While studying business and entrepreneurship at Brigham Young University between 2000 and 2003, Dave Bateman soon realized he may be pursuing the wrong career.
After learning how to implement server-side PHP applications, Bateman discovered his passion for coding and system implementation. Naturally, it wasn’t long before he began dreaming of starting his own software company. Little did he know how close he was to achieving this.
“That desire became more of a goal and something I thought about on a daily basis until I made the difficult decision to leave school and launch Property Solutions in 2003,” Bateman tells The Software Report.
Launched out of Provo, Utah, Property Solutions offered a variety of web-based software tools for leasing, rent collection, marketing, and management, built upon a unified platform-as-a-service (PaaS) system. Bateman took it upon himself to code, manage, market, and bootstrap the company to exponential growth.
In the fall of 2007, he launched an India-based corporation called Xento Systems, to strengthen the development of Property Solutions. Xento provided software development services to select third parties and is now one of the largest PHP-focused software development firms in India.
In 2015 he decided it was time for a change. “The decision to rebrand from Property Solutions in 2015 was accompanied with some trepidation,” he admits. Entrata, which means “open” and “portal” was chosen as the company’s new name, signaling a new chapter for Bateman. “In retrospect, the Entrata brand has provided as much of a positive impact as we could have imagined,” he concedes. But the decision wasn’t an easy one. After grappling with a multitude of concerns — “Will clients be on board? Will employees still have the same pride level for the company after it was known as Property Solutions for 12 years? Will it allow the business to reach new heights? — Bateman was relieved to eventually find out that the answer to all his burning questions was in fact, yes.
Today, Entrata’s success is something to behold. Recently surpassing $100 million in recurring annual revenue, Bateman counts this both as “humbling and motivating” as the company presses on to accomplish more. “That achievement feels more remarkable in that we’ve done it without the benefit of venture capital assistance,” he quips. As it stands, Entrata has now integrated more than 20,000 rental communities across the US.
In telling Bateman’s story, it becomes clear that what brought him to the success of Entrata is his own personal passion and drive, but he would tell this story a little differently. “Without your people, you are nothing,” he implores. Great leaders have a knack for team building and rallying their troops, and Bateman is no different. “It all starts [with] not only with having the right people but providing an environment for them to grow, thrive and enjoy coming to work.” Boasting some of the brightest minds in the industry across a wide range of disciplines, Bateman is proud of the organization he’s created. “They are truly a team, and when synchronicity accompanies innovation, that’s where the magic happens.”
