[boh]

Its a little silly how easily a company can categorize itself as a technology company. Many of the IPOs from the past two years suggests having a website and/or having an app doesn't just make you into a tech company (WeWork is a good example of this). Compass is no doubt eager to foster unreasonable expectations for growth that surpasses the business they're actually in (as real estate brokers) and prefer to imbued the magic pixie dust of "engineering" to somehow defy the forces of gravity with Google-like growth. Their argument that growth is a function of their "tech" vs. just old-school, everyday sales (with maybe a good dashboard/messaging app) is pretty weak.

[anonu]

Agreed. This point from the S1 stood out:

> on average, 88% of our agent teams used our proprietary technology platform at least once per week,

This doesnt sound like they built some insane tech that everyone needs to use all the time. So how exactly is the <insert buzz word here> a differentiator?

[meestaahjoshee]

"...of which approximately two-thirds used it daily"

it's not insane tech but it's not like it's not being touched either.

[ampdepolymerase]

Entrenchment through network effect?

[fny]

Is AirBnB a tech company? I'd argue their core business has nothing to do with tech, but they've managed to become the biggest broker for temporary rentals in the US. They did need a good amount of tech to scale and be successful which is why everyone thinks of them as a tech company.

In my view, Compass is in the same boat. They want to become the middleman between buyers and agents in real estate. It's a platform play just like AirBnB. Not sure if they'll succeed, but I disagree with the premise that this is just some magic pixie dust. They need tech to scale (and there already seems to be enough to rival AirBnB).

[anonu]

First thought: AirBnB didnt really innovate. There was VRBO before it. They somehow got traction through a slightly better platform and more marketing/word-of-mouth. They built a better mousetrap.

Second thought: AirBnB is a marketplace. You have sellers and buyers meeting in a tech-enabled environment with rail guards in place to protect the customer experience (reviews + payment middleman + etc..)

As a recent home purchaser, I totally agree the process needs a revamp. But how does that happen when you're still boasting 10s of 1000s of brokers on your platform. The middleman is still there.

[boh]

AirBnB is a website/app/platform, Compass is a real estate broker. AirBnB can leverage the low-cost economics of software, Compass is a real estate broker (and a pretty conventional one at that). Compass is not a middleman, they are the agents.

[thunkshift1]

Thats true.. Zillow will mop the floor with compass remains.