How Pedal is not like ❌ old school brokerages: Part 1

We’re going to try something different. Most weeks, we write about retailing, real estate concepts, processes, clients and cardinal rules…and I don’t think we’ve ever really made Pedal the center of the story. 

Today and for the next few weeks, we’re taking center stage. Which, you may not be surprised to hear, is a perfectly happy place for us seeing as Abby honed her stage skills over many summers at theater camp, and Sheila won the top prize for her persuasive senior speech in 1999. Netflix! Call us!

Anyhow, here’s why we’re going to talk about us.

Pedal is the only commercial real estate brokerage that focuses on independent and start-up retailers. Seriously, Google it, we’ll wait. There is no other brokerage firm in the country that works exclusively with small and first-time retailers on purpose.

This was our “why” from the beginning, and while it felt so obvious to us that the notoriously high failure rate for new retailers has a lot to do with bad real estate and leases, we’re the only company paving a different path – a path toward great real estate and great leases…the first time around.

When we explain our mission to other commercial real estate folk, there are many who get it and applaud it. Those are the people sending retailers our way. To those people: thank you, we love you.

But there are many skeptics and many reasons why we’re the only ones attempting to solve this problem. The disconnect with other CRE professionals usually falls into one of two camps:

🌈 They think we’re do-gooders trying to pay our mortgages with rainbows. This one is always a little puzzling to us. Successful, profitable companies are the ones that help real people solve real problems…which is exactly what we’re doing.


🥗 They think we’re hoping to discover the next sweetgreen. For some reason, sweetgreen is always the example. While we want Pedal Retailers to be fabulously successful and grow as big as they want, we are not hedging the success of our company on whether one of our clients becomes a multi-unit darling, someday ringing the bell on Wall Street. 


We work with new and indie businesses because we believe in the ✨power✨ of new and indie businesses. If our goal were to one day represent big companies, we’d be every other brokerage. Our company and client base may adapt as we grow, but we’re committed to serving the best retailers – the ones who know your shoe size, your preference for Grüner Veltiners, the milk you take in your latte, and just how long you can go in between waxes – the retailers who live in our neighborhoods, send their kids to school with ours, and have historically been shut out of the retail real estate system. 

As a brokerage and advisory firm that actually works for indie retailers, there are four key differences between Pedal and old school brokerages. And over the next four newsletters, we’re taking the mic and explaining them. We could probably write a book on the subject (or make a TV series! Netflix, CALL US!), but we’re going to focus on four main facts:

 1. Our business model is not reliant on lease commissions or equity in our clients’ businesses. Commissions make up less than half of our revenues. We’ve worked hard to achieve this, and we’re working to reduce the share even more. Also, we don’t take ownership stakes in our clients’ businesses. We believe in teaching a man to fish without immediately pulling out our chopsticks demanding sushi.


 2. We know Pedal Retailers’ businesses inside and out. We also know them personally. Because of this, we know exactly how to negotiate the best deals for our clients, and we know how to support them emotionally along the long and winding road of leasing so that the deal gets done.


 3. We will not start touring spaces with Pedal Retailers until they are prepared to transact. We are never entering brokerage for funzies or tire-kicking. Does that feel like a bummer to our clients when they start with us? Sometimes. Are they grateful we did it that way when they sign a sick lease deal? Always.


 4. We prepare our clients to be fully participative in negotiating their deals. Retail real estate education has been central to our brokerage program since day one. Old school brokerage is simply not built for this.


We’ll dig into these over the next four newsletters, and I promise we’ll make them as entertaining as usual. Okay TTYL love you bye.