There are 75 port districts scattered across the state of Washington. Though they are disparate in their goals and assets, a scrappy local tech company wants to tie them together.
Ridgefield-based startup PortEngine proposes to build a new platform that would operate a bit like the real estate site Zillow.com. But it would shine a spotlight on port-owned properties rather than residences.
Besides tapping into a potentially large market, it could bring the evolution that port officials say their real estate marketing needs.
Founded six months ago, PortEngine has netted close to $150,000 in private investment capital and attracted a handful of clients. Its creation came about in part because Port of Ridgefield CEO Brent Grening said he was tired of spending tens of thousands of dollars on real estate brokers.
“The world doesn’t see me. There are millions of properties and we’re just one, just a commodity,” he said. “When (brokers) aren’t talking to me, are they doing anything for me? Are they just sitting and waiting?”
Grening had vented his thoughts to John Laine, a Vancouver entrepreneur, who took that idea and founded PortEngine. Grening is not an investor but the Port of Ridgefield was PortEngine’s first client.
“I feel like my real estate doesn’t get seen,” Grening said. “That’s a problem in our world and it’s an opportunity in our world. Because if I have that problem, chances are somebody else does.”
That’s the dream for Laine and Keith Stauffer, who together lead PortEngine. The two met after Stauffer left a stint at a Seattle startup and wanted to work closer to his Clark County home.
“John had this young company that was just sort of an idea. It didn’t really have an executive team set up to run the operation and about a month after meeting him, we signed a contract and PortEngine took off,” he said.
Laine, 50, provided most of the company’s initial backing. Having sold a real estate investment company, he now runs a nimble venture capital firm called Local.Fund that has a portfolio of internet startups, coffee carts and massage therapy businesses. PortEngine, though, is its “golden child,” he said.
“It truly is our unicorn,” Laine said, referring to his hopes for the company’s potential to scale into a larger operation.
Software above hardware
PortEngine today has a long way to go before it can be called a “unicorn” — a term typically set aside for massively successful tech giants like Uber, Airbnb and the co-working company WeWork.
The firm is currently headquartered in a sparse 1,500 square feet above Ridgefield Hardware. Last used as a yoga studio, painted phrases like “Namaste” adorn a wall above its doors. As the duo works, sounds bounce from the hardwood floors like a basketball.
On the back wall hangs a satellite photo of the state of Washington, with yellow pins dropped onto every port district in the state. Landing those ports as clients will shape whether the company can succeed.
PortEngine’s model relies on building a detailed database of properties. For example, the Port of Ridgefield has acres of undeveloped pasture it hopes to transform into office space, retail, apartments or whatever else — as long as it finds the right development partner.
In Central Washington, the Port of Mattawa is trying to market three industrial parks that could tap into cheap hydroelectricity and fiber optic internet.
“These ports have tens of millions of acres of property they’re sitting on for lease, or for sale, or for development, and they are often siloed in these individual port websites,” Stauffer said, adding that PortEngine will derive its revenue from taking a small percentage of the land sale or lease. There would be no fee to use the platform.
Ports are also ideal customers, Stauffer said, because they are linked together in their roles as economic drivers. They hope word spreads. They already have five ports signed, and hope to hire five more employees in the coming months.
“I think we’re pretty successful,” Laine said. “Some (ports) are still patient and want to see it get further along, some of them have said they just don’t want to collaborate.”
“I think they’re wondering if we’re in over our heads,” added Stauffer. “There’s still some hesitance because of the gravity of what we’re trying to accomplish.”
Road map to growth
Although PortEngine remains determined, there are more obstacles than being an unfamiliar name.
Not only are real estate brokers likely to resist, but commercial real estate platforms already exist. LoopNet, based in San Francisco, already features dozens of listings for port-owned properties in Washington.
Dave Barcos, whose annual event Startup Weekend was where the PortEngine idea was hatched, said it’s definitely possible a bigger competitor could seize the market. But those companies’ size might also work against them.
“The amount of money it would make for them doesn’t make it worth their time go after it,” he said. “They work in a commercial real estate market and they have their hands full.”
That could change if PortEngine powers up like Stauffer and Laine believe it will. But Barcos added that’s why the startup company will move quickly to grow before a competitor can muscle it out.
“They can work their way up because LoopNet doesn’t want to spend the time and effort and energy, and then take them by surprise,” he said. “Then it’s a weed in the garden and you’ve got a problem.”
If ports become viable customers, the company could try to expand its services to other public entities such as cities, counties, school districts and economic development corporations.
Stauffer, speaking from his car while driving a circuit through rural Washington, said PortEngine for now isn’t worried about growth. Having been on the road for hours already, the only road map they needed was to the next port office to make their pitch.
“Everybody’s got an idea. Ideas are a dime a dozen. It’s the execution,” he said. “I don’t care how much money you’ve got, you can’t come and take this from us because we got our asses up at 4 o’clock in the morning. That is our competitive advantage. Sometimes you’ve got to do things that aren’t scalable in the beginning.”
