The story / Steve Hundley
A career of innovating around
what could be.
Innovator. Entrepreneur. Educator. A founder motivated by doubt and drawn to possibilities that haven’t been imagined yet.
I’m Steve Hundley. I’m interested in the idea that hasn’t been imagined yet—and the one someone says can’t be done.
I’ve been licensed in real estate since 1985, and I still hold that license today. I also led a real-estate mega team. That experience as an agent and team leader is a big part of why I’m focused on innovating for real estate.
My listing-generation specialty was expired listings, learned with the guidance of my mentor, Phil Archer. More listings gave me more opportunities to hold open houses—and I built a system to make that work at scale.
The system started
with my own open houses.
House presentation, lighting, curb appeal, balloons and host preparation were all part of the process. Hosts asked visitors questions and brought their questionnaires back to me.
My father, a COBOL engineer at Honeywell, helped me develop a computer program and database to organize that information—my own CRM, built to run my business. I ranked prospects by motivation, kept the most motivated for my own business, and referred the less-motivated prospects to other agents.
At the time, I was making it possible to run my business. I hadn’t yet recognized how valuable the automation itself could be. That realization came later, and I became more interested in developing systems than continuing to run the same operation. That is where my technology story begins.
Read the open-house origin story
August 21, 1995.
The company begins.
I registered iStrategy and started the company on August 21, 1995. The ideas grew from a business I knew firsthand.
I remember MLS books in the office, curling printouts that could turn black in a hot car, dot-matrix output and later online access. I also remember bulky car phones giving way to smaller handsets. The tools changed, and my work evolved with them.
From documents
to connected platforms.
My innovation history includes DocuCoder’s document-to-transaction workflow, bringing forms online through WinForms Online and ZipForms Online, and inventing the transaction technology later named eRealtor.
I licensed that technology to Realtor.com and led the integration work. My company developed the first three versions of ZipRealty’s platform for Sequoia and ZipRealty’s owners. I also helped establish First American’s Interactive Division, where the work included FASTWeb.
These were collaborative efforts. A fuller archive will make room for the people, decisions and turning points behind each one.
The Hundley Group.
An earlier chapter.
One of my early companies was The Hundley Group. Its work connected web and multimedia development, database-backed systems, business strategy and training.
Alongside that work, I taught students to plan and create interactive presentations for the internet in the UCLA Extension/IBM Media Lab.
Explore the historical chapter
Ideas also need
a place to be shared.
I taught at UCLA Extension and the American Film Institute during the 1990s. I co-authored Leveraging Your Links with Allan Dalton and hosted the Real Estate Marketing Summit at the Hotel del Coronado.
Teaching, writing and bringing people together have been part of the same story: exploring what is possible and helping an idea take shape.
Innovate around
the business.
My passion is helping mega teams. I know the challenges of protecting a brand, developing agents, managing leads and maintaining accountability as the operation grows. I start with what the business needs to do, then imagine the technology that could help—not just what is already available to buy.
The companies.
The connected products.
iStrategy is the parent company for 1parkplace and TheGenie. To me, the “i” can stand for innovation, ideas and information. Strategy follows from what we imagine.
TheGenie brings together the Command family, GeoSocial audiences, TitleGenie and Paisley. Products can retain their own identity and offer while connecting through the platform. New work includes Ask Paisley and PriceAlign; each has its own development and availability path. This is part of the broader iStrategy story, not the whole of it.
Explore the iStrategy storyAn early influence / Alain Pinel & NeXT
Real-estate knowledge.
New possibilities.
My connection to Apple’s spirit of innovation has a personal chapter.
I was brought into the team as a thought leader and real-estate subject-matter expert for Alain Pinel’s early technology initiative. The first office I’m recalling was in Los Gatos, California.
The work involved NeXT, the computer company Steve Jobs founded after leaving Apple. Jobs was involved, and our paths crossed, though ours wasn’t an everyday working relationship.
My former manager had left to help start Alain Pinel. I brought my experience in real estate to the team’s work on cutting-edge—and sometimes bleeding-edge—systems that would help agents stand apart in their market.
That pursuit of what could come next is part of why Apple continues to inspire me.
The next chapter / Learning through innovation
Innovating with AI.
A reason to keep learning.
The business comes first. The tools continue to change.
I’m now exploring AI-assisted development inside my own business. The work involves extending a legacy platform, understanding how its many parts connect, and bringing new products into use.
What people call “vibe coding” is part of that exploration. For me, the challenge is larger than generating code: making the work fit the business and learning from what happens when people use it.
My ambition is to help other companies make that transition, once I can demonstrate the business results behind it. I want the lessons I share to come from work I’ve done and outcomes I can show.
That connects to an earlier part of my career: teaching, writing and bringing people together around new possibilities.
In Steve’s words
“I’m motivated
by doubt.”
That is the starting point for this next chapter: telling the stories behind the ideas, sharing what went into making them real, and keeping space for the ideas still to come.
Selected milestones
Not a straight line.
A continuing thread.
Real estate, education, software and the pursuit of a new idea. Selected milestones from a career that continues to evolve.
A continuing real-estate foundation
Steve became licensed in real estate in 1985 and says he continues to hold his license. His experience as an agent and mega-team leader informs his focus on real-estate applications.
The early brokerage years
Steve’s early brokerage career included Coldwell Banker, Fox and Carskadon, and Century 21. His real-estate license continues beyond these brokerage years.
Teaching through the digital-media transition
UCLA Extension faculty work and American Film Institute instruction, including career-development and digital-media topics. The roles overlapped and had different end dates.
iStrategy: the company begins
Steve dates the registration of iStrategy and the founding of his company to this day. His work with First American’s Interactive Division also begins during 1995.
FASTWeb
FASTWeb emerged from Steve’s work within First American’s Interactive Division.
ZipRealty platform development
Leading the first three platform versions, followed by recruiting and training the internal team.
The eRealtor chapter
An intellectual-property license to Realtor.com and integration of the transaction platform.
A book and a gathering place
Leveraging Your Links and the Real Estate Marketing Summit. Contemporary announcements document the 2010 and 2011 Hotel del Coronado events.
TheGenie ecosystem
An operating platform spanning the Command family, GeoSocial audience generation, TitleGenie and Paisley AI, with new products and capabilities continuing to develop.
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