The Story
Pauline Clavelloux, 33, built IACrea (Virtual Staging AI) - an AI-powered virtual staging product for real estate agents - despite having zero experience in real estate. She grew it to $8,638/month as a side hustle while working other jobs.
The product helps real estate agents digitally furnish empty rooms within seconds using AI. Traditional home staging is expensive and time-consuming. Virtual staging with AI costs a fraction of the price and delivers results instantly.
What makes Pauline's story unique is that she entered an industry she knew nothing about. She learned everything from scratch by immersing herself in real estate communities and listening to what agents actually needed.
Key Insights
Building in an Unfamiliar Industry
- •Had zero real estate experience
- •Learned by joining communities where agents hang out
- •Simply answered questions related to virtual staging
- •Posted about new product improvements
- •"About 30% of our revenue comes from these communities"
The Product
- •AI-powered virtual staging for real estate
- •Upload empty room photos → Get virtually staged images
- •Results in seconds (vs. days with traditional staging)
- •Starting at $16/month for 6 images
- •Unlimited regenerations included
Why Virtual Staging Works
- •82% of buyers say staging helps visualize property as future home
- •Staged homes sell faster
- •Homes with virtual staging sell for more on average
- •Traditional staging costs thousands; AI staging costs dollars
Growth Strategy
Community Marketing (30% of revenue)
- •Joined real estate Facebook groups and subreddits
- •Answered questions genuinely (not spammy promotion)
- •Posted about product improvements
- •Built trust before selling
Partnership Strategy (20% of revenue)
- •Partnered with real estate professionals who don't sell houses
- •Photographers, coaches, consultants
- •They recommend IACrea to their agent clients
- •Win-win referral relationships
Personal Brand on Twitter
- •Grew to 18K+ followers
- •Tweets daily about data science, entrepreneurship, SaaS
- •Shares successes, failures, and story
- •Audience doesn't overlap with IACrea customers directly
- •But helps with backlinks, referrals, finding talent
- •"When I needed a freelancer, I got 300 applications in my DMs"
SEO Focus
- •Building for long-term organic traffic
- •People outside social circle can find the product
- •Tried ads but they didn't work (yet)
Retention Strategy
- •Higher quality product than competitors
- •Develops features requested by users
- •Low churn through customer satisfaction
- •Continuous improvement based on feedback
Influencer Marketing Challenge
- •Considered influencer marketing
- •Couldn't find influencers for real estate agents specifically
- •Real estate influencers show fancy houses to individuals, not agents
- •"The influencer's audience needs to match the target customer"
Business Numbers
- •$8,638/month MRR (growing)
- •Part of Harvard Innovation Labs
- •4,500+ monthly paid subscribers (industry-wide for virtual staging AI)
- •Over half a million renders per month (industry)
- •Bootstrapped to $1M ARR in 10 months (industry leader)
Key Lessons
- •You don't need industry experience to build for an industry
- •Communities are goldmines for customer acquisition
- •Partnerships with adjacent professionals work well
- •Personal brand helps even if audience doesn't overlap
- •Quality product + requested features = low churn
Key Advice
- •Enter unfamiliar industries by listening first
- •Answer questions genuinely in communities
- •Partner with professionals who serve your target market
- •Build personal brand for indirect benefits
- •Focus on product quality for retention
Resources
- •IACrea: https://www.iacrea.com/
- •Follow Pauline: https://x.com/paulineclavell