Jonathan B Fishbeck is the founder and CEO of EstateSpace, LLC, a technology platform that enables and simplifies how you handle lifestyle management service and operations to maintain real-property assets to help reduce risk and protect wealth succession.
EstateSpace is a licensed Managed Security Services Provider (MSSP) in order to support our enterprise clients. Before devoting his work full-time to EstateSpace, Jonathan served as the Founder and CEO at a design-build firm whose focus was advising, designing, constructing and operationalizing sizable estate properties for ultra-high net worth families and family offices. It’s this experience and expertise combined with Jonathan’s technology background that was the genesis for EstateSpace.
The firm is family funded and operates as a modern business model (MBM) consisting of three main components. Packaged offerings with a multi-sided subscription model, a marketplace for all sides to interact and AI machine learning to personalize each experience.
What is EstateSpace all about?
At EstateSpace, I believe family offices should have access to modern technologies to manage all of their assets, providers and services. My focus is to provide lifestyle management solutions that help reduce risk and protect wealth succession. That’s why we’re building a platform of asset management software to let you start simplifying complex operations to streamline the flow of communication and information. Today, EstateSpace’s core offerings include three main features – communication, operational management and a marketplace of affiliated Service Partners.
Tell us a little bit about your background and how you started your company?
I worked at a design-build firm, serving ultra high net worth families and family offices. My vice president and I both pivoted careers to technology in 2017, which was driven by the needs to help those we serve. I believe that we could have a long-term impact through technology, that was different than building a home. I knew we could help more people across all facets of life with EstateSpace’s lifestyle management solutions.
What was the biggest problem you encountered with your business and how did you overcome it?
The biggest problem was that the idea was enormous and that made it difficult in the beginning to figure out the best starting place. By working with clients and partners, I was able to create a roadmap that made sense. The pandemic shocked my team and I, as it did everyone, but during the hardest times and the greatest pressures we were able to learn, adapt and innovate in a way that now has an everlasting impact on our business for the better.
The key to overcoming challenges is getting good advice, embracing fear and finding the courage, and energy to act in a positive way. To do this, you must breathe, be methodical and execute with clarity. Change your perspective on adversity and it can become your greatest advantage.
What were the top mistakes you made starting your business and what did you learn from it?
The number one mistake I made was not having good mentorship on how to build a modern technology business. What I learned is that the process I have been taught can be applied to any business. I was able to start applying the business skills we had built up over time in a simpler, more effective way because the process we practice makes us slow down and focus on only what is important. Once we learned our “why” the rest started to come naturally. We never stop learning and improving in our model.
What is one thing that you do daily to grow as an entrepreneur?
I believe in continuous education and paying it forward. Learning and teaching others keeps me sharp, helps me expand my perspective, and ends up being the most rewarding part of it all. Once you go for it and say, “I’m going to start a company” the best thing that can happen is getting good advice.
Whenever I see a new company, I always look to give them our best 30 minutes of listening and providing insights to help them. Offering yourself as a resource with likeminded entrepreneurs helps you build the right kind of network.
What are three books or courses you recommend for new entrepreneurs?
- Start with the why – Simon Sinek
- The Network Imperative – Barry Libert, Megan Beck
- The E Myth Revisited – Michael E. Gerber
- Traction: Get a grip on your Business – Gino Wickman
What is the one thing you wish you knew before starting your business?
I wish I had told myself to slow down in the beginning. It’s hard when you’re so excited to change the world. That emotion is what makes you great but it can be the thing that stops you before you ever get started.
What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business?
The most effective marketing strategy is to know your audience and stay focused on singular goals and objectives. A key mistake is thinking that “anyone” is your buyer. A niche is where you’ll have the most leverage as a small business. And to develop a niche and appeal to buyers within the niche, you must understand their pains, problems, triggering events, and priorities.
What is pushing them to make a purchasing decision? What does it look like if they succeed? Knowing these things will help you craft messaging that resonates and makes a compelling case for your solution. Start by thinking about your existing customers and who you’d like to work with. Then, create a buyer persona to start the process of getting into the head of your ideal client.
Identify where the biggest impact will be. Where is the biggest blind spot in your marketing that’s prohibiting your growth? Set a performance goal around that one key area and focus your resources on the activities and tactics that will achieve that one performance goal. You can expand your efforts or pivot to other initiatives when you’ve made more progress toward that singular goal.
If you only had $1000 dollars to start a new startup, knowing everything you know now, how would you spend it?
Good advice. Whether you’re building a product, selling software or providing a service, seek good advice to make sure that the idea is worth pursuing. And if it is, then I would immediately seek advice on how best to achieve my desired results from someone that has been there and done that. This answer is one that makes me smile and has taken me years of learning the hard way to finally figure out.
What’s your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs?
Get a good team of advisors who understand your space. No one part of a business is harder than the next, it’s all tough, but getting good advice when you first start can help avoid the costliest mistakes.
What is your favorite quote?
“Very few people or companies can clearly articulate WHY they do WHAT they do. By WHY I mean your purpose, cause or belief – WHY does your company exist? WHY do you get out of bed every morning? And WHY should anyone care? People don’t buy WHAT you do, they buy WHY you do it!”
-Simon Sinek
Google Analytics – Get a deeper understanding of your customers. Google Analytics gives you the free tools you need to analyze data for your business in one place. Lets you measure your advertising ROI as well as track your website traffic, and social networking sites and applications.
Ahrefs – Improve your rankings, drive traffic, and increase awareness in search engines. Mainly used to analyze a website’s link profile, keyword rankings, and SEO health. You can also use Ahrefs to conduct keyword research for Google, YouTube, and Amazon. And many people use Ahrefs to find content that’s performed well (in terms of social shares and/or links) on a given topic.
HubSpot – In short, HubSpot is an inbound marketing and sales platform that helps companies to attract visitors, convert leads and close customers. This includes content creation, social media sharing, workflow automation, lead capture, customer relationship management, sales pipeline mapping and performance tracking.
How is running a tech company different than what you thought it would be?
It’s not different running asset management software now from what I was doing before. When I started, everyone told me it would be hard, or it was different, and you can’t make the change from a service company. Looking back…every business is hard, but I believe a business is a business, and different industries require a different knowledge base, but the skills to be a leader or inspire a person are constant.
Don’t let others knock you down, you can do whatever you’re passionate about doing and incorporate technology to meet modern-day consumer requirements. Some of the great people I have met along the way are just that because they took the path less traveled and never gave up.
How can readers get in touch with you?
My team and I make it easy to get in touch with us even as a tech company, we’re unique in this way. I built the company on the relationships forged over decades of doing business and our dedication to service keeps us focused on continuing to build strong client and partner relationships today.
Anyone interested in EstateSpace can get in touch with us by going to EstateSpace.com or to one of our many social channels (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn) and reaching out directly. We welcome the opportunity to help in any way we possibly can.
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