Innovating with AI
Learning what it takes to extend an established software business with AI-assisted development.
The next chapter →Steve Hundley · Innovator & entrepreneur
Bring vision
to reality.
A real-estate operator turned innovator. Three decades of turning firsthand business experience into products—and continuing to imagine what comes next.
Tips, ideas and lessons from the lab. An invitation to imagine, innovate and bring vision to reality.
A few chapters
in the storyDocuCoderWinForms OnlineeRealtorFASTWebTheGenie
in the storyDocuCoderWinForms OnlineeRealtorFASTWebTheGenie
From the Lab / A new conversation
I’ve been quiet.
I haven’t stopped innovating.
I’ve spent a long stretch in the lab—working on the ideas, systems and products that have kept me curious.
Now I want to share more of that work: what I’m learning, what has changed my thinking, and ideas that might help you see new possibilities for your business.
Read the opening noteInside the lab / Current focus
What I’m
exploring now.
Notebook updated .
Current directions—not product-release announcements.
Connected ideas
TheGenie ecosystem: distinct products, shared information and work that connects the business.
Explore the ecosystem →Opening the notebook
Reconnecting through stories, questions and lessons from decades of innovation.
Read the opening note →01 / The point of view
Start with
the business.
My passion is helping real-estate mega teams. The challenge connects brand, people, marketing, lead management and accountability. The technology needs to serve the whole operation.
“We model the software after the business.”Steve Hundley
My real-estate career began in 1985, and I remain licensed today. I also led a mega team. Expired listings and a repeatable open-house system were the foundation. My father helped me build my own CRM to run that operation. Only later did I recognize the value of the automation itself.
That experience shaped how I approach invention: understand what the business needs to do, then imagine the systems that could help it grow. The answer may not fit an existing software category.
Motivated by doubt. Grounded in firsthand experience. Bring vision to reality.
Read the philosophy02 / Companies & innovations
Vision.
Made real.
A consultancy. Companies. Platforms that changed how people work. Enterprise transformation. Consumer platforms. Education. Selected chapters in a career of bringing vision to reality.
Explore the full storyA defining chapter / First American Title
Enterprise-scale
innovation.
Helping an established title company enter the digital era.
I helped establish First American’s Interactive Division—connecting title, credit and property information to a new generation of online systems.
The work went beyond an application. It brought people, platforms and new ways of working together across an established enterprise.
Interactive DivisionFASTWebProperty information
Explore the First American chapter 
Company / Consultancy
iStrategy
Ideas, innovation and information—with a strategy for bringing them to reality. The consultancy at the beginning of the story.
The company story
Company / Early chapter
The Hundley Group
An early company in my story. A chapter in the work of connecting business, technology and new possibilities.
Explore the chapterDocuCoder
Innovation / Document workflows
DocuCoder
Connecting a scanned document with a transaction platform. An early step toward making information flow with the work.
Explore the innovation
Innovation / Forms & infrastructure
WinForms Online. ZipForms Online.
More than putting a form on a screen. A forms SDK and the infrastructure to bring an industry’s real-estate paperwork online.
Behind the forms
Platform / Consumer real estate
ZipRealty
My company developed the first three versions of ZipRealty’s platform for Sequoia and ZipRealty’s owners—taking an MLS-connected brokerage online and navigating the access, compliance and market-by-market rules behind it.
Explore the platformeRealtor
Innovation / Transaction platform
eRealtor
A transaction platform, an intellectual-property license to Realtor.com, and the work of bringing the pieces together.
The platform story
Company / Real-estate technology
1parkplace
Real-estate websites, marketing and operating systems. A company shaped by firsthand knowledge of agents, teams and the way they work.
Explore the companyUCLA Extension& AFI
Education / Thought leadership
From practice to the classroom.
Teaching digital-media and career-development topics at UCLA Extension and the American Film Institute. Helping others see what new tools could make possible.
The teaching chapter
Platform / Connected ecosystem
TheGenie
The Command family, GeoSocial, TitleGenie and Paisley—connected through one ecosystem, with new innovations including Ask Paisley and PriceAlign.
Explore the ecosystemThe path to here
A career of
connecting dots.
The history matters because the ideas came from doing the work—then imagining a better way.
- 1985
Real estate first
The agent and mega-team experience that shaped the questions.
- 1990s
Sharing the possibilities
Digital-media teaching at UCLA Extension and AFI.
- 1995
iStrategy begins
A company devoted to bringing vision to reality.
- 1996–2005
Ideas become platforms
FASTWeb, ZipRealty development and the eRealtor chapter.
- 2010–2011
Books and conversations
Leveraging Your Links and the Real Estate Marketing Summit.
- Today
Still innovating
TheGenie ecosystem, AI-assisted innovation and the next idea.
03 / Innovating with AI
Innovate.
Learn.
Share.
My latest learning is happening inside a business I know well: my own. I’m exploring how AI-assisted development can extend an established software platform and bring new ideas into use.
My longer-term ambition is to help other companies make that transition, drawing on the results and lessons of the work I’m doing now.
Read about the next chapterFrom the Lab / Steve’s notebook
The latest ideas.
The longer story.
Invention stories, business-first thinking and lessons from work in progress. A place to keep the conversation current.
Explore From the LabOpening note
I’ve been quiet. I haven’t stopped innovating.
Why I’m opening the notebook—and what I want this next conversation to be.
Read the noteOrigin story
The open-house system that started my innovation story.
Expired listings, host questionnaires and a custom CRM developed with my father.
Read the notePoint of view
Innovation starts with the business.
Start with what needs to work better. Then imagine the technology that could make it possible.
Read the noteYour next chapter
What are you
imagining?
A better way to run your business. A problem nobody has solved for you. An idea that won’t leave you alone.
Start with what you want to make possible. Let’s explore the conversation from there.
Bring me your ideaIdeas, partnerships and meeting requests. No account needed.
Speaking & conversations