Ian is a real estate investor who currently leads strategy, operations, and partnerships at Zibo, a Silicon Valley start-up. Their business’ primary focus is providing financial services to independent landlords. If you’re a real estate investor or a business owner who often struggles with collecting monthly payments, Zibo may be the perfect solution for you. In this episode, listen in as Ian discusses how Zibo may assist you with your financial needs.
Ian, who had served in the military for eight years, became interested in real estate after seeing his mother manage a few properties as a small-time landlord, real estate agent, and property manager. He decided he wanted to work in tech after meeting with Chris, the founder of Zibo.
Zibo is a financial services platform for independent landlords. They provide a platform for free rent collection, on top of other services like banking, lending, insurance, and more. Their primary market is independent landlords with less than 20 units in their portfolio, although they have worked with clients with over 1800 units.
When asked how they make a profit despite offering free rent collection, Ian said they take a small percentage of deposits and credit card fees. Even if their customers earn 3.75x the national average interest rate with no monthly fees and no minimum amount and get a 1% cashback debit card, their company still makes some revenue for themselves. Other financial services, such as loans and insurance, comprise the bulk of their income.
Fraud has been and continues to be their most challenging issue. Both their operations and customer support teams are on the constant lookout for fraudsters. Typical cases of fraud involve the issuance of fake checks to landlords and fake identities.
According to Ian, their primary strategy for acquiring new customers is via channel partnerships. Second, they work with other companies in the industry like Conventus. For example, if Conventus customers don’t have insurance, they send them to Zibo. They also partner with RentPrep and TransUnion for tenant screening services.
Zibo is building on its mortgage and insurance capabilities. They aim to provide more financial services to their clients, so they don’t have to go through the trouble of visiting multiple companies for their financial needs.
To signify the next stage of the company’s journey, they changed their name from Zibo to Azibo.
Ian said that the best advice he can offer is that if you’re interested in investing in real estate, go for it and make your first deal because the best way to learn is by doing it yourself.
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