Dwela responds to the experts

Newly launched home industry website, Dwela.com, is featured in the current edition of Success Magazine. In the five page article, the story of the founding of Dwela is revealed. Founders Josh Fuller and Jesse Chatham, along with Chief Technology Officer, Jeremy Kennedy, are interviewed by writer, Patrick Sauer.

In the article, a number of constructive critiques of the Dwela.com business model are made by Internet industry veterans Matt Cohen, Chris Carfi and Rob Robichaud.

Ron Robichaud, Managing Partner of Robichaud Financial, comments that Dwela’s core business model may certainly appeal to the consumer but that a demographic distinction should be made. "This is an interactive yellow pages and could be useful to the consumer. But they (Dwela.com) should distinguish between services for the person looking to build a home versus the person who is looking to buy an existing home."

CEO, Josh Fuller, agrees. “That is an excellent point. We actually anticipate that as our members really begin to embrace the tools available to them, their profiles and blogs will identify and distinguish their specialties and help the homeowner locate them.”

Matt Cohen, Senior Technologist of Clareity, wonders about Dwela’s overall strategy. "I'm not sure that the ‘connecting' idea is the most compelling aspect of the plan, since real estate professionals usually connect locally via traditional networking techniques and word of mouth."

Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer, Jesse Chatham, disagrees. “We actually feel that with the success of popular networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Linked In, etc., the social networking component is a requirement for a site like ours. The home industry is really the founding father of traditional networking groups such as Business Networking International and the Chamber of Commerce. Creating a marketing directory that connects the members of that directory not only to prospects but to each other as well is only logical.”

And Christopher Carfi, Co-founder Cerado, Inc., warns that the Dwela “Announce Yourself” tool could be used by spammers.

Jeremy Kennedy, Chief Technology Officer, responds: “Our platform actually allows us to monitor this for just that sort of thing. This tool is not only essential for our own rapid growth but is also a compelling component for Dwela pros to utilize when initially growing their community.”

Dwela.com launched in April of 2007. Dwela is an Internet directory for homeowners and a peer to peer networking site for home industry professionals.