Triplemint went looking for homes that weren’t for sale

There is a peculiar frustration in apartment hunting: the home you want may exist, yet remain invisible. Somebody lives there. Somebody might consider moving. But until that somebody lists it, your beautifully filtered search has nothing to say. Triplemint built a New York brokerage around the possibility that this silence contained useful information.

It is an appealing proposition in a city where an extra bedroom can become a consuming ambition. It also invites a rather awkward question. Once software identifies someone who might sell, what exactly have you found? A home? A lead? Or merely a person who would prefer you stopped calling?

First, the founders had to find apartments

David Walker and Philip Lang were Yale classmates. Their original business, Suitey, began in 2011. For its first two years, it concentrated on rentals, with the founders working as agents themselves. The Triplemint identity arrived in 2013 as the business moved toward sales. The origin matters because the technology grew out of brokerage work: the founders had encountered the process they proposed to improve.

By 2015, the company offered online home search, agent assistance and a concierge moving service. It reported that more than 600,000 home hunters had searched its platform the previous year. That figure measured interest, rather than completed moves. Still, it suggested that a search site could do more than display apartments: it could teach a brokerage what prospective clients wanted.

The listing before the listing

Triplemint’s distinctive wager was premarket access. Its Black Diamond algorithm used public records and consumer data to identify owners thought likely to sell. Development began in 2016; the system debuted in early 2018, according to The Real Deal. The commercial logic was straightforward. If an agent could reach a receptive owner early, a buyer might discover an option missing from the usual search results.

For buyers, this meant looking beyond visible inventory. For sellers, the proposition included reaching relevant buyers and receiving market guidance. For agents, it meant spending less time searching for the next conversation. Triplemint occupied a useful middle ground: more involved in the transaction than a listing portal, with a stronger technology pitch than a conventional neighborhood brokerage.

When the promise outran the product

The early execution was contested. In January 2020, The Real Deal reported that eight former agents and employees described leads being sourced manually during 2015-2017. Triplemint disputed those accounts, explaining that leads passed through a dedicated team for verification. It acknowledged delays to some product launches and said it had hired a new technology chief in 2017 and introduced weekly product updates.

Those accounts deserve to remain separate. Manual verification can be sensible; promising a capability before it is ready creates a different problem. The practical lesson is about expectations. An agent deciding where to work needs to understand what the system delivers today. A future product cannot help with this afternoon’s client.

A rebate loses its charm

Triplemint also reconsidered how to attract customers. By July 2015, Inman reported, it had scrapped buyer rebates. Walker argued that helping higher-end clients buy for less or sell for more mattered more than a rebate. The company was making a positioning choice: compete on the quality and outcome of representation rather than make a discount the headline attraction.

Its early agent model also tried to align service with rewards. Historical reports described salaries, benefits, equity and customer-satisfaction bonuses; its 2017 funding announcement mentioned commissions too. These were brokerage incentives, not evidence that software had eliminated brokerage. Triplemint earned its living around property transactions. The technology was intended to make that service more effective.

“We are redesigning the real estate process around the end consumer.”David Walker · 2017 funding announcement

The map followed the people

The customers were ordinary brokerage customers with unusually consequential shopping lists: renters, buyers, homeowners and people relocating. An agent’s job could include arranging tours, preparing financial documents and helping a household navigate unfamiliar neighborhoods. In a 2017 company interview, agent Phillip Salem described those practical tasks. A search result was only the opening scene.

Expansion carried the same dependence on people. Triplemint entered New Jersey in 2019, the Hamptons in 2020 and Westchester in 2021. Westchester’s launch centered on the Berkowitz Marrone Team, experienced local agents formerly at Douglas Elliman. Walker described a “people-first focus, rather than market-first.” The phrase contained a useful restraint: software could travel faster than local knowledge.

Inside the company, Walker described a culture of openly sharing ideas and supporting teammates. Outside it, recognition arrived: Triplemint ranked No. 325 on the 2017 Inc. 5000. Neither an award nor a culture statement settles the earlier technology dispute. They show a business developing along several tracks at once.

The name changed. The bargain became clearer.

In May 2022, The Agency acquired Triplemint in an all-equity transaction. The companies also announced $35 million in joint growth capital. That number was financing, not a disclosed purchase price. Earlier announced rounds included a $1.65 million seed and a $4.5 million Series A led by DN Capital.

The match offered a concrete exchange. Triplemint brought proprietary technology; The Agency brought its luxury identity and international referral network. By September, Triplemint was The Agency New York. A new website offered saved searches, property portfolios and tour sheets, while a Creative Center supplied agent marketing resources. The product became easier to describe in things an agent could actually use.

What can another business copy? Start by doing the customer’s work. Find information competitors overlook. Be precise about the distance between a promising signal and a usable result. This approach depends on good data, receptive owners and agents who can earn trust. Where those conditions fail, a prediction produces activity without a transaction. Triplemint’s story leaves the reader with a demanding question: after finding the opportunity, who will do the work?