PropUp and Fortress OS Announce Residential Maintenance Partnership

Maintenance software firm PropUp announced Tuesday that it has concluded a partnership agreement with Fortress OS, a national property management system and developer of affordable housing-focused multifamily and commercial operations software.

The partnership will provide PropUp’s open application program interface (API) for maintenance and facilities work to property managers on Fortress OS’s operating platform. Multifamily and single-family industry provider PropUp’s operational tools for maintenance, unit inspections and work orders will integrate into Fortress OS’s platform. 

“We think similarly about the multifamily space, understanding that it’s better to build an open ecosystem of software than it is to try to be everything to everyone,” William Gottfried, CEO at PropUp, said about the partnership. “When as a software provider you start moving away from your core features and what you do best, you end up delivering an inferior product. So what Fortress is doing is embracing that open ecosystem approach and looking to integrate with providers like PropUp.”

The financials of the partnership were unclear. PropUp will offer preferred pricing to Fortress OS when it sells the software as a service (SaaS) company’s product, said Gottfried. 

“The reason that our software is so popular is the strength of that integration, the data feedback to and from the property management system, and that we’ve built a very user-friendly system,” Gottfried said. “It’s deep in its feature set, but it’s very easy to use because we, and me specifically, are property managers. We are from the multifamily world. I am an owner-operator, and I understand the space better than others.”

Founded in 2019 and headquartered in Austin, Texas, PropUp provides tools to centralize maintenance operations. In the new partnership, PropUp clients will be able to benefit from Fortress OS’s interface to better automate workflow and streamline operations.

Gottfried describes PropUp deliberately as an SaaS business. “While I appreciate artificial intelligence — and I’m not an AI cynic — I am an AI skeptic. There’s a lot of smoke and mirrors around AI right now. It’s obviously the latest buzzy trend for now a couple of years, and it’s very easy for startups and software providers to claim they are an AI solution to drum up business, but when it comes to delivering on those tools they can’t. It’s fugazi.

“Not only do we have this airtight partnership with the best maintenance facility software, it’s got all the features that you could ever want at the best possible pricing.”

Fortress OS also sees the partnership with PropUp as empowering its clients to manage properties more effectively, using access to smarter data and easy integration, and powering real-time visibility and automated workflows to improve customer outcomes.

“We built Fortress OS to break the mold of traditional closed-off systems,” said Kerri Davis, CEO at Fortress OS. “Our open API gives clients the freedom to plug in the tools they love, like PropUp, curating a custom ecosystem for their business. We are thrilled to partner with Will and his team to bring best-in-class maintenance capabilities into our ecosystem, furthering our mission to help operators rent better with connected systems, quality data, and the flexibility they deserve.”

Philip Russo can be reached at prusso@commercialobserver.com.