Luxury Presence, a marketing and technology platform for realtors and brokers, has come a long way since Malte Kramer launched the company in 2016.
The platform includes a personalized website for agents, a property-specific content management system, and a home search tool that connects to over 200 multiple listing service entries.
The Santa Monica-based company not only helps realtors build their digital presence, but also offers marketing services such as managed SEO, social media, and advertising.
“We launched the first version of the product with a small number of clients,” says Kramer. “From there, they liked it and told other agents. In the early days, a lot of it was word of mouth.”
The company has grown. Jesse Pedersen and Zac Hays recently joined Luxury Presence as Chief Technology Officer and Chief Product Officer respectively.
Pedersen has over 15 years of experience in engineering and leading large technical teams. Prior to Luxury Presence, he was Chief Technology Officer at BuildingConnected, where he successfully grew and expanded the company until in 2019 he was acquired by AutoDesk for $280 million. Pedersen continued as Vice President of Customer Platforms and Data at AutoDesk, where he led a global team of over 500 people.
“I am honored to join Luxury Presence and support the growing technological needs of this strong and innovative company. I have always enjoyed working at ,” Pedersen said in a statement.
Hayes joins Luxury Presence with over 15 years of experience in product development at start-ups and large technology companies such as Microsoft, Nokia and TiVo. He is also a veteran of his Autodesk, having served as Vice President of Products for four years through its acquisition of BuildingConnected.
“Our luxury presence is growing exponentially and we look forward to being part of such a talented and driven group of people. “I can’t wait to dive into finding new ways to create great products,” Hayes said in a statement. It’s about how we’re solving problems for really hardworking people in a field that gives us something (real estate).”
Originally from Germany, Kramer played basketball and received a scholarship to Pepperdine University. He founded his Givvr, his platform for the non-profit fundraising space web, but it closed in 2015. He then founded Luxury Presence and the concept took off.
“We are growing very quickly,” says Kramer. “A lot of the challenge is managing that level of growth.”
Luxury Presence’s workforce is distributed, with approximately 60 employees at its headquarters in Santa Monica, an additional 50 employees in Austin, and the remainder located throughout the United States.
“We’ve grown more than threefold,” Kramer said. “The last few years have been really exciting.”
Luxury Presence users pay a monthly subscription fee ranging from $800 to $3,000 per month.
“We have over 6,000 paying customers,” Kramer said, adding that the company will continue to improve its services.
“We are working on adding more marketing tools,” he said. “More ways to grow our business. Most of our R&D investments are directed towards developing new products.”
Kramer said Luxury Presence is attractive to agencies because of its concise packaging.
“We are a one-stop-shop when it comes to marketing,” he said. “Agents love having one company that can handle all their marketing needs. The website is really well designed. They love the performance and ability to drive their business. It helps us get more leads.”