Counterparts · Proptech, real estate and technology
We help proptech teams, operators and investors figure out who will actually buy, what to charge, and who to partner with.
Taking one new engagement this quarter.
Previously at Zillow · Opendoor · Realtor.com · UpEquity
01 · Where we come in
Property is physical, regulated and relationship driven. Software changes how it gets found, financed, bought, operated and valued. Almost every expensive mistake we see happens in the gap between those two facts. A good product aimed at a segment that cannot buy it. A partnership signed with a firm that has no distribution. Pricing built for a buyer who does not exist yet.
We have worked both sides of that gap. We read the market first, then the plan.
You are entering a market or segment you do not have a read on.
Pipeline stalls after the first call and nobody can say why.
A partnership or channel is the whole plan and it is not producing.
The story works internally and dies in front of a buyer, an investor or a board.
02 · What we do
Who buys, and who signs
Segment map and target universe. Who actually signs, not who takes the meeting. Pricing checked against what the market pays today. A written list of what has to be true for the plan to work.
What you say, and what you charge
Messaging that survives a real call. Pricing and packaging. The objections you will get and the answers that hold. We build the artifacts too, the deck, the one pager, the site and the screens, so you are not handed a recommendation and left to produce it.
Getting in front of them
Target account list. Outbound sequence, written and running. Partner shortlist, the agreements, and the onboarding that makes them produce instead of sitting idle.
03 · Who this is for
We’re a fit when
You have a product in market and a commercial question you cannot answer internally.
You are a proptech company deciding where to play, how to price, or who to partner with.
You are an operator or investor working through a platform shift or a technology thesis.
You want someone accountable for the outcome, not a deck.
We’re not
A co-founder for a pre-product company.
A pair of hands to send emails.
A way to outsource sales and stop thinking about it.
04 · Track record
Twelve years, both sides of the table.
Single-family acquisitions advised for REITs and private equity funds
Advertising and media revenue managed at Realtor.com
Pipeline growth built from a standing start
Real estate licenses held
Enterprise deals with national REITs at Zillow, Opendoor and Realtor.com. National mortgage broker channels built from nothing at UpEquity, including the master agreements and the onboarding that made them produce. A brokerage run on the ground in southern Thailand.
05 · Selected engagements
A real estate market analytics company
Head of business development, ongoing since July 2026. We are building the commercial function end to end: market and buyer definition, pricing and packaging, the outbound motion, the partner channel, and the sales materials that carry all of it.
An AI workforce startup
First commercial hire. Built go to market from nothing and grew pipeline from $200K to $5M.
06 · How we work
Advisory sprint
Four weeks on one question. Market read, the plan, and the first thing to run. You get a written deliverable, not a conversation. The fee credits toward a retainer if we continue.
Ongoing advisory
We work as your fractional head of business development. Market read, positioning, pipeline and partner work, with the flexibility to go deep where the decision needs it.
Sprints are a fixed fee, scoped to the question. Ongoing advisory is a monthly retainer, ninety day initial term, then month to month. Engagements are sized to the decision, not to hours.
The first ninety days
Weeks 1 to 3
Market and buyer definition
Weeks 4 to 6
Positioning, pricing and the materials
Week 7 onward
The motion running, with your team taking it over
07 · Who you’d be working with
I am Kyle Scholz, founder of Counterparts. Twelve years where real estate and technology meet, at Zillow, Opendoor and Realtor.com, running enterprise partnerships and media revenue. At UpEquity I built national mortgage broker channels from nothing, the master agreements and the onboarding both. A year running a brokerage in southern Thailand taught me how a relationship-led market actually clears.
The short version: we do not need a quarter to learn your market.
08 · Questions
How fast can you start?
Usually within two weeks.
Will you sign an NDA?
Yes, a standard mutual one. Never a non compete.
Do you work with competitors?
No. One engagement per segment at a time, and we will tell you if that changes.
What happens after ninety days?
Month to month, fourteen days notice either side. The goal is that your team can run the motion without us.
09 · Let’s talk
Fifteen minutes, no deck. Tell us where things stand and we will tell you honestly whether we can help, and what we would do first.
Counterparts · Michigan · Proptech, real estate and technology advisory