Startups Shouldn't Allow Their "Grand Vision" to be Derailed

Despite the countless challenges ahead of her, Jilliene Helman was determined to hold on to her grand vision for Realty Mogul. "For me personally, it's all about perseverance," she told Benzinga. "It's all about knowing the grand vision of the company and not getting derailed off that vision. We have a very clear vision for what we want this company to be and what we want the brand to stand for, and we really don't let anything stand in the way." Realty Mogul is a "marketplace for accredited investors to pool money online and buy shares of pre-vetted investment properties." It is a graduate of the Microsoft MSFT / Tech Stars accelerator in Seattle. The fresh startup also came in first at the HATCH pitch competition at SXSW, and was a winner of the Innotribe/SWIFT event in New York. "I think the key thing for an entrepreneur across all verticals is perseverance," said Helman, who co-founded Realty Mogul and serves as its CEO. "It's not easy. There are challenges that are thrown at you. There are things that you would never expect that are thrown at you. As a founder of a company, there are all sorts of decisions that you have to make that you may not want to make, and things that you may or may not want to do." In order to ensure that Realty Mogul was built the way that its founders intended, Helman said that the team began by setting the company culture and key values. "[That's something] you don't see a lot of startups do because you're running a million miles an hour, doing a million other things," said Helman. "But it was so important for us to get the culture right from the beginning that setting culture and perseverance, I think, are the two biggest things for entrepreneurs when they're starting out." Louis Bedigian is the Senior Tech Analyst and Features Writer of Benzinga. You can reach him at 248-636-1322 or louis(at)benzingapro(dot)com. Follow him @LouisBedigianBZ