A CRE App Review EXCLUSIVE: Hightower Scores Another Huge Funding Round!

We’ve profiled Hightower in the past, but that doesn’t mean they’re old news. Far from it, following their latest announcement of a $6.5 million dollar round of Series A funding, spearheaded by two VC powerhouses (Bessemer Venture Partners and Thrive Capital). Where there’s smoke, there’s fire, and Hightower is scorching. What’s all the fuss about? Let’s start at the beginning…

Hightower Graph

Hightower is a mobile and web-based app that allows users to track their deal pipelines in real time. It’s the brainchild of Brandon Weber, a techie turned broker who sought to create a platform to simplify the inefficiencies he encountered in the commercial real estate industry.

Founders, Hightower

According to the company website, Hightower assists the following real estate professionals in the following ways:

Brokers

• Track all prospects and negotiations in one place. Easily make updates as new deals come in, while keeping tabs on aging ones.
• Monitor and update available space. Attach files and marketing documents, and easily share them with tenant reps on the go.
• Track the full back and forth of negotiations. Automatically calculate Net Effective Rent, NPV and IRR and other financial metrics for each proposal.
• Make important documents accessible to your leasing team in the cloud

Landlords

• Understand your deal pipeline and conversion funnel. Segment it by portfolio, asset, or broker.
• Visualize how deal terms are trending, including Starting Rent, TI's, Free Rent, and Net Effective Rent
• See how available space and average asking rents in your portfolio are trending over time. Identify struggling assets before they become a problem.
• Track which tenant reps bring the most deals. Compare tenant rep conversion rates as they move from touring to executed leases.

Brandon Weber, CEO & Fouder, Hightower

As versatile as the app is already, Weber and his team at Hightower have no plans to stop innovating. On the contrary, they have actually made a point to launch new features and updates five days a week (every single business day). One of the more recent additions to the Hightower platform is the option to compose a full, comparative financial analysis of different lease proposals, a process that was once undertaken using only spreadsheets before, where errors were commonplace. Another new feature is the ability for users to manage their current inventory, enabling them to connect with their property management system instead of just their lease pipeline. Like its investors, we expect Hightower to keep evolving and gaining momentum in the commercial real estate industry. If the past provides any indication, there’s no reason not to.

Hightower Dashboard

Hightower iPhone App

Hightower iPhone App

For more information on Hightower, please refer to this exclusive Q&A with Brandon Weber featured on The News Funnel.

For more information about Hightower's $6.5 million Series A fundraising deal, read this press release and this FunnelCast post.