At the end of 2024, Andrés Eguiguren, Diego Izikson and their third partner sat down to have an uncomfortable conversation: if Cliperty did not reach certain numbers in three months, it was better to close the curtain than to continue widening the hole. They had been building the company for four years.
Luckily, they managed to release a new service just in time, and things started to improve. Today, almost a year after that ultimatum they gave themselves, they talk about it with a laugh, but neither of them forgets it: both describe it, separately, as the most difficult moment of their career.
They met at university and even then they shared something: they both like outdoor sports, they both have been riding bicycles since they were children and they both like to sell. Diego Izikson designed and produced bicycle racks for American hitches; Andrés Eguiguren had a pizza cart for events and sold stove grills.
Neither of them started by chance, and both agree that that previous stage, small, informal, often at a loss, was what prepared them for what came next.
From a family real estate company to an industry problem
Cliperty started as an internal tool. Andrés Eguiguren’s family had a real estate company that, like most of the industry, carried out its sales and collection processes in Excel and platforms that were not in the cloud. The problem hit close to home, and from that need a first platform was born, which they called B0.
- How was Cliperty born?
“Cliperty is, so to speak, a spin-off of a real estate company. The problem arose more than 20 years ago, in an industry that did not have its commercial processes digitized. It was a family-owned real estate company, and the problem of not having control of the sale came to our attention. From there, a first internal platform was born”
“At some point we said: we can go out and offer this to the market, because there is nothing similar.”
Diego Izikson joined in February 2021, after Andrés Eguiguren called him to tell him about the project. He didn’t know anything about the real estate world, so he had to quickly absorb how the old platform and the business logic worked.
The roles were divided naturally: Diego ended up in charge of product and development; Andrés, from the commercial.
The module that today connects real estate agencies with independent brokers, paid by commission, was born from a question that the first clients asked them over and over again: how is Cliperty going to make me sell more?
An even table
The lessons from their previous businesses ended up being, they say, the greatest contribution they brought to Cliperty: Diego learned to be organized, to keep the numbers in detail even when sales begin to grow and the temptation is to overspend.
Andrés learned something different, selling pizzas at events: if he wasn’t there to make sure everything went well, no one else was going to do it.
- What does it mean to you to be a good leader?
“I learned a lot at university: you have to include the entire team, understand that just because some are the owners and others are employees, some contribute less. I always give the example that we are like a table: if there is a shorter leg, the table starts to limp…
…It is key that everyone knows that their work contributes to the success that is happening, little by little”
“I believe it is being able to help others also advance. Being a leader is being able to guide, tell someone where they have to move forward so that they show the best of themselves.”
- What has been the most difficult moment you have had to experience as entrepreneurs?
“At the end of 2024, the three partners had to have a conversation: if in three months this did not reach certain numbers, it was better to close the curtain than to continue widening the hole. There we learned that not everything is as catastrophic as one thinks: there is always a small light, and we have to try to pull it.”
Build an ecosystem, not just software
The real estate business moves high amounts and, even so, it continued to operate with WhatsApp, spreadsheets and notebooks.
For Diego and Andrés, that disconnection is not a problem, but rather the opportunity behind Cliperty: building a single place where real estate, brokers and financial services connect, instead of jumping between platforms that don’t talk to each other.
- What changed when you added an investor and an external director to the business?
“It’s like being in your house, where no one comes in and you cook the food you want, until you start having guests and you have to keep everything organized. Having someone from outside raises the bar: how you see your numbers, how you lie or don’t lie to yourself. Nobody wants to tell themselves that things are bad; the outsider will tell you, and that helps you improve”
Before leaving Chile, they say, they prefer to continue validating and putting the house in order: meeting certain internal goals before expanding, to leave safely and not fail abroad.
When they are asked for advice for Diego and Andrés who were just starting out, their response converges on the same idea.
“Time to time. We cannot expect results to be seen overnight. If you work constantly day after day, the results will appear; if not, anxiety ends up eating you up.”
Neither of them would change the path they had taken, not even that December when they were three months away from closing.
It’s the same lesson they learned separately, each in their own business as a teenager: things don’t move forward on their own. Someone has to move first.
Startup.Connect is a program of the Universidad del Desarrollo in conjunction with País Digital that connects startups with large companies through a specialized scouting system. Throughout its editions, it has facilitated more than 250 1-on-1 meetings for more than 90 startups, achieving 92% effectiveness in its matches.
More information at https://startupconnect.udd.cl/
