10 Lessons From 10 Years of Building a Business

In 2014, my co-founder, Marcela Sapone, and I started Alfred with a simple goal: to create something impactful while solving the problem we personally faced —how to make more time in our busy lives as renters.

A decade later, that mission feels more relevant than ever. What began as a small idea has grown into a fully fledged real estate business that not only solves problems but has redefined an entire industry. Along the way, we became leaders in the space, building:

  • The first company to deliver a comprehensive resident experience application for multifamily residential (before #proptech even existed) and launch it nationally
  • The first technology company to buy a large scale property manager, our fabulous team at RKW Residential
  • The first company to deliver a combined and comprehensive tech-powered management platform for institutional multifamily owners in the market

Our teams have also won numerous industry awards including, FastCompany: World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies, NMHC top 50 management platforms, #5 in ORA Power Ranking by J Turner, Division I 2024  and #1 in Best Use of Proptech Multifamily Executive Awards 2023.

But the journey hasn’t been smooth. It’s been filled with tough decisions, setbacks, and lessons learned through the hardest times—pandemic challenges, market instability, and seismic shifts in technology. Yet, looking back, it’s been an incredibly rewarding adventure that has taught us more than we ever imagined.

10 Lessons From 10 Years at Alfred:

  1. Be extremely clear on what you really want and repeat it. Understanding why you’re doing something—whether it’s wealth creation, expanding access, or breaking new ground—is the foundation for everything. That clarity fuels your decisions, actions, and culture.
  2. Be relentless from a place of care. When you truly care about what you’re building, putting in the time and energy feels natural. Care is the fuel for endurance.
  3. Reality beats the plan. The journey is never linear. Often, the best opportunities arise from the unexpected turns, and those are the moments that make it worth it.
  4. Focus on one thing. Zeroing in on the most important goal provides clarity for everyone in the organization. Make sure each person knows their ‘one thing’ and how it ladders up to the bigger picture.
  5. Manage your own psychology. The hardest skill to learn as a leader is how to manage yourself. Building self-awareness and emotional resilience are essential for navigating the ups and downs of entrepreneurship.
  6. Stay in the arena. It’s easy to criticize or quit. But staying in the fight, even when it’s hard, is where the breakthroughs happen. We’re here ten years later because we kept showing up.
  7. Don’t lie to yourself. Balancing a clear understanding of reality with an unwavering belief in what’s possible is critical. You need both to make sound decisions and drive creativity.
  8. It’s always about the people. The right team makes all the difference. Every success we’ve had was because of our great team. Every failure, on the other hand, usually came from a misstep in people decisions. Prioritize your people and invest in them.
  9. Know your customer inside out. The best ideas come from deeply understanding your customer’s needs. Building alongside your customer ensures you’re solving the right problems, even when the answers aren’t obvious.
  10. Build support around you. No one succeeds alone. Surround yourself with a system of support across both personal and professional fronts, and evolve that system as you grow. Have a team for yourself and a team for your team. This will help you navigate the tough times and celebrate the wins.

As we reflect on our first decade at Alfred, we’re incredibly grateful for the team, partners, and customers who have been with us on this journey. The last 10 years have been an amazing adventure—and the next 10 look even brighter.

Jessica Beck ’08 is the co-founder and co-CEO of Alfred, a residential technology and management platform offering a single-stop solution to maximize asset value for real estate owners and operators. In addition to her work at Alfred, she supports design-led tech entrepreneurs through WHITESPACE Ventures, a seed investment firm she established with her Alfred co-founder, Marcela Sapone.

Jessica has appeared before Congress on the topic of employment and spoken at prominent events like SXSW and the Santa Fe Institute’s Annual Business Network & Board of Trustees Symposium. In addition to her BA in Economics from Williams (where she was captain of the women’s rugby team), she holds an MBA from Harvard Business School. The original version of this commentary appeared on LinkedIn.