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easily accessible to users. Brien emphasized the
mobile app, calling Mynd's approach "real-time
property management".
"Once we build our system and we have
all the data in our system," he said, "we can
start to provide owners with lots of interesting
information. I think in the future, we'll
transform ourselves from more of a quote-
unquote 'property manager' to an investment
manager."
"Transforming the asset class" is a focus of
Brien's.
"ere's a lot of people on the sidelines who
just don't know how to manage the properties
themselves and aren't impressed enough with
existing property-management companies to allow
them to manage for them," Brien said. "I think
those people will come off the sidelines, and I
think people who own property today will be more
willing to invest more capital into the asset class if
we can make it more like other asset classes."
Already, Brien is sure.
"ere's a belief out there that property
management is going to change," he said. "I
mean, it doesn't take much to look at how
property management is done, to have some
understanding of new technologies that are
used in other industries, and to ask yourself the
question, 'Why is property management still
done this way?' I don't think that's too big of a
leap of faith."
Taking away the headache for owners who
manage their own rental properties and offering
a better service than the traditional property
managers, is what Brien and Wiel see as the key
to unlocking this potential.
"e ability to allow an owner to have
complete transparency into the operations of
their real estate," Brien said, "to make investing
in single-family homes and small apartment
buildings more like owning a stock or a bond,
where you can go online any time and find out
how your investment is performing—I mean,
why can't you do that with investment real
estate?"
If Mynd can make good on its potential,
the answer will be, "You can do that with
investment real estate."
Colin Wiel and Doug Brien
in Mynd's Oakland, California
office. Wiel and Brien act as
Co-Founders and Co-CEOs of
the company.
