Dealpath Case Study
For me, Dealpath is about enterprise risk management and maximizing our most important asset - our time.
U.S. Restaurant Properties (USRP) is a leading owner and active investor in retail property with a focus on single tenant, net leased restaurants of national brands. The Dallas-based private REIT is led by an experienced executive team and a lean investment staff of five people along with an effective back-office operation.
USRP evaluates hundreds of acquisition opportunities every year and regularly executes multiple deals in parallel. In order to complete the originating and underwriting processes and to close these transactions, they used a myriad of tools including: email, Excel, home-grown databases, and paper (checklists and documents). Communicating and working with these traditional methods was inefficient and ineffective neglecting more important work activities — especially in this increasingly competitive market. Furthermore, working with external service providers and handoffs to asset management personnel caused duplicative efforts and missed value, compounding the need for better collaboration. Too much time, money and energy was being spent on repetitive, administrative tasks and not enough on the value-add work.
Dealpath’s deal management platform is designed for the specific needs of CRE investment teams. By loading deals onto the platform, USRP was able to track their entire deal pipeline regardless of status. Whether the deal is getting evaluated or is in flight, USRP recognized the importance of the deal data that was getting evaluated. By enabling USRP management to view and track their entire deal pipeline on Dealpath, teams were then able to to collaboratively execute deals with the visibility and accountability the firm requires. Not only did the platform allow for frictionless collaboration internally and externally, the platform also powers the day-today work and reporting for the Investment Committee and Board of Directors.
Combining a vast and growing database of deal information with an always-on repeatable process, USRP was able to transition its operating potential to full speed with maximum contribution from the internal investment team and outside service providers. “Dealpath has quickly become my command center…I have Dealpath on one screen and email on the other screen…It’s hard to remember our business before either” said Matt Laatsch (Chief Investment Officer). USRP is able to underwrite more deals, make fewer errors in due diligence and reporting and achieve substantial gains in deal team productivity. Bob Stetson (CEO) described that “for me, Dealpath is about enterprise risk management and maximizing our most important asset – our time.”
