicted, the company has been acquired by Showing Suite, Inc. and founder Seth Siegler will be relocating to San Diego as Showing Suite’s new Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and Robot Workshop’s “Neighborhood Suggester” will be integrated into Showing Suite. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Showing Suite CEO Rick Bengson said in a statement, “We were extremely impressed with Seth and his team’s agent products. These are the exact types of forward thinking software solutions our subscribers are looking for and now we can integrate this software into products that have never been available for agents. Adding Seth on as our CTO was also a huge part of this deal as he has a vast real estate background. That together with his technical knowledge and creativeness, we are able to add phenomenal products for the market now and in the future.”
When asked about Showing Suite absorbing Robot Workshop, Seth Siegler stated, “I could not be more excited to join the Showing Suite team in San Diego. Infusing the innovative spirit and technology of Robot Workshop into Showing Suite’s already successful business is the perfect way to bring new real estate tech ideas to life. All I can say is: hold onto your hats. We’re hitting the ground running.”
Siegler says that Showing Suite has a large, existing client base and that “Adding Robot Workshop technology into the mix gives us the power to really solve some problems in the real estate industry.”
About Showing Suite, Inc.:
“Showing Suite, Inc. develops and implements market-leading tools that allow real estate professionals to sell homes smarter and faster. Since 2001, the company has brought a suite of web-based software solutions for the real estate sector to market, including its flagship product, HomeFeedback®, as well as Home Followup , Listing Sync, Showing Sync®, ForeclosureFeedback®, and Showing Calendar®. Since inception, Showing Suite™ has helped more than 800,000 real estate professionals in the U.S. and Canada retrieve valuable feedback from potential buyers to increase home sales.”
