Founder
Tom Wallace, Founder and CEO at Re-Leased
A hunger to become an entrepreneur led Tom Wallace, Founder and CEO at Re-Leased, to explore a number of different tech business ideas which did not make it out of the ideation phase. However it was working for his family's commercial real estate business that he encountered a number of unsolved problems with huge market potential and Re-Leased was born.
We caught up with Tom to learn more about his journey into tech and his very impressive kiwi tech business based out of the sunny Hawke's Bay. Thanks for sharing your story, Tom.
“Re-Leased develops products used by commercial property managers and landlords who use it to run their business.”
How would you explain to a five year old what it is that you do?
Re-Leased develops products used by commercial property managers and landlords who use it to run their business.
And for the adults, what does that translate to in regards to your day-to-day?
Our products are the core pieces of technology used to run commercial property portfolios. This includes everything from invoices, event management, communication, reporting and business intelligence.
Was building a tech company something you dreamed about doing as a kid? If not, what was?
Not a tech company, but I always wanted to start my own business. During university, I was drawn to the power of the SaaS business model and I was able to apply this to commercial real estate, which I have experience in.
“During that time I came up with a number of different ideas for tech businesses”
Tell us a little bit more about your career journey and what inspired you to start Re-Leased?
I worked for my family's commercial real estate company for one year after university. During that time I came up with a number of different ideas for tech businesses (none of them made it past the early validation stage). Eventually, I realised there was a huge opportunity to solve our own problems in commercial real estate, hence Re-Leased was born.
Where do you hope Re-Leased will be in five years from now?
I expect Re-Leased to be the largest, and most customer-centric cloud software provider to the CRE industry across the world.
What kind of boss are you, if I was to ask one of your employees?
Strategic, open, driven.
“The best thing is that all of this advice is easy to find and free.”
What is the best piece of career advice you have ever received?
No one piece of advice stands out to me. But I have benefitted enormously from the huge amount of content online about how to run a great tech business. The best thing is that all of this advice is easy to find and free.
Lastly, as Re-Leased grows, what are the key traits and characteristics of the people you look for when hiring?
We are looking for ambitious people who are attracted to a high-performance culture and are excited by the challenges and opportunities that come with building a world class SaaS company.