Cartefi's Sandbox Journey
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The following is Julian Anjorin's account of Team Cartefi's progress in Buffalo Student Sandbox. Julian Anjorin, Rich Rogers, and Mitch Skomra met as undergrads studying at Fredonia, and are determined to change the way local governments approach RFPs related to real estate development.
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From weekly startup CEL classes to board meetings to networking lunches, the Sandbox has provided us with a great amount of resources and opportunities to better understand the true nature of starting a company. If I had to put a perspective on what Cartefi was the day before the Sandbox started it would be something like a young energetic traveler near the beginning of a journey, exploding with ideas and promise, ready to charge strait forward. We knew where we were headed, but didn’t quite know how to get there.
Three full weeks of Sandbox later, Cartefi is wiser and stronger. We know we have to map their steps out day to day. We’ve learned how to avoid redundant paths to save time and energy. We know who to talk to on their journey and are provided many opportunities to reach out to them and gain even more insight and guidance. We have a better grasp of what we know and don’t know. We know how to obtain what we need and are actively putting that into action. Ultimately, leaving us smarter, calmer, more confident, and more motivated.
As you can see the Sandbox has had an immense impact on our company’s maturity and growth so far and definitely will continue to do so. We feel insanely lucky to have this opportunity and it would be absurd to not take full advantage of it.
Why Cartefi?
For those who are not versed in the RFP process, it is the process that takes place any time a government or agency requires services from a private company. Cartefi will be focusing on RFPs and subcontractor business revolving around real estate development. This includes construction, design and land transfer services. Right now governments and each of these service providers are disjointed in regards to communication and process collaboration.
Cartefi is a user-generated platform that creates channels for proactive communication between those parties. It also supplies references to relevant content needed to propose a better bid to help reduce the resources companies use to create them. This will lead to faster and more efficient decision making. Essentially, Cartefi is aiming to create a one-stop-shop for real estate development.
Currently our web service is in the development phase which is what most of our time in the Sandbox is used for. Since our service can be used by so many of the same type of stakeholders in a broad range of areas our biggest challenge so far has been getting to know the market. An example would be how the Department of Public Works within the City of Buffalo handles RFPs as opposed to how a similar office within the City of Rochester does. We are having a demo with a market study on July 1st with food and networking at 5:30 with a demo at 6pm right at D!g and encourage any possible stakeholders to come by and participate.
Learn more: Cartefi.com
