Let's find your next retail destination and vendor
We've built the foundation to be "the Glassdoor for retail real estate"
New Year, New 1REC
1REC is now the Real Estate Collective! Opening stores is hard without having access to information. And that information is often really hard to get:
You have to engage a broker to get market rents for an area
You have to pay for GIS platforms to get basic demographics data for an area
You have to ask your friends — who may be limited in usefulness if you’re new to the field — for feedback on whether opening a store in SoHo or Brookfield Place was worth it
You have ask your peers or current service providers for vendor recommendations — who may be getting kickbacks, or resist sharing their best vendors with you because they don’t want them distracted from their own projects
In other words, information asymmetry and opacity are major hurdles to overcome if you want to succeed in store expansion.
And we’re aiming to tackle this systemic problem with a very simple value prop: a ratings and reviews platform for retail destinations and store development vendors.
If this sounds like a familiar problem and solution, that’s because it is
Information asymmetry and opacity are common in two other major settings: finding a job, and planning a wedding.
Before Glassdoor, job hunting was tough: employers and employment conditions were not easily discoverable in a public forum. This opacity led to unfair wages, regrettably accepting jobs, and a disempowered job seeking side of the market.
Before WeddingWire, planning weddings was tough: you have to sign a venue contract before you’ve fully vetted every single detail, and you have to rely on a planner who may not have experience with that venue. And once you’ve picked a venue, you have to find local vendors to support the event.
In both cases, a platform to share information was a successful solve to the problem, enabling the demand side of the marketplace to come together as a collective and share insights and recommendations.
But that hasn’t existed in retail real estate — until now!
1REC’s mission has been to lower the barrier to entry to offline retail — and democratizing access to information is at the core
If you’re a:
Brand looking for destination insights or a structured forum where you can anonymously ask a question or share your own insights (anonymously)
Broker looking for an edge or a platform to showcase your expertise and knowledge, and attract new clients
…this is for you. And like Glassdoor and WeddingWire, it’s free and you can share information anonymously.
Here’s how some users are leveraging the platform to make smarter decisions
If you feel this industry could use a little disruption in how information is gathered and shared, then I’d appreciate if you could spread the word to anyone else who may find this useful — we’re just getting started, and a collective is only as strong as its users. The more people that use and share on this platform, the better it is for everyone!
We’re in an open beta and just focused on NYC, but we’ll be adding new features, fixing bugs, and expanding into new markets in no time!