Interview with Alexis Brion, CEO Mapoot
Q: Alexis, tell us something about yourself?
A: I’m an freelancer interaction designer and database developer working for a research organization based in Munich, Germany. I studied Computer Science with business orientation and gained interest in the usability area. I have been into the real estate business for some years as my family runs a real estate bureau.
Q: Your Project name is?
A: Mapoot, property ads.
Q: And your Pitch elevator?
A: People need an easy way to find real estate properties. Mapoot is the easiest and fastest way to post and search properties directly on a map. Mapoot is better than other real estate websites because it starts the search from the most important thing for a property: the location. More on the Mapoot Blog.
Q: What is the main difference with the other services in your market?
A: Location is the main price-setter of every real estate property; the reason for that is that location is the most important thing at the moment to decide the buy. Designing Mapoot we thought that the location should be the most important search option, not a secondary one. If you look at most real estate portals, they show a map as part of the property ad, as something just additional. At Mapoot we represent the business and user mental model placing a map right at the homepage.
Q: What is new and great technologically speaking in your project?
A: The integration of Google Maps right at the homepage is straightforward. We also try to make the whole interface as simple as possible eliminating distracting elements.
Q: What technologies are using within your project?
A: Our PHP framework is the open source CodeIgniter. Very important for our web site is the integration and customization of the Google Maps API.
Q: Business model?
A: Our aim is to keep the interface clean and easy to use, in that sense we will place advertisement in a limited way. That should be a good beginning as the CPC (Cost Per Click) in the real estate business is high. In the future premium services will be offered to real estate agents.
Q: How do you finance your project: Angels, VC, Plastic?
A: Mapoot is privately founded.
Q: Where you see your project in 5 years?
A: I see Mapoot in the top 3 real estate websites in Germany offering solutions for property ad posters and searchers. Mapoot is currently available in German, Spanish and English; we will for sure expand into new markets and languages.
That was the interview, now my 2 cents. I have take a look to Mapoot and is indeed easy to use, but the design is to simple for my taste. Mappot make great use of external resources and APIs like Panoramio’s to fetch pictures taken around near the property. Also I notice that the number of properties listed is increasing at good rate and I even found something interesting for me, so if your are into real state, take a look.
Keep flowing and good luck to Alexis with Mapoot.
