Tech Business

[Mirtha Hinrichs]

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Some came from a corporate background and were frustrated with the lack of innovation. Others were running a successful consulting business - and decided to scale it with the help of technology. There are also developers out there who were hacking interesting things for fun - until one of those inventions struck the chord.

With the rise of remote work, the proliferation of entrepreneurship, and diminishing barriers to entry, the question that is asked frequently is whether or not it is possible to run a tech company, without having a tech background.

My aspiration at the time was to bring the real estate industry into the 21st century, by connecting office properties with prospective tenants, practically using technology to replace a middle-man broker.

After reading about the companies like Uber and Airbnb, and becoming familiar with the marketplace concept of connecting customers with providers of service over the internet - I knew that creating a marketplace for real estate would be a perfect implementation of my idea.

There were a couple of really good platforms for building responsive landing pages (Squarespace, Wix), and plenty of options for starting an E-Commerce website selling products online (Shopify) - but nothing that would help me create a platform for Real Estate transactions.

One thing I heard a lot about entrepreneurship is that startup founders end up wearing multiple hats. I guess that was the time when I felt I had to level up my skillset, if I wanted to see this real estate idea become a reality.

First, I needed to figure out how someone without a technical background can learn web development. I started my investigation on Quora, asking questions about technology, and trying to understand what it took to build a marketplace. I quickly realized that in order to build a tech product, I needed to learn a programming language.

Around that time, there were a couple of trends in web development that shaped my decision. 3 languages - primarily JavaScript, Python, and Ruby - were dominating the Web 2.0 landscape, while older frameworks like PHP and Java were becoming less popular.

Initially known as a language for creating basic on-screen animations, JS was then transcending to being used as a multi-purpose scripting programming language. All of a sudden, almost anything could be done using this one language: building web servers using frameworks like Express.js, crafting graphical user interfaces using React.js, making use of Machine Learning and AI tools through TensorFlow.js, and even interacting with hardware via the IoT framework called JohnnyFive.

At that time, YouTube already had hundreds of channels dedicated to programming and web development. College instructors, self-taught coders, and JavaScript experts were creating in-depth video walkthroughs aimed at those just starting out, with zero coding experience.

One by one, we put together those features and our real estate marketplace started to take form. When we ran the codebase in production for the first time, I was shocked that the whole platform was actually working. The only thing that kept it together was our never-ending optimism.

I had a co-founder (also a non-technical business person) helping me out - so we divided up responsibilities and were both contributing to the project. We would be working on our business, fielding sales calls, writing emails, and scouting for funding opportunities during the day-time, and building a prototype during the night.

Fast-forward to 2020: a lot has happened since those scrappy early days. I went on to co-found a series of startups in PropTech, MortgageTech, VC Tech, and was involved in a myriad of advisory and consulting gigs. Sitting in isolation the majority of the year, and struggling to turn around one of the underperforming startups I was involved in at the time, I started questioning whether I was at the right place.

The idea was simple - to allow users to ask legal questions and get answers from licensed lawyers. Instead of looking for a lawyer, signing an expensive retainer, and then visiting a law office to get some legal advice, we wanted to provide that same benefit online - and for a fraction of the cost.

The reason for creating this product was to scratch my own itch: plenty of people in my network, myself included, were having terrible experiences hiring a traditional law firm. Long delivery times, inflated legal bills, terrible support.

It was an uphill battle from day one: trying to understand how the legal system works, how lawyers interact with their clients, what motivates them to provide legal services, and most importantly - regulations around publishing legal advice online.

Then, we surrounded ourselves with lawyers and legal practitioners that were eager to change how the industry worked. They helped us understand the shortcomings of traditional law firms, and empowered the company to navigate a complex regulatory landscape

Finally, we spent an enormous amount of time listening to our customers and early adopters. Consumers are the driving force of every industry - and it was important to incorporate every bit of their feedback into our product.

Business professionals keep our world spinning. Think about your favorite company. What does it take to make sure you can buy a new car? What about managing a digital marketing campaign? How does insurance work?

Students in the Ivy Tech Business Administration program will not only get to learn about business but will be put directly in real-life scenarios and actual business situations to gain valuable job skills through a quality education. Students learn a wide-range of business functions such as:

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Students pursuing the Business Administration Technical Certificate (TC) or Insurance Certificate (CT) may be eligible for a free certificate. You can use these credentials to get a job, or apply the free credits to an associate degree later on!

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A completion guide provides the recommended path to graduation, broken out by 8-week terms. For students taking fewer classes at a time, the courses are numbered to show the overall number that will be taken.

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