Kuwait-Based Startup Tenantive Offers An Alternative Solution To Manage Properties With property management solutions on management, maintenance, legalities and listing, the platform offers a hassle-free method to manage properties.
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This article is part of a series on pioneering entrepreneurs in Kuwait that Entrepreneur Middle East has built in collaboration with Kuwait Finance House. Kuwait Finance House is considered a pioneer in Islamic finance or Sharia'a compliant banking, with it being the first Islamic bank established in 1977 in the State of Kuwait, and is today one of the foremost Islamic financial institutions in the world.
Launched by Ebrahim Alrashed, Khaled Alrashed, Rashed Altammar, and Khaled Alhadlaq, Tenantive is a platform to collect, monitor, and organize your real estate issues easily. With property management solutions on management, maintenance, legalities, and listing, the platform offers a hassle-free method to manage properties.
Co-founder and CEO Alrashed explains the problem they're aiming to target: "The traditional property management process involves many middlemen between tenants and landlords, such as renting brokers, messengers, accountants, etc. This process is resulting in a lack of transparency, high operational cost, and finally high barriers of entry for emergent property managers." With the platform, the aim to increase transparency, reduce operational costs, and remove the barriers of entry for emerging property managers. "Tentative is positioned toward tenants, as we believe that tenants are very much neglected in the property management cycle while they are the movers of the whole cash cycle."
Upon launch, more than sales, PR and marketing, the Tenantive team focused their resources on research and development of the product, which became the asset of the company. "We believe to better solve the underlined problems, we have to search, learn, implement and test our solutions with actual users. Survival in the software business requires dedication in learning and product improvement, while also keeping an eye on the cash conversion cycle."
Source: Tenantive
The startup is a revamp of a previous product (Ajaraty) that was launched mid-2017 as a proof of concept with less than $2,000 in sales, PR, and marketing expenses to date. Tenantive was launched as an MVP on September 2020 as a self-financed venture, until one of the users (Z Solutions Real Estate Company) joined as an investor. Alrashed notes that the funding was undisclosed, but it consisted of cash credit line and efforts.
To fellow entrepreneurs, Alrashed reminds to always remember the customers when going about their businesses. He recalls how he has witnessed product failures in Kuwait due to neglecting users' mental models: "People expect your products to behave the same as the products they already use." In times of uncertainty, Alrashed says, "Startups need greater flexibility to discover new strategies and methods to drive growth and innovation effectiveness."
An app for the platform is in the pipeline, with plans to expand in "neglected contexts with well technology adoption and a high return on investment," Alrashed concludes. "At Tenantive, we have developed internal metrics that helps us identify our next markets, based on investment key performance indicators."
"TREP TALK: Ebrahim Alrashed, co-founder and CEO, Tenantive
What are the three main pillars of the profit model of your business? How has that changed over time?
"Property management is a double segment business, where it relies on two parties (tenants and landlords). Thus, we have implemented a switchboard profit model. The more tenants and landlords join, the more valuable the switchboard becomes."
What are some of the opportunities that you see available in the Kuwaiti market today, and what would be your advice to aspiring entrepreneurs?
"I still remember when I first went to the United States to attend the University of Denver holding a Nokia mobile in 2008, while my classmates were using smart mobiles. At this point, I realized that we are living in an outdated region in terms of education and technology adoption. Education and learning are what will make you ready to surf on the next wave; you will never be able to swim unless you learn how. Learning is a lifestyle that you must adopt to make better decisions and select better paths."
