Today we’d like to introduce you to Raul Guevar.
Raul, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I grew up in Arizona, in the Arcadia Biltmore area. I went to St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic School, Arcadia High School, and then Arizona State University’s W.P. Carey School of Business, where I graduated with degrees in Entrepreneurship/Management, International Business, and Global Leadership.
As an undergraduate, I was president of the Arizona Chapter of an international non-profit organization called Enactus, an entrepreneurship organization built around creating and implementing student lead sustainability projects in local and global settings.
While active with Enactus, I was also a Founding Father of the Delta Sigma Phi fraternity at Arizona State University, which is now a chapter 100+ members strong.
Before graduating from ASU, I helped start up a number of other companies, projects, and ventures. These included companies in industries such as environmental sustainability, educational technology, virtual & augmented reality, athletic performance gear, to name a few.
Apart from my involvement during college, I have work experience in Business Consulting, Real Estate Finance, and International Art Brokering.
Most Recently, I partnered up with two entrepreneurs from Cologne, German, Patrick Niederdrenk and Maximilian De Melo, to start a Real Estate Investment Company called MXP Real Estate. My two partners and I have been investing in Real Estate in Arizona going on three years and because of our network, experience, and work ethic, we have expanded into other aspects of real estate which include brokerage services, property management, design, marketing and consulting.
One of our latest endeavors includes the launch of Ogulo, a Virtual Reality Technology company, that allows users to create beautiful 360 walk-through tours. Our technology is geared towards Real Estate Professionals who want to take their sales and marketing to the next level. I am the President and COO of Ogulo USA, and since our Launch, in San Fransisco, our technology has been blowing up! We have showcased our hardware and software in conferenced across the US. I have been invited to speak about different topics surrounding this technology at various conferences and summits.
My team and I aim to create a positive impact in our local real estate communities through development, technology, and continuously raising standards in everything we are involved in.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
The entrepreneurial journey can be one riddled with risks, uncertainty, and hardships. I choose the entrepreneurial path early on and have never looked back. Sure you ill have people around you that tell you your crazy for dreaming big, but as I have seen often times this is because they can’t see themselves doing it. It’s particularly difficult when an entrepreneur must validate and justify their life choices to those who don’t agree, but in the long run, it is those who take the road less traveled, that make the most impactful changes in our world.
“If your dreams don’t scare you, they aren’t big enough.”
– Mohammad Ali
“The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.”
– Steve Jobs
I have often found myself being the youngest person in the room, most would see this as a bad thing but I consider myself incredibly lucky. It can be intimidating at times because age is one of the biggest pushbacks in my career, but it has been my curiosity and willingness to learn that in situations like this, that I have developed some of the greatest opportunities in my life. Being told by people that I am too young, or inexperienced to do something for me has been a source of drive, not necessarily to prove people wrong by doing what they said I couldn’t, but by proving to my self that I could. This realization early on, be it cockiness or confidence has made me fortunate enough to have some awesome experiences. I try to pass along this experience and motivation to other entrepreneurs even younger than my self to follow their big dreams and not prove others wrong, but rather prove themselves right!
Specializations:
– Real Estate Investment
– Business Architecture
– International Business
– Management
– Start Ups & New Ventures
– Cross-Cultural Communication
– Organizational architecture
– Fine Art
– VR and AR Technology (SAS)
– Leadership
– Public Speaking
– Sales
– Marketing & PR
Hobbies:
– Traveling (28+ countries)
– Snowboarding
– Tennis
– Squash
– Hiking
– Philanthropy/Fundraising
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
I am actively involved in a few different industries so to answer this question, I will draw from experience and generational perspective. As an official Millenial, I am lucky to have experienced incredible changes driven by technology and society among other factors,
Change is inevitable and the millennial perspective and influence are particularly interesting to me due to the fact that my generation currently represents the largest buying power pool. I have been asked to speak on this topic in the past as it relates to the millennial influence on real estate and the use of technology. It is important to consider that as the buying power of millennials grows, the behaviors and expectations of this demographic will completely affect and influence customer service in all industries. I believe that millennials will raise the bar on quality and efficiency as consumers. With the unparalleled access to information at our fingertips, honesty and transparency in any sales transaction will not only be expected but verified. Service providers will need to differentiate their service offerings more than ever before. With this, greater emphasis will be placed on ease and convenience. Millennial consumers are accustomed to the immediacy of reward so I believe this will be a need that will be catered to in the future.
Two trends that I see growing in popularity, which I too am a catalyst for, are virtual reality and augmented reality. The use of these systems in facets of real estate, in particular, is fascinating. From using these to provide greater convenience and higher customer service to the basic entertainment. One of the companies I run, Ogulo is active in that space providing users with the ability to DIY solution for real estate professionals to create virtual reality walkthroughs of their listings. This system provides a greater level of experience and convenience for the end user.
Coming from a user, creator, and service provider perspective, I would advise anyone who will be consumer or supplier of service (virtually anyone in business) should challenge themselves to get educated on these technologies and their future market, to explore ways to integrate this technology for their future success and sustainability.
Contact Info:
- Address: 7949 E. Acoma Dr.
Suite 211 - Website: ogulo.com
- Phone: 6023880129
- Email: raul@ogulo.com
- Instagram: ogulousa
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OguloUSA/
Image Credit:
Raul Guevar
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