by G. Sax, Head of Communications, RESO
We recently caught up with Brian Boero, Cofounder of 1000WATT, to talk about having a point of view, understanding your brand and where the future of “there” is if there is “no there.” Enjoy!
Q1: 1000WATT’s The Dose and Friday Flash newsletters don’t shy away from strong opinions, which can be great for brand clarity but risky in a tight‑knit industry. Has that openness ever impacted your business, and what’s your read on RESO through that same lens?
Brian: I’m not somebody who can be neutral or non-normative. I have to have a point of view. Almost 30 years in, I would say that this has been good for business and has compelled potential clients to reach out to us.
We all know that real estate is an important business. Aside from doctors and farmers, who help you stay healthy and eat, real estate practitioners are important, because they help you find shelter. You need to survive, you need to eat and you need a place to live. I am driven to express my view about real estate, because it is so consequential. If I was in the business of creating plastic utensils, it might be different.
It’s probably known to the point of being obvious that people are drawn to brands with a point of view. I will never know how many people have had the thought like, “Screw those guys.” The other side of that are the people who like the way we think and they hire us. It has worked out.
As for RESO, I think you do objectively helpful work. My opinion is that we need an entity in the industry that is trying to make information easier to consume and share. That is a good thing. That is my gut reaction when you say “RESO.” It is an indisputable thing that this is worthy and good work.
I’m not sure that there is a broad understanding of why standards matter. You’ve been really effective at cultivating the core community of people who live in a world of real estate data everyday and can see the value of data standards, but the layperson needs to be better informed.
Q2: Your focus has been on the real estate industry, including brokerage, proptech companies, mortgage companies and builders, successfully positioning yourselves as a sort of upstart boutique agency. Have you ever considered working in verticals outside of real estate? For example, your business partner, Marc Davidson, has a history in the music industry, and you have a close proximity to the Bay Area tech community.
No, we don’t consider clients outside of real estate, because we know what we know and we know that we don’t know much beyond that. We have to have humility there. The other part is that we have built a successful position. Some companies try to cast the net so wide. They don’t want to miss out on an opportunity over here or over there, which dilutes their value for the customer.
We’re positioned as a vertical agency for houses. If you consume packaged goods or hospitality, go elsewhere.
At the start of our journey, our clientele was kind of mixed. One of our earliest clients was a big MLS. This is interesting, because in 20 years, we have now done only three or four MLS engagements. Today, we work with proptech companies, brokerages, mortgaging and homebuilding in ways that are no different than they were at the beginning.
We work with large and small entities. We’ve certainly worked with real estate teams and franchises, but we’ve never worked with individual agents. We’ve also never once considered commercial real estate. It may as well be pharmaceuticals. There is very little transferrable knowledge.
We have lots of knowledge about an important slice of the economy – the Mount Everest of our economy. The sherpa may be a lonely hunched figure, but that dude is very, very in demand. Because you need the sherpa to climb the mammoth mountain. That’s what housing is like. It’s the big giant leviathan that even big companies look at and scratch their head at in wonder.
Q3: You grew up in Oakland and still call it home. Gertrude Stein’s “no there there” line about Oakland gets thrown around a lot, which hits harder now that the city has lost three major sports teams. Is Oakland destined to sell its naming rights to Las Vegas, or is there a brighter future ahead? And with your extensive education in Political Science (BA, Oregon; MA, UC-Davis), could you be the mayor the city needs?
Brian: I like your naming rights idea. We have a huge budget deficit, and that could go a long way to solve it, perhaps with naming rights up for renewal as needed.
I will not run for mayor. I left politics when I was 25 years old, and I left because people in politics suck.
As for Gertrude Stein, she spent a lot of time living in Paris. If she had just gotten back to Oakland, she was probably conflicted with recency bias. We’re talking about one of the world’s great cities, so I think her comment is much too often cited.
Three Questions is a lighthearted interview series that features real estate industry professionals, their businesses and how they interact with real estate standards.
