Revolutionizing maintenance requests with Bo Bleyl
Bo Bleyl has a really cool name. That alliteration is top notch. Shoutout to Bo’s parents.
Currently Bo is working his day job as a product manager, but on the side he is building Telle, which is a cool business right at the intersection of technology and maintenance.
While it’s a little off brand for us to highlight a business like Telle, I still had a really engaging conversation with him that had some helpful highlights.
Entrepreneurship scratches an itch
Bo and I agreed that there is just something unsatisfying about having a normal job doing work for someone else.
Building your own business is way more work than a traditional job, but it just satisfies this part of you that you can’t get anywhere else.
Take a boring business and improve it
With Telle, Bo is making maintenance requests more efficient and easy for property managers with long term renters.
Property management has been around for years, and most managers still use fax machines and outdated methods.
Telle is planning on having a maintenance professional available from 8am-8pm for tenants to contact in the case of minor maintenance issues that could possibly be fixed without an actual visit.
For example: “It’s cold in my apartment! I can’t get the heat to come on.”
The maintenance professional would video chat to help them check the thermostat is configured right, change the filter, and see if they can fix the problem without a visit.
Is this business going to work?
The million dollar question.
I think Bo could be onto something here. Is there a need? His research shows property managers are willing to try and modernize this industry, which is encouraging.
If I were Bo, I would start by just creating a property management business. After 1-2 years of really understanding the ins and outs and gaining the experience then I feel like it would be a great step to move into a software tool.
But hey, that’s the premise of this whole newsletter. It’s good to talk to people who have opposing views.
I mean no offense to Bo, but I wouldn’t bet on this business working out.
Do I think Bo will be successful in something else? Absolutely.
If you would like to see my full conversation with Bo, check it out here!
Thinker Thursday
Last week I started Thinker Thursday. Some people loved it, others not so much. So I thought it would be a good compromise to just add it as a separate segment.
Today’s guest category is a newsletter!
Tweets
Books
Never Split The Difference: Chris Voss
The Alchemist: Paulo Coelho
Newsletter
Jaryd’s newsletter is a great read for understanding the growth of businesses. Even though he mainly focuses on tech businesses, there are a lot of great takeaways and lessons from How They Grow.
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Thanks for the feature, Matt!