Balancing Risk and Reward in Real Estate Tech: A Conversation with CINC CEO Alvaro Erize

What happens when a fast-growing startup gets acquired by a Fortune 500 company? How do you keep employees motivated when the finish line disappears? And what does it look like to completely rethink your pricing model after a decade in business?

Alvaro Erize, CEO of CINC, tackled these questions and more in a recent conversation on the SaaS Scaling Secrets podcast.

The conversation covered everything from managing culture through an acquisition to testing a bold new pricing model that shares risk between the platform and its clients. Here's what real estate professionals need to know.

An Unconventional Path to Real Estate Tech

Alvaro's route to becoming a SaaS CEO wasn't typical. He started his first company at 16, importing comic books to his home country in Argentina. He later ran an auto parts company that supplied Toyota, consulted at Bain, and eventually joined a private equity firm that firm invested in CINC in 2015.

Alvaro fell in love with the business. When CINC was sold to Fidelity in 2016, he joined as COO and has been leading the company ever since.

His staying power surprised everyone, including his wife, who refused to move from San Francisco to Atlanta for a full year because she assumed he'd return to private equity. Ten years later, he's still there.

Life After the Acquisition: Three Hard Lessons

When the conversation turned to what it's like running a company after it's been acquired, Alvaro didn't sugarcoat it. While the relationship with Fidelity turned out to be positive, giving CINC the financial support and long-term view that private equity can't provide, three areas proved more challenging than expected.

Clients worry you've"gone corporate"

The day after the acquisition closed, competitors started telling prospects that CINC had sold out. "You just got sold. These guys have no soul anymore. You need to get out of therebefore they get corporatized." Even today, Alvaro occasionally hears from clients who say the company has changed, despite the fact that he's the sameCEO with the same leadership team.

His solution has been to stay visible. Show up, work directly with clients, and let them see that nothing fundamental has changed. Over time, the perception fades.

Employees lose the finish line

This was the challenge Alvaro found hardest. In a startup racing toward an exit, everyone has equity and is focused on one goal: make it to the finish line and cash out. The work is intense, but it feels temporary. There's an event on the horizon.

After the acquisition, that dynamic disappears. Employees have been paid to different degrees. But there's no next event to rally around. The question shifts from "when do we exit?" to "why am I still here?"

Alvaro described the tension:"How do you say no, wait, there's not another event. This is a marathon, not a race. We need to think long-term for our clients and employees, but wealso want to keep the intensity and passion we've had so far. Was that passion economically driven, or do we really believe in this business?"

He learned several lessons the hard way:

• Be ready to lose people. Some will leave immediately after an acquisition.Trying to retain everyone can hurt the company more than letting them go.
• Don't let guilt keep people around. Alvaro regrets the cases where employees stayed out of misplaced loyalty when they really wanted to leave. "It doesn't go well," he said.
• Money won't fix unhappiness. Retention offers rarely work. As Alvaro put it,"People leave people, they don't leave companies."
• Move faster on transitions. Looking back, Alvaro wishes the post-acquisition transition had taken six to eight months instead of dragging on for one to two years. More explicit conversations would have helped everyone get clarity faster.

He shared a specific example: a talented developer who had been pushed into a leadership role but didn't enjoy it. After the acquisition, the developer asked to move back to being an individual contributor because he hated the corporate IT processes. Alvaro agreed, not wanting to lose the talent. But it didn't work out. The developer was still frustrated, and he was still a leader whether he had the title or not. Both agreed later that parting ways six months earlier would have been better for everyone.

The relationship with new owners

Interestingly, this was the areaAlvaro worried about most but where he had the fewest problems. Fidelity gave CINC room to operate while providing financial backing and a perspective that private equity can't match. "We're able to run the business how we like it, but at the same time under that umbrella and protection," Alvaro explained.

Why Brutal Transparency Works

Throughout the conversation, atheme kept emerging: Alvaro's commitment to what he calls "brutal transparency." Whether dealing with employees, clients, or acquisitions, his approach is to be direct about what he knows and what he doesn't.

During the sale process toFidelity, CINC held 40 management meetings in three weeks. All of them took place in the company's boardroom, where employees could see what was happening.The message was clear: "We're undergoing a process. We cannot take our eyeoff the ball. If our performance slips, that's going to be bad for everyone.The value of your equity depends on our performance over the next two months.Anything that goes wrong could make your equity worth 30% less."

That transparency extended to acquisitions CINC made later. After acquiring Tiger Leads, Alvaro brought all the clients in on day one and told them the platform would shut down in 18months. "That shouldn't scare you," he said. "I have a year to convince you that CINC is better. I'm going to do improvements. You have 18months, so the rug is not coming out from under your feet. And if I can't convince you, you have a year to look for your replacement."

80% of those clients are still with CINC today.

The same approach applied to employees. "This platform will not exist in 18 months. CINC is a growing company. If you want to move to CINC, great. If not, you have a year to look." People decided on different timelines, some leaving right away, some six months later. But they all worked well while they were there because expectations were clear.

As Alvaro put it: "Companies that hide intentions or change their minds along the way create disasters. Just rip the bandaid off."

Rethinking the Business Model: Who Should Bear the Risk?

The conversation then shifted to one of CINC's most interesting experiments: testing a new pricing model after running the business the same way for a decade. To understand why this matters, Alvaro first explained how CINC traditionally makes money.

Unlike most CRMs that charge per user,CINC charges a flat platform fee plus marketing spend. The marketing spend generates leads that flow into your CRM. It's not just software; it's your entire go-to-market system.

The challenge? Real estate transactions take time. You might not close your first deal for six months.During that period, you're carrying significant fixed costs before seeing any return. The agent bears all the risk.

Zillow offers the opposite model with Zillow Flex: pay nothing upfront, but give Zillow 35-40% of your commission when you close. Zillow takes all the risk.

But there's a catch. When the platform takes all the risk, it needs to control the outcome. Zillow becomes the gatekeeper. They decide who gets access to leads and dictate how agents work. As Alvaro put it: "I'm a libertarian and I think the math supports me. Central government is always less efficient. Zillow does its best, but it's still a worse service than when you have individual agents involved throughout the whole life of the client, not just at the end."

So CINC started testing a third option: a hybrid model known as CINC Prime.

How the Prime Hybrid Model Works

Instead of paying a larger sum per month, agents can choose to pay a lower amount per month and then share roughly19% of the commission when they close deals from CINC-generated leads.

Alvaro explained the philosophy: "It's a question of who should be taking risk. Clients still have skin in the game, so I don't need to decide if I want to take you as a client. You're paying enough that if you believe in yourself, I believe in you.I don't need to judge. But at the same time, let me share some of that burden and some of that risk so that long-term, we're in this together."

The benefits for agents:

• Lower upfront costs reduce risk, especially important when markets are volatile or you're just getting started
• You maintain control of your business
• Cash flow aligns better; you pay more when you're actually making money
• CINC wins when clients win. That keeps the focus on helping them close more deals
• CINC can invest more time, strategy, and resources into clients’ success because there’s shared upside when they perform
• The model attracts agents who believe in their own ability to convert, which raises the overall performance standard inside the platform.

The benefits for CINC:

• CINC wins when clients win. That keeps the focus on helping clients close more deals
• CINC can invest more time, strategy, and resources into clients’ success because there’s shared upside when they perform
• The model attracts agents who believe in their own ability to convert, which raises the overall performance standard inside the platform.

Alvaro was candid about why this matters from a business perspective. In traditional SaaS, to prevent churn, you keep investing more in clients. You add more customer service, more features, more support. Your margins get thinner, and the only thing you get in return is that they don't leave. With the hybrid model, CINC can invest knowing that if clients succeed, there's shared upside beyond just retention.

Early Results from the New Model

When Alvaro first told his team they were testing this model, there was fear and panic. They'd run the business the same way for 10 years. Why change now?

The results surprised him:

• 60% of new clients are choosing the risk-sharing option
• Retention rates for those clients have increased

Alvaro's Operating Philosophy

Near the end of the conversation, the host asked Alvaro a series of rapid-fire questions about his habits and influences. His answers revealed a consistent philosophy:

On learning: "I don't read many business books or podcasts. I think we learn by doing.Sometimes we spend more time looking for input than actually doing. I just go,we do, and if we fail, we do again."

On helpful habits: "I'min the office three to four days a week. I love the people I work with, and it's very hard for me to work without being there. If you want to have an argument with me, which I enjoy very much, it's always in person. Let's put it on the board, and that's where we'll get the best work done."

On his biggest influence: "My mother was a businesswoman and politician in Argentina. She taught me never to expect anything from life or from anyone. You work and you earn everything, and sometimes life is unfair. No one ever said life should be fair, so just go at it."

On persistence vs. rigidity: "Don't give up. At the same time, my biggest thing I have to fight against is doing things as I've always done them and that aversion to risk. I try to force myself to just try it, and if it doesn't work, we usually try two or three times before we really give up."

What Real Estate Teams Can Take Away

• Ask about risk-sharing options. If high upfront costs are keeping you from investing in better tech, platforms are starting to test models that lower your fixed costs in exchange for sharing in your success.
• Watch for transparency. When evaluating platforms, especially those that have been acquired, pay attention to whether leadership is direct about what's changing and what isn't.
• Action beats analysis. Whether you're adopting new technology or trying a new approach to your business, you'll learn more from trying and adjusting than from endlessly researching the perfect solution.
• Understand who bears the risk. Every pricing model is fundamentally about who takes on risk. Make sure you understand what you're signing up for and whether the trade-offs make sense for your situation.

The full conversation between Dan Danowski and Alvaro Erize covers more ground on navigating acquisitions, building company culture, and the future of real estate technology. For teams looking to scale, it's worth understanding how platforms like CINC are evolving to better align with how agents actually work and get paid. Listen to the full podcast here.