Bank Shot, an Atlanta-based FinTech startup focused on improving the real estate earnest money process, has tapped Emily Traxler as its new CEO.
Traxler brings her work in software startups and customer success experience to the real estate tech company.
She is taking over from the startup’s founders Bernardine W. Drake and Glenn Drake, a husband-and-wife team and Atlanta real estate veterans.
The two started Bank Shot to address the pain points between agents and brokers during the closing process. Since they spoke with Hypepotamus back in 2019, the Atlanta real estate market has changed drastically in the wake of the pandemic. According to recent data released by the Atlanta Realtors Association, housing prices have surged year-over-year by 30.9%, while housing inventory has slipped by 51% over the same time period.
Traxler told Hypepotamus that Atlanta is a natural fit for building a startup like Bank Shot due to its unique real estate market and large FinTech scene.
“Right now you’re running a check across town, which is frustrating, especially for real estate agents in the Atlanta area,” added Traxler.
Strict time limits make the manual process even more difficult and cumbersome. “Our solution allows the end-user, the buyer, to actually take a picture of the check from their phone just like you would to deposit to your bank account”, thus streamlining the entire earnest money process and helping to eliminate any potential wire fraud. Of course, the remote nature of the product has helped the company grow over the course of the pandemic.
For Traxler, joining as Bank Shot’s CEO is a unique opportunity to use her startup background to grow the startup’s customer base and become a more integral part of the Atlanta real estate tech scene.
Her first role, she told Hypepotamus, was with Clockwise MD (now Experity), out of the Atlanta Tech Village. She made her way to SingleOps, a SaaS startup focused on outdoor services, as VP of Customer Success.
The team currently includes a customer success manager, an account executive, and a product manager, and a developer, and other members of the team are shared within a venture studio.
Investment From Rule 1 Ventures
That studio, Rule 1 Ventures, also announced it has invested in Bank Shot. Headquartered in Buckhead, Atlanta, Rule 1 Ventures is designed to co-found companies and provide people, processes, and resources to accelerate speed to market, value creation, and profitable growth.
For founder Glenn Drake, Rule 1 Ventures’ software background made it a natural fit as an investor and partner.
“We’re thrilled to partner with Bank Shot,” Gary Buxton, General Partner and COO/CFO of Rule 1 Ventures, added in a statement. “We’ve got a deep history and development expertise in fintech. That, along with Bank Shot’s proprietary platform, makes a great combination to bring needed technology to real estate closing transactions.”
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