About 13 years ago, business partners Cameron Henkel and Dave Gooden were both looking for lake property and shared their war stories about going through newspaper listings and calling multiple realtors.
"We wondered why there wasn't a one-stop shop for that kind of thing," says Henkel. "So, we decided to create it for ourselves." The pair had been selling computer equipment online, and began adding cabin rentals on their site as well. About a year later, they had about 600 realtors and thousands of properties on their site,
LakePlace.com.
They decided to expand in 2006 and become a real estate brokerage. That meant giving up their classified-ad revenue and taking a big chance. Henkel says, "We had to make a bet that being a brokerage would be better. It was hard to make that gamble, but it paid off."
They added another site to the lineup,
LandBin.com, and opened offices in Brainerd, Hayward, and Wayzata. They employ 30 real estate agents and LakePlace.com has become the second most visited site in the Midwest, with 1.5 million visitors a year.
"We're growing every day, I'm not kidding," says Gooden. "Hopefully, we'll be making some exciting announcements this year. We have a solid roadmap of where to go."
The founders, who've been friends since kindergarten, foresee abundant growth through acquisitions and hiring. And for site visitors, there's finally a place to shop for cabins and land without resorting to the classifieds.
Source: Cameron Henkel, Dave Gooden, LakePlace.com
Writer: Elizabeth Millard