2023-01-02
PiHome is the third Startup to come to Shark Tank this episode. CEO - Co.Founder Tran Ba Thin and Co.Founder Le Hoai Thanh shared that many difficulties have occurred in the management and operation of apartment buildings in Vietnam.
In fact, 95% of Vietnamese apartments are being managed and operated without using software or using software but it is not effective. Therefore, the management and operation of apartments in Vietnam is going on very difficult and complicated. This is also the reason that PiHome was born to help manage and operate smart apartments. PiHome's customers are investors and apartment management and operation companies. PiHome provides customers with a comprehensive and flexible technology ecosystem for easy digital transformation, while effectively building and developing business models.
PiHome confidently presents its 3 strengths: customer database security, providing a comprehensive solution model with optimal technology - Microservices and the ability to adapt to all management models. Management of apartment buildings in Vietnam. The startup officially launched in early 2021 and has signed more than 200 buildings so far. It is expected that by 2025, PiHome will sign at least 2000 buildings.
Going to Shark Tank, the Startup called for $150,000 for a 5% stake in the company. After listening to Startup's presentation, Shark Binh wanted to know more about the startup's strengths. PiHome thinks that its biggest difference is the security factor. Other startups are positioned in the direction of B2B2C, which means that residents are also their customers, while PiHome only focuses on providing its customers with B2B only. Shark Binh immediately countered this point of view, he said that most of the startups with this apartment management software will go to the apartment management boards because whatever software the management applies, their residents will use that software. Startup believes that competitors in the industry through the management board to approach residents and provide services for residents to use, but PiHome's customers are management companies and investors, residents are not PiHome's customers should not profit on residents' data. "For the current market, there is no company that works with as much depth as PiHome. PiHome can accommodate thousands of apartments with hundreds of different management models on the same platform and that's the advantage. distinctive.
Currently, PiHome has made 3 sets of solutions: a set of management solutions, an operation solution and a set of financial statistics solutions. The management solution suite will help the apartment management and operation unit to communicate with residents and then collect fees through the app without having to collect cash or send fee notices in the usual way. And the set of operating solutions that will help the apartment operation including checklists of security technicians or janitors can also be done here," shared Le Hoai Thanh. The startup also added that the company has now integrates things like access control with facial recognition and all of those solutions are plugins on PiHome's platform, even solutions not developed by PiHome can be included and sold. In the form of SaaS, Startup once again asserts that this is something other companies cannot do.
Shark Hung was quite concerned about the startup's payment method, to this question they answered that the company is distributing under the SaaS model ((Software as a service - SaaS) is a software distribution model in which third-party providers that deliver applications to customers over the Internet).
Answering Shark Lien's question about investment capital, Ba Thin shared that the total investment is about 400 thousand dollars, of which 250,000 dollars in cash and the remaining 150 thousand dollars is the labor force converted by ESOP of the staff. . Shark Louis immediately cares about the largest customer audience today and what percentage of revenue. Ba Thin gave the answer that they currently have a number of investors and management companies with the amount of revenue divided in half.
The startup's total revenue in the past year is about 100 thousand USD, the subscription fee for each customer is about 5,000 USD/month. Co.Founder asserts "If we collect enough, we will achieve about 360 thousand dollars for the number of signed customers and this is for Saas fees only." Based on these figures, Shark Hung calculates that if a young business reaches 2,000 customers after 3 years, in 4 years, equivalent to 2,000 buildings, the revenue will be about 1 million dollars.
However, Ba Thin stated that the total revenue at that time amounted to $3.6 million for SaaS cash flow alone, excluding one time payment. Shark Hung considers it an attractive number and makes him change his mind a bit, but if by the time PiHome covers 10% of the total number of apartments in Vietnam, the revenue will stop. Shark Binh further analyzed Shark Hung's point of view, he said that in the first time, he took short and long to get money to deploy as the main revenue, but later on, he had to take the monthly service fee on top of the number of apartments as the main, not yet. Many competitors will appear.
Co.Founder Hoai Thanh gave a personal opinion that she found customers in this industry very loyal, but Shark Binh was worried for Startup because "Every knife has two blades. If not quickly, the opponent will gain a lot of money. market share more and spread nails on the road so that it is difficult for you to grow. Then you will follow behind like you will die" - This is a valuable advice from the forebears for Startups about long-term calculation in development. business development. With follow-up questions about the revenue of Shark Louis and Shark Linh, Startup promises that by the end of 2022 they will achieve 7 billion in revenue based on the growth rate even though the current time has only reached 1/ 3. Sharing more about data security, Ba Thin said that the end-to-end encryption method they are applying is a strong point. However, this was not Shark Linh's field, so she refused.
Shark Louis also cedes the negotiating power to the 'two giants' in technology and real estate. However, Shark Binh refused to invest because it did not suit his taste. By the time he received 3 rejections in a row, Ba Thin made a very wise decision when he asked Shark Lien. He promises that the integration of insurance sales, through this platform, can help Shark have thousands of more insurance sellers at no cost. This invitation is right in the 'itchy place' because Shark Lien is very interested in fire insurance for buildings. "If you really have software that your team members can join with me, it's a story that in addition to making money, we also have safe solutions for people living in the world. apartment". Affirming his desire to go with the Startup for a long time, Shark Lien made an offer of $150,000 for a 35% stake.
After this offer, Shark Hung also withdrew from the deal because Startup's plan in this round was only for a maximum of 20% for investors. He thinks that Startup is still ambitious and already has Shark Lien, so he refuses to invest. Shark Lien asserts that she can make the company grow stronger because the 'grandmother' invests in people and wants to be with her for a long time. Also for this reason, Shark Lien kept the same 35% instead of 22% as requested by Startup.
Realizing that $150,000 for 35% exceeded the original plan, PiHome asked permission to refuse Shark Lien. Thus, PiHome left without accepting an offer from Shark Lien, but the two Co.Founders certainly had invaluable experiences when participating in Shark Tank season 5.
