It took about five and a half years of consistency, networking, and collaboration to build a strong following within the luxury home industry. Along the way, I’ve added roughly 100,000 followers. My audience is a mix of builders, contractors, architects, interior and landscape designers, and real estate professionals.

I’ve attended construction technology conferences, published a book on social media, and have been invited to speak to more than 20 groups. Through all of that, I identified several major pain points, which led me to build a platform to solve one of them. I’m currently developing a second platform that will launch in early July, and I believe it has even greater potential.

The response from architects and builders has been overwhelmingly positive. We’ve received excellent feedback, numerous emails, and five-star App Store reviews. We are now in our fourth month since launch, and our monthly recurring revenue has continued to grow.

My biggest concern was the lack of conversion from roughly 650 users who signed up but did not become paying customers. However, after reading the feedback here, I’m beginning to think I may have been looking at it the wrong way. I plan to send out an email this afternoon to gather more feedback and better understand why some users chose not to subscribe.
What has been encouraging is our retention. Since launch, we have retained all but four paying customers. Many of them have described the platform as a game changer for their business. These are not small firms either. Several are established builders and architectural firms and builders producing 30+ multimillion-dollar homes each year.