Learn about Rockport’s origins in the early days of AI, and our mission to extract valuable data from documents. In this interview, the founders candidly reflect on challenges that ultimately laid the groundwork for Rockport's unparalleled success.
As the story unfolds, witness Rockport's transformation from a visionary concept in the mind of Rick Trepp to managing $1.5 trillion in assets today, challenging the conventional reliance on outdated systems like Excel in banks. The founders discuss the obstacles overcome, such as consolidating disparate data sources for clients with complex portfolios, emphasizing the pivotal role played by AI in enhancing efficiency and accuracy.
The conversation also delves into the dynamic relationship between technology and business values, showcasing Rockport's commitment to innovation while keeping a keen eye on addressing clients' evolving needs. They discuss the ever-changing technological landscape, from basic programming to the emergence of AI and cloud computing, emphasizing the importance of adapting to stay ahead.
Explore the challenges faced by early adopters of SaaS models and how Rockport navigated skepticism to create a platform simplifying data management for clients. The founders share insights into the company's ethos of questioning assumptions and adapting to dynamic market demands, making Rockport a true alternative for the future.
This insightful discussion takes you behind the scenes of Rockport's 30-year journey, highlighting the significance of experience, innovation, and a relentless commitment to evolving with the ever-changing world of commercial real estate and technology. Rockport's story is not just a testament to success but also a blueprint for the future of AI-driven innovations in the business world.
The best way to discover what Rockport can do you for you is to try it out yourself. Get in touch with us today and we’ll gladly arrange that.
www.TheRockportGroup.com
Rockport has been self-funded and generated from revenues that we're producing within the various businesses that we built, so we funded ourselves. And did that from day one. I remember there are cubes that you guys built for us right at the beginning. I think Will and I or Rick and I constructed the first office. Yes. We did that ourselves. We took a sledgehammer to the walls and knocked them down and went from there. So, we're entrepreneurs. Yeah. I mean, I think I think we've upgraded since then.
We measure in terrace size. We started off with this little, little thing out a window that we could stand outside, and we went out to our 477, which had a nice wraparound terrace, very narrow, to our pictures that you can see. We kind of like where we are. The short answer, we have believed in self-funding. We talked earlier about the moral obligation between us and employees. Many times, when you bring in capital, external capital, it allows you to grow much quicker.
But also, the flip side of that is in a downturn, and we've like I said, we've been through three downturns. The immediate reaction is if you brought that capital, their advice to you is to cut. Cut people fast. And we don't believe in that. I think what we're trying to balance is how do we scale to meet more needs, but keep our soul, keep the DNA of what we're delivering to clients. I think that that's a pitfall that we've seen in the technology landscape, which is you know, growing too quick, being able to kind of get the next round of clients, but lose what value you add, and then become an organization that clients don't want to use.
I mean, think there's always been the build versus buy discussion in the market. I think that that hasn't gone away. I think there are perceptions that, oh, with all this technology, AWS, we can just implement our own system and just get it done. I think that we find that they end up coming to us and saying, "hey, can you rewrite what we built quickly because we thought we could just do it?" As the technology changes and is perceived as easier to use, how do you show clients that the devil's in the details?
The data matters, how you interact with it. Well, your job classically is you think ten years ahead, and we have to catch up with those ideas. Like I said earlier, he's a visionary, and visionaries look very far in the future. I think we're just getting to some of the visions that you had twenty years ago. Unfortunately, that is totally true. But I think we've done it in a way where we are really providing that value to the clients and we're not just quickly building features that seem like they fix the problem, but in the end just create a mess for clients.
I think that's a lot of that we combat with other systems our clients use is that this sort of looked like it did what we needed, but in the end of the day, we did all the work outside the system, not in the system. Many of our clients will, particularly corporations that we compete against, will go outside and hire consultants to come in and do surveys and figure out what the market is. I don't think we've ever gone out for a survey because we have an understanding.
People we have have in-depth market knowledge, and we look at and analyze what is needed, so we don't do the surveys. But then on the flip side, we've got to build it, and it's not always easy. That's another thing that we do, which is I think it's an art. It's something that we've had to develop over the years, which is really trying to get to the base needs, not wants. Because I think those wants to create inefficient systems, create a lot of pain long term.
Converting those and synthesizing those into what does the business truly need in accomplishing that. In my mind, and as Will said, growing up, there was one thing that was important, and that was integrity. So, to me, it means everything. I think it's also why we've had people stay here a very long time because we do what we say. And I think that that works internally. I think it is also something that when we go to clients and we say, we can do this, we can help you, we stand behind that.
Yeah. My simplistic view is people do not listen to what you say. They listen to what you do, and the integrity makes that easy. What we're doing with the camaraderie we've got and what we're capable of doing, I think we barely scratched the surface. If I look at where we are today versus where I've been any time in the last forty years, the opportunity sitting in front of us is a multiple of any time I've ever seen it. I think we have a tremendous amount to do.
There's a tremendous need out there. There is going to be tremendous need, a tremendous change in the world of, in our world of commercial real estate finance and equity, so that we want to participate in that. And as I said, I think we barely scratched the surface, and it's fun. I'm looking forward to doing it for a lot of more years.