Come back home

Finding the right team is often the key to success.

Sanjay Kuttemperoor found that out when he hired software programmers from Russia and India to develop WikiRealty, a real estate website he began creating three years ago.

Language barriers, different time zones and subpar technical skills turned out to be tough hurdles to overcome. So last summer, Kuttemperoor turned to a San Francisco software-development firm called Tivix. A team of techies there created his vision in just five months.

In addition, Kuttemperoor hired attorneys at top Silicon Valley law firm Wilson Sonsini to help him file patents on the technology. The high-profile firm has advised companies such as Apple and Google on their initial public offerings of stock.

But hiring the best can be costly. “Right now we're looking to raise several million,” says Kuttemperoor, declining to share how much he's spent so far. “A lot of people I give demos to want to invest,” he says.

Kuttemperoor is no neophyte to the real estate business. He is an attorney whose family was the initial developer of Treviso Bay in Naples, a luxury residential development that was the subject of foreclosure during the real estate collapse.

Kuttemperoor's vision is to create a site that uses the “wiki” principle of encouraging contributions. The more people contribute their knowledge to WikiRealty, the more useful it becomes, he reasons. “We have a big vision here,” he says.

While Kuttemperoor posts home listings from ListHub, a provider of multiple-listing-service data, he hopes contributors such as attorneys, tradesmen and area residents will add content to the site.

Besides starting in Naples and Milwaukee a little more than a month ago, the site is launching in Miami, Chicago, Boston, Houston and Los Angeles. “My focus up until now is getting the application launched,” Kuttemperoor says.

To become popular on the Internet, websites need original content to rise to the top of search-engine lists such as Google's. “They like all this fresh new content,” Kuttemperoor says.

It's a snowball effect: The more people contribute, the more popular the site becomes. “The goal right now is to drive traffic to the site,” Kuttemperoor says.

Before he can start making money with advertising or subscription features, Kuttemperoor says he wants to see how people use the site. “I've got a list of 20 ideas, but I want to see consumer behavior first,” he says. “There's a variety of ways to monetize.”

There's more to the business of real estate websites than selling ads, he points out. “We don't want to become some ad platform,” Kuttemperoor notes.

Kuttemperoor says he's ready for where technology is heading in the future. “I'm developing for this,” he says, holding up his cell phone.

Follow Jean Gruss on Twitter @JeanGruss