{"id":4951,"date":"2020-05-12T08:45:15","date_gmt":"2020-05-12T06:45:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.alainveuve.ch\/on-our-own-behalf-fairwalter-saas-for-real-estate-management\/"},"modified":"2026-05-03T07:32:30","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T05:32:30","slug":"on-our-own-behalf-fairwalter-saas-for-real-estate-management","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alainveuve.ch\/en\/on-our-own-behalf-fairwalter-saas-for-real-estate-management\/","title":{"rendered":"On our own behalf: Fairwalter – SaaS for real estate management"},"content":{"rendered":"

I joined Fairwalter<\/a> in September last year as part of TREA<\/a> ‘s venture-builder activities and have been supporting the Fairwalter team together with Mattia R\u00fcfenacht<\/a>, who is also with TREA. I get asked about this quite often, so I thought I might as well let the founders of Fairwalter have their say here: An interview with Max Wirz<\/a>, one of the founders of Fairwalter. <\/p>\n

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Hey Max, why don’t you briefly introduce Fairwalter again?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fairwalter is a web-based ERP for real estate management. It covers all processes from marketing and administrative management to finance and technical management. <\/p>\n

What made you decide to found Fairwalter three years ago?<\/strong><\/p>\n

When we decided to found Fairwalter, my co-founders Severin Maegerle<\/a>, Simon Jutz<\/a> and I had known each other for a while and the idea of digitizing property management processes had already been on our minds independently of each other. As tenants on the one hand, of course, but also as developers \/ management consultants on the other, this need was actually difficult to overlook. <\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/p>\n

(Part of the Fairwalter team (and partners) at the 2019 Christmas party)<\/em><\/p>\n

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And why specifically an ERP?<\/strong><\/p>\n

There were many innovative PropTech start-ups in the areas of marketing, tenant communication and some other sub-processes. But surprisingly, there was no web-based ERP to connect all the innovative solutions for sub-processes and guarantee a central, consistent database. Not even today, by the way. We spoke to many administrations and private landlords about this. We quickly found confirmation: It was and is a big issue. <\/p>\n

So you were sure right from the start that you were addressing a real need?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes, absolutely. You read time and again that one of the biggest dangers for start-ups is to develop without meeting demand. In principle, we had fewer concerns about that. However, we completely underestimated how big a plank we were going to drill and it took us much longer than planned to launch our first product on the market. <\/p>\n

That sounds familiar, unfortunately. You’re always naive at the beginning. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Sure – maybe we wouldn’t have founded Fairwalter in the first place if we had known that it would take us a year to create the MVP and almost 2 \u00bd years to create the truly modern and complete version that has just been released. Although it has to be said that we did Fairwalter alongside our day jobs for quite a long time. We were also lucky that Simon (our CTO) had already developed ERPs before and we therefore had a lot of know-how at the start. <\/p>\n

What were the biggest challenges – apart from the fact that, on closer inspection, most things are a little more complex than you thought?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A big challenge – for most B2B SaaS startups – is to acquire customers quickly at the beginning. If your product ambitions are high, you spend a lot of time developing without getting real customer feedback. But it’s sometimes not so easy to proactively seek customer feedback and then let them approach you when you’re investing a lot of time and money and are not yet sure whether it will turn out well. Winning the first administration as a customer was therefore a real milestone. After that, we were inundated with feedback and were able to develop in a much more focused way. <\/p>\n

A few days ago you launched a new, completely revised version. What are the most important improvements? <\/strong><\/p>\n

The navigation and design are now very tidy and you can find your way around intuitively. Our customers are used to WhatsApp and iPhones and didn’t understand why an administration solution still looked like Windows 95 😊. But a lot has also changed under the hood. The architecture is now much more modular and has a cleanly documented API. This was also necessary, as we are already five developers as of this summer and can therefore develop much more stable and faster and connect other solutions. <\/p>\n

How was the feedback on the new version?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We had a whole wave of new sign-ups and we grew much faster in the last few days. This probably also has to do with the cooperation with the Swiss Homeowners Association (HEV)<\/a>, which was also launched at the beginning of May. The needs of private landlords and large property management companies are not all that different. Both need a complete solution that can be used immediately. And the ability to work together with others on the platform is at least as exciting for private landlords as it is for administrations. Different family members can take on tasks and tax consultants or trustees can also be given access. <\/p>\n

Could the increased interest also be due to the lockdown measures?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The sales cycle for real estate software is naturally relatively long. But due to the lockdown, many companies – including public administrations – that have long resisted any form of digitalization have suddenly developed an unexpected capacity for innovation and, for example, made their employees and processes fit for working from home. As a SaaS solution, we are of course perfectly positioned if working from home becomes more important in the long term. It is obvious that we will benefit from this. <\/p>\n

You keep emphasizing that Fairwalter is a SaaS solution. What does this mean for the customer – apart from the fact that hardware, installations, updates etc. are no longer required? I mean, the switch from desktop to SaaS solutions can be observed very predictably in almost all industries … <\/strong><\/p>\n

… and now is the time for real estate management companies …<\/p>\n

Agreed… This change in software has often also had implications for the business model of users. What could this mean for real estate management companies in the long term? <\/strong><\/p>\n

In principle, the desktop-based ERPs that most management companies work with today are like chains that dictate inefficient processes. Tenants, owners, managers and service providers can now benefit from the same data and processes on a SaaS solution like the one we are constantly developing. This opens up completely new possibilities in the operating model for administrations. Outsourcing is becoming a real option. And last but not least, a marketplace for services is being created. With Fairwalter, we are not just building another software product, we are striving to create the platform for the real estate management of the future. <\/p>\n

You mention more flexible processes and division of labor on the Fairwalter platform itself. What about connected peripheral systems? <\/strong><\/p>\n

In the enterprise software segment, the switch to modular SaaS solutions is also accelerating. Whether Salesforce, Hubspot, Atlassian, Dropbox or WorkDay. None of these solutions is truly all-encompassing. Instead, each solution offers as many APIs as possible in order to be part of a tool stack without media discontinuity. For Fairwalter, this means that we have connected as many solutions as possible that are relevant for our customers and will connect many more in the future. Of course, this will also include AI and ML solutions. In the best-case scenario, the software will no longer be just a tool for the manager, but like a colleague who completes simple tasks themselves and asks for approval if necessary. <\/p>\n

Thanks for the interview Max!<\/strong><\/p>\n

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