Clikalia. "You have to manage a startup like a big company"

Introducing the real-life case of Clikalia, a nationally recognized proptech. Through an interview with its founder and CEO, Alister Moreno, we get insights into their beginnings, the challenges they have faced, the decisions they have made... and much more.

How did the idea for Clikalia come about and what was the initial vision of the company?

Clikalia is a proptech, a technology company that streamlines, facilitates, and brings transparency to all processes related to housing, including buying and selling. Their mission is to rehabilitate the second-hand real estate market, increasing its energy efficiency and providing functional design for current family types and lifestyles. It started as an iBuyer. We wanted to inject liquidity into the market.

I founded Clikalia upon returning from the US, where I was working in banking, and went through the process of selling my house in Boston to come to Madrid. It was a time of uncertainty: I didn't know when or for how much I would be able to sell my house, and I needed to do so in order to start my life in Spain. Additionally, in this country, buying a home and paying the mortgage is the way many families save. When they want to access that savings, they are faced with uncertainty. What we aimed to do was bring certainty; we saw clearly that selling a house should be similar to selling a share of a publicly traded company: give the order to sell and, within a few days, have the money from that sale in the bank account.

In our case, those who sell their house to us, once the offer is accepted, have the money in their account within 7 days. Alongside our clear mission of providing liquidity, the other major focus was to bring transparency to the real estate sector. For all of this, our great ally had to be technology.

I developed my career in investment banking in the US with a focus on technology companies, analyzing business models that were changing the status quo of traditional sectors. So, founding Clikalia was almost a natural step.

How has Clikalia's business model evolved since its foundation?

Our model has always been based on technology and data to make the real estate sector more transparent and improve the customer experience. We started as an iBuyer, buying and selling houses; then we began renovating them because our customers asked if we could deliver homes ready to move into.

Europe, due to historical reasons, has a very outdated real estate stock, with low energy efficiency levels and layouts that fit family models and ways of life from another era. We saw clearly that our mission, beyond providing liquidity to those families who had invested their savings in buying their homes, should be to revitalize an aging real estate stock and thus increase the effective housing supply in the market without needing new land for it. But our evolution didn't stop there. We added products as customers demanded them, such as mortgage financing, improving the entire purchase process from start to finish.

We also expanded into the rental market because some customers loved our homes but wanted to rent them instead of buying. In the meantime, we developed our virtual tours, which are unique in the market: they are made with video game technology and allow our customers to visit multiple homes without leaving their own, see exactly how the house they are interested in will look after the renovation, and even move around and customize it in real-time. In other words, they combine hyperrealism with interactivity, and since they can be accessed from any device, they allow people to buy a home from anywhere in the world. Later on, we started offering renovations for third parties because external clients, people who weren't buying our homes, asked if we could do similar renovations for them.

Today, Clikalia is a comprehensive real estate services platform that covers all the needs of our customers, including other companies, including major players in the real estate sector, for whom we have made our 3D technology available.

How does Clikalia utilize technology and innovation in the real estate sector?

Technology and data have been essential from the beginning to make the sector more transparent, provide liquidity to the market, and improve the customer experience. Data and the quality of the data generated by Clikalia are key to accelerating processes, being used for the future, and implementing artificial intelligence applications. We are a technology company not because our end product is technology, but because we have it at the core of everything. Among all the technology we use, I want to highlight the 3D technology, the video game technology I mentioned. We have been evolving it with an internal R&D team in that department to develop something unique and pioneering in Spain and Europe. We have the largest and most advanced 3D team outside the gaming industry, specializing in hyperrealistic and interactive visualization of architecture and products. In addition to serving us internally, it has become an essential marketing tool for developers and other players in the real estate market through the production of virtual tours, renders, and configurators, among others.

How does Clikalia provide support to those who want to sell or buy properties, beyond the transaction itself?

We aim to accompany the client throughout the next 50 years, and within that desire, solutions have emerged to address the needs they express. With our technological platform, we create a "digital assembly line" where the property enters, the legal team conducts due diligence, and the architecture team conducts theirs. Then comes the renovation. We offer the client the option to personalize it, search for mortgage financing, change utilities, and any other need they express that requires coverage. It's about facilitating and providing transparency throughout the process.

What have been the main challenges you have faced as CEO of Clikalia?

Developing talent and company culture. Culture and talent are the most important aspects of a company. To achieve this, I have sought to involve people and give them autonomy, freedom, and trust to lead projects. I really like the expression used in the US: leading by example. In addition to showing my commitment, I have sought to transmit values and encourage those who accompany me in leadership positions to do the same. I have also aimed to hire people who are passionate about what they do, individuals who enjoy their work. Seeing people grow and witnessing how their growth inspires those they lead within the company is very rewarding for a CEO.

What advice would you give to aspiring entrepreneurs considering starting a business?

Have enthusiasm and determination, and approach each day as a new challenge that requires constant attention to market demands, being ready to pivot if necessary, and developing new skills and capabilities. Focus on getting to know every area of the company and develop specific knowledge in each vertical to be able to contribute and engage in meaningful discussions. Surround yourself with people who have a growth mindset, who strive to be number one, and who have strong principles.

Have an obsession with improvement. It has always been valuable for me to think about what I can do today to do a favor to my future self in seven days.

When it comes to seeking funding to scale their businesses, I advise them not to settle for just any capital, but to seek smart capital – capital that brings intellectual wealth and pushes them out of their comfort zone in a constructive way.

Can you share Clikalia's vision for the next four years and how you plan to position yourselves in an ever-evolving entrepreneurial environment?

Clikalia was here four years ago, invited by DayOne when we were a company full of enthusiasm, working from a storage room in Manoteras, with a strong desire to build what we are developing now. Our goal is to continue contributing to society by doing what we do best, which is pushing ourselves every day, learning every day, and not seeing anything as impossible. We don't see problems, but rather challenges.

How does Clikalia view collaboration with initiatives like the National Entrepreneurship Office Platform and its contribution to the entrepreneurial ecosystem?

We are very grateful to the Spanish entrepreneurs who came before us, who have been able to internationalize their companies and have shared their experiences and advice with those of us who came later. These are individuals who have engaged in dialogue with many major funds and have showcased the strength of the Spanish market, earning the trust of investors in the Spanish entrepreneurial ecosystem. Today, our obligation is to help and support those who are just starting out, as they will be key players in Spain's future growth.

What do you think are the challenges that the Spanish entrepreneurial ecosystem faces in the short term?

One of the biggest challenges, at this moment, for a large part of the ecosystem is finding financing, but I would go further and add the adjective 'appropriate': finding the appropriate financing, that intelligent capital I mentioned earlier. Those investors who, like ours, push you out of your comfort zone and bring wisdom to the management of your company, who stand by you in difficult times and don't put obstacles in your way. To achieve this, you must know how to manage the financing you receive. Embrace the idea that every euro counts and avoid wastefulness. This requires managing a startup like a large company from the moment of its inception. Build a solid company from day one, as if it were going to be audited in three days. That's what we did, and it was decisive for our 2021 funding round.