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Who: Wahid Jalil of Ezeezo
What: 3D property tours bringing transparency to renting and home buying
Looking for: Partnerships in real estate and restaurant/hospitality industries
When I moved to Manhattan to start working for the Zahn Innovation Center, I looked to sites like Zillow, Trulia, and Craigslist to help me find apartments and rooms for rent in the city. While these sites were helpful in many ways, they werent always reliable. Often the advertisements were exaggerated or false, especially when it came to the pictures. I remember walking into an apartment expecting a cozy, sun-filled room in a spacious, clean 3-bedroom (as promised) and instead getting a dingy mess that smelled like dog. I wished that there was some transparency to the process, especially since visiting each option was taking a lot of time and effort.
Wahid Jalil and his roommates faced the same frustration in their apartment search, but decided to remedy the process themselves by creating a platform to not only post and search for apartments and real estate, but show the properties in 3D. Out of their frustration, Ezeezo was born. Last year, Wahid and his team submitted their idea to the Zahn Prize Competition, and were able to test their technology within our incubator. Now he and his team of six are debuting their 3D-scanning technology, which allows them to take a 2D floor plan and build it up into a 3D model. We want to be one of the forerunners of this technology, said Wahid.
The ability to test his product within the incubator was something that he found extremely helpful. Theres a positive, constructive atmosphere at the Zahn Center. Theyre not trying to destroy your idea, just make it better. At the Zahn Center, we were able to shadow test our product before bringing it to market. He was also exposed to a network that gave feedback and led him to other connections.
I sat down with Wahid to talk about what Ezeezo has been up to since the competition. Now that weve finished the pilot phase, were breaking into the sales sector and capturing clients in the real estate industry, he shared. Most of his team now focuses on sales and marketing. Hes also excited to break into the restaurant and food industry by creating partnerships with companies like Yelp, OpenTable, and Eventup.
As he shifts his focus away from the technology side of his business and into the marketing side, Wahid remembers to stay focused on the journey. I always remind myself that entrepreneurship is a journey. Starting a business takes time, and you wont see immediate results. But if youre invested in the spirit of the idea and not just the money, youll see it through.
See Ezeezo's 3D-scanning technology in action on our Tour Page!