Company Name: Op2mize
Executive Name: Geoffrey M. Kasselman
Title: Founder/President
Product/Services: Commercial real estate transaction and advisory services
Company Size: Less than $1 million; three employees with two more coming
Web Site: http://www.op2mize.com

ITA: In about 10 words, what pain does Op2mize solve?
Geoffrey Kasselman: “Digitized” space coupled with energy efficiency means an optimized real estate experience.

ITA: What motivated you to join Op2mize?
GK: In 2004, a I took a two-week tour of next-generation real estate developments throughout Asia. I was so flustered by what I saw and learned that I went back again in 2005 to confirm what I saw.

This ignited the vision for delivering a new bundle of real estate services that harnesses the knowledge of the past (real estate fundamentals) with the unprecedented power (intelligent or high-performance infrastructure) and needs (energy efficiency and environmental sensitivity) of the future.

All the building intelligence and sustainability in the world cannot mask a bad real estate deal. Real estate fundamentals still rule the day.

ITA: How does Op2mize differentiate from its competitors?
GK: We provide these transaction and advisory services bundled or a la carte with unique skills and resources. We have a vision and passion for creating more value for our clients than they could otherwise achieve.

This gives us the ability to secure large projects such as the DuPage National Technology Park. We are also a Cisco-registered partner, which gives us access to Cisco’s vast ecosystem of contacts and resources.

ITA: How does Op2mize make money?
GK: We earn commissions on the transaction work we do and consulting fees from a variety of projects. We do much of our transaction work locally. Our building intelligence and sustainability projects do not have geographical boundaries. We also have a few new partnerships that should drive revenue to our bottom line almost as soon as they are officially announced.

ITA: How has your sector evolved over the last five years?
GK: The commercial real estate sector has been notoriously slow to change with the Internet economy. The drivers haven’t been there. The commercial real estate sector is grotesquely profitable just the way it is and has been for some time.

The key players – the users, the lenders and even the owners – are simply not demanding broad change (at least not yet). In this regard, we are slightly ahead of the curve and can capitalize on the shift. This is already occurring as a result of the recent “green” movement.

ITA: How is Op2mize funded?
GK: We are 100 percent funded from cash flow from operations and have been from day one. We have been approached by various players and also feel the need to scale more quickly. We are studying this closely at the moment.

ITA: What are the biggest challenges you face as an Illinois-based information technology company?
GK: Hiring the right people, balancing our external client services needs with our own internal growth curve and selling services to “analog” decision makers who do not yet assign the same value to technology that we do.

ITA: What are your thoughts in general related to the Illinois information technology community?
GK: It is the “third coast,” no? There is so much talent, capability and resource here. We fully believe that the Illinois technology community should be an international destination unto itself. We are prepared to support this notion.

ITA: How much of your work force is based in Illinois?
GK: 100 percent (though we will soon have partners on both coasts).

ITA: Are there any plans to get into industries beyond your current core?
GK: Yes. We are exploring complementary services such as network and infrastructure design, building automation and operating systems, monitoring and compliance, back-end operations and mostly notably private equity investment on our own behalf to capitalize on the value creation formula we currently provide to others.