Keeping Wall Street Dollars on Main Street, with David Angotti
In this episode, Alex and Annie are joined by David Angotti, the Chief Evangelist at Guesty, an end-to-end property management software designed for short-term property managers who seek to save time, increase revenue, and grow their businesses. David's journey in the vacation rental industry began after he exited his first company, SpeedyPrep, in 2009. Retirement at the age of 29 quickly lost its allure, so he purchased a few rental properties. This quickly evolved into a property management business from which he also exited. Afterwards, David shifted his focus to launching and managing a book direct business, ultimately leading him to his current role at Guesty.
David breaks down the role of Chief Evangelist into two parts. The external part of his role strives to achieve a level of market education and awareness that makes sure Guesty is always part of the conversation when companies are evaluating property management software. The internal part of his role requires him to always have his finger on the pulse when it comes to current market trends and demand, and for him to advocate for both their existing clientele and the total addressable market to make sure that Guesty is always developing in a direction that best serves their market.
Guesty is expanding their United States team, adding 40-50 consultative market managers who will serve individual markets across the US. Their purpose will be to ensure that Guesty’s onboarding experience is much more refined, and that clients have access to a dedicated support team in their particular market that can serve them at a much higher pace and quality than what the industry is used to. The reason for this expansion is that Guesty is now moving into the traditional vacation rental markets, while their previous market share was typically in urban areas.
A big focus of David’s work is towards educating the market on how to build the right growth strategies. He considers the marketing agency model to be inefficient for smaller property managers, as great marketing agencies typically have large retainers that are way out of budget for your average property management company, and smaller agencies are less effective than hiring freelancers and contractors to take care of individual projects.
Tune into the full episode to learn more about David’s journey and expertise!
HIGHLIGHTS:
00:54 David’s Journey Into Vacation Rentals
10:22 Improving Your Book Direct UX
15:41 How Guesty Helps With Marketing
18:42 What Does a Chief Evangelist Do?
26:14 Guesty’s US Expansion Plan
32:20 The Right Approach to Marketing
39:42 Building a Recognizable Brand
This episode is brought to you by Rev & Research!
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