Christiane Weissenborn in an Investor Interview
Christiane Weissenborn, born in Vienna, grew up speaking three languages – French/German/Italian, attended the Lycée Francais in Vienna and studied psychology in France and then economics in Vienna. After a detour into the fashion industry and advertising in Paris, she returned to Vienna to work as a Marketing Manager at Nestlé Austria.
During her studies she had already discovered her love for architecture and real estate and in 1993 she joined the newly founded Lenikus group of companies, where she was given power of attorney to manage the marketing and sales department. For 25 years now, she has been responsible for project development, furnishing and exploitation. Her successes include the Hotel TOPAZZ, which is currently the most frequently awarded hotel in Austria. In addition, she founded PARKIMMOBILIEN GesmbH in 2006, as property developer and shareholder, with a small team, which mainly develops residential projects in Vienna’s top locations (VILLE VERDE-Wohnen am Schwimmbiotop, THE SHORE-Wohnen an der Donau, THE GREENERY, and many more).
What fascinates you about the real estate industry?
The creative process – from the acquisition of the property, the floor plan and equipment development, the construction supervision and consultation of the users to the handover of the finished apartment: there is so much personal and loving attention to detail about me. And then to see how people accept this and are satisfied with their decision in their new apartment or with the hotels in their hotel room – that makes me very happy. Living and furnishing is something very personal and it is wonderful to support and accompany the future residents in something so important.
How did you get to know Milan Zahradnik? What convinced you about his idea?
Years ago, when we were developing a large residential project, we had the idea of creating a home configurator for our customers, similar to the one you know from the car industry: what does my apartment look like with light tiles, like with dark parquet, with other fittings, etc. and what does it cost more?
The realization of this idea was then put aside by many other things and postponed to later, special requests were handled lovingly but very elaborately.
Milan called us one day, and wanted to present his idea: “PROPSTER”. This was in principle exactly what I had thought of internally, years before! So he really came right on cue…
We got on very well right away – I participated as a business angel out of deep conviction, and was happy to give him many details of the processes and requirements on the property developer and project development side, or essential points for the real estate consulting and the customers, and possible cooperation partners mentioned – so I think we now have a perfect tool – for the real estate developers, as well as for the buyer / user. I am always anxious to anticipate wishes already during the project development. With Propster we have developed a tool that allows us to make your personal dreams come true even after the start of construction – minimizing the effort, maximizing the feel-good factor and fulfilling all design requirements.
Where do you see the future of PROPSTER?
Propster is growing enormously fast. It is one of my start-ups that immediately successfully develops the product further (defect management, cooperation with Roomhero, etc.) – and that with a clear structure, clear processes, comprehensible products. Next steps are internationalization and opening up additional markets. There are no limits to growth. One day you won’t even be able to imagine that individual changes have ever been handled without a propster.
What is your conclusion?
It makes you happy to be part of such a successful story.