The Developers Who Hate Sytes Usually Get It

I'll admit something: some developers absolutely hate Sytes.

Honestly, I get why.

Commercial real estate has always been an information business, and some of the most valuable information has historically lived inside private networks. Who's expanding, where they're looking, which tenants are open to a particular market, and who actually has a relationship with the people making real estate decisions are all pieces of knowledge that can take years to build.

For many developers, that network is part of their competitive advantage. So when they see a platform like Sytes, the first reaction can be excitement. They see a new way to discover tenant demand, identify potential matches, and get their sites in front of expanding brands. Then one of their existing tenants joins the platform.

That's often when the conversation changes.

"Now every developer on Sytes can send deals to that tenant."

Exactly.

That's the point.

For years, access to tenants has often depended on who you knew. If you had the right relationship, you might hear about an expansion plan early and have a chance to bring a site to the table. If you didn't, you might never know that tenant was looking in your market at all, even if you controlled the perfect property.

The problem is that relationships don't necessarily make the best deals. Sometimes they simply determine who gets the first phone call.

That's what Sytes is designed to change.

When a tenant makes its real estate requirements visible, it can get in front of landlords and developers who may have never heard of the brand or known that it was looking in their market. Yes, that means more people can submit opportunities to that tenant. It also means the tenant gets access to a much larger universe of potential sites.

From the tenant's perspective, that's difficult to argue with. If you're expanding into a market, why would you want your deal flow limited to the handful of developers who already know you?

The same applies to developers.

Some of the best developers I've met aren't necessarily the best networkers in the room. They may not have spent decades taking every tenant rep to dinner or building the kind of personal Rolodex that opens doors automatically. What they're exceptionally good at is finding dirt, understanding markets, and identifying sites that can become great developments.

Historically, those developers could still lose opportunities simply because they didn't have the right tenant relationship.

With Sytes, the process can work differently. A developer can upload a site and immediately see which tenants are actively looking for properties that match its characteristics and market. Instead of starting with a massive prospect list and guessing who might be interested, the platform can surface tenants with actual requirements that align with the opportunity. From there, the developer can send the deal directly.

That doesn't eliminate the value of relationships. If anything, it makes the relationships that remain more valuable because they can be focused on getting deals done rather than simply gaining access to information.

And yes, I understand why that threatens certain developers.

If your primary competitive advantage is being one of the few people who knows a tenant is expanding, more transparency is naturally going to feel uncomfortable. But commercial real estate shouldn't be a contest to see who can hide useful information the longest. The better question is who can actually create the best deal once the information is available.

The developers who are best at finding sites should have a better chance to put those sites in front of tenants. The tenants with serious expansion plans should have access to opportunities beyond their existing network.

That's the marketplace we're trying to build.

You can be the best schmoozer in the world and still miss the right piece of dirt. You can also be incredible at finding real estate and still lose a deal because you never knew the tenant was looking.

Sytes doesn't eliminate competition.

It changes what developers are competing on.

And in my opinion, that's where things get interesting.