Welcome to our Ecosystem Highlight series, where you’ll meet the innovators in our vast ecosystem of startup builders from across Florida who are actively solving some of the world’s greatest challenges. We interviewed Kelsey Knight, Co-Founder & CRO of RealBooks.io, an AI-powered bookkeeping software made for people who own rental properties.

What were you doing previously, and what inspired you to join, launch, or help grow your company?

My co-founder, Aaron, started flipping houses with his dad as a bonding activity. Then he’d come home with shoeboxes full of receipts, creating a headache for Aaron at tax time. As a technologist by trade, Aaron did what engineers do — he built himself a tool. That tool became RealBooks. I am always inspired by founders who create something to solve their own problems and who can identify a white space in a market. That, combined with Aaron’s observation that his ICP was a consumer (even though they presented like a business on paper), compelled me to join him as co-founder & CRO.

What pain point is your company solving? What gets you excited to go to work every day?

We turn chaos into clarity for people who own rental properties. I’m excited to go to work every day because we’ve truly identified a white space in the market, and Aaron, a technologist by trade, has built a really sleek, sophisticated product to solve our problem.

What’s the biggest challenge you’ve faced in helping build or scale the company? How did you overcome it?

When I first joined, the team had launched paid advertising, and we spent marketing dollars for about two weeks. When I started, I identified that event tracking and marketing analytics hadn’t been setup so our spend was going to the platforms with no signals or data coming back to the ad platforms, or to us. Then, we hired a group to help us set everything up that was supposed to take 4-5 weeks. It ended up taking 12 weeks to complete the project, so we’re going to market a few months later than anticipated, and further into our fundraise than we hoped. We’ve used the delay as really important time to gather intel about our market, ICP, etc.

Where do you see your company headed next?

We are pre-revenue and pre-PMF, so we are launching our full GTM in January to identify our core funnels, test our hypothesis, etc. That’s where we will be really focused, alongside our fundraising and final touches on our product ahead of January.

Give us a tactical piece of advice that you’d share with a founder just starting out.

Don’t go at it alone; build out loud! I’m a big believer in candor and sharing your experiences authentically.

Why Florida?

I’ve been in Florida my entire life. I grew up in Venice, went to school at USF in Tampa, went back for my MBA at USF St. Pete, and have grown in my career here. The opportunities we have now didn’t exist a decade ago and I want to contribute to our ecosystem so that growth continues to happen, and stay, in our area.

Join the Community

Interested in joining a community of founders, builders, innovators, and startup teams while gaining access to member-exclusive events, programming, coaching, and resources throughout the year?

Explore membership and learn more about becoming part of Embarc Collective.