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Interviews

Burn the Boats: A Conversation with Mark Richburg of Relevate

Burn the Boats: A Conversation with Mark Richburg of Relevate header image

April 24, 2024

By Arianna Marino

For 40 years, Relevate has been a trusted leader in REALTOR® association and MLS management software, providing innovative solutions that streamline operations, enhance member engagement, and empower staff efficiency. Originally founded as MMSI, the company rebranded as Relevate to better reflect its mission: delivering modern, tech-forward solutions tailored to the evolving needs of real estate organizations. With a focus on automation, seamless integrations, and an intuitive user experience, Relevate continues to revolutionize how associations and MLSs manage their operations. The company’s long-standing Membership Director platform has been a reliable solution for associations and MLSs for decades, providing powerful membership management and operational tools. Building on this strong foundation, Relevate One is the company’s next-generation AMS, SSO, and communications platform—designed from the ground up to meet the needs of modern real estate trade organizations. 

 

At the helm of Relevate is CEO Mark Richburg, a respected leader in the real estate technology space. With 20 years of experience in software development and association management, Richburg has been instrumental in driving Relevate’s innovation and strategic growth. His expertise in building scalable, user-friendly solutions has positioned Relevate as the top choice for associations and MLSs across North America. Under his leadership, the company continues to push the boundaries of what’s possible in association management, ensuring that organizations have the tools they need to thrive in an ever-evolving industry. In our conversation, he tells us more about the behind the scenes of building Relevate One and the impact it’s had on client operations. 



A Mission to Empower

What inspired the name "Relevate," and what does it represent for your brand?

The name "Relevate" comes from a real word that means to restore to good spirits. It can also mean to elevate or lighten someone’s mood. That meaning resonated with us because it perfectly captures what we’re trying to do for REALTOR® associations and MLS organizations. We take teams weighed down by outdated, inefficient technology and elevate them with a modern, seamless platform. Our goal is to remove obstacles, relieve frustration, and restore confidence in the systems that associations and MLSs depend on every day. "Relevate" isn’t just a name—it’s our promise to our clients that we’re here to lift them up and provide technology that works for them, not against them.

 

What was a key moment when you realized Relevate was making a real difference in the industry?

 

A defining moment was onboarding our first beta site for Relevate One. This organization had been using Membership Director, and as we walked their CEO through the new system, she immediately saw the investment we had made in building something better. She started calling in team members, excited to show them features that would replace outdated processes, eliminate inefficiencies, and allow them to drop costly third-party services.

 

For years, they had worked around the limitations of older systems. With Relevate One, they saw how we had listened to client feedback and built a platform that streamlined workflows, improved automation, and gave them more control. That moment reinforced our mission—we’re not just providing software; we’re evolving with our clients, giving real estate trade organizations the tools they need to operate smarter and serve their members better. Seeing their excitement proved we were making a real difference.

 

How has Relevate’s mission evolved alongside technological advancements?

 

Our core mission is to empower real estate trade organizations with cutting-edge, purpose-built technology that streamlines operations, enhances member engagement, and drives long-term success. We are committed to eliminating inefficiencies, simplifying workflows, and providing an adaptable platform that grows alongside our clients—ensuring our clients can focus on what matters most: serving their members and shaping the future of the industry.

 

What vision do you have for Relevate's future?

 

Our vision is to be the trusted partner for operational excellence in real estate trade organizations. We’ve built our platform to integrate association and MLS management with advanced SSO and powerful engagement and communication tools, enabling REALTOR associations and MLS organizations to work smarter and more securely. Our leadership is committed to innovation and staying ahead of industry trends, building a platform that simplifies operations, drives member engagement, and empowers growth.

 

Technology as the Answer

What’s your vision for how technology will transform real estate trade organizations in the next five years?

 

The next five years will be all about automation, integration, AI-driven insights, and data-driven decision-making. Real estate trade organizations are sitting on huge amounts of valuable data, but too often, that data is locked away in outdated systems, making it difficult to analyze and act on. Other AMS vendors often throw away that valuable historical data during a conversion, but at Relevate, we try to keep as much data as we can for our clients. We want to unlock that potential—giving organizations tools that not only centralize their data but also use AI-powered analytics to predict trends, personalize member engagement, and optimize daily operations. 

 

AI will play a major role in reducing manual tasks, improving decision-making, and enhancing the member experience. Imagine an AMS that can anticipate staffing needs, automate complex workflows, and provide real-time insights to help real estate trade organizations make smarter business decisions. Instead of just storing data, AIMEE will actively work for organizations—offering proactive recommendations, automating processes, and delivering the right information at the right time.

 

The future of real estate trade organization management isn’t just about better software—it’s about intelligent, adaptable systems that help organizations stay ahead of industry changes, increase efficiency, and focus on what matters most: serving their members and driving growth. At Relevate, we’re building that future today.

 

What innovative technologies does Relevate leverage?

 

In Relevate One, we adopted MongoDB Atlas, which is a serverless database-as-a-service platform, to serve as our backend data store. The flexibility this gives us is unmatched by any of our competitors—we can store whatever data we or our clients want to store, without needing to rearchitect the database. Wherever it makes the most sense, we can store structured data in tables, and store unstructured data in extremely flexible collections.

 

We are designing our new AI agent to serve as both a reactive chatbot staff can ask questions to and as a proactive recommendation engine. AIMEE, our Artificially Intelligent Member Engagement Expert, can make targeted suggestions to both staff and members for what actions they should take next, what courses or events they should hold or attend, and what types of communications are most effective for different membership segments.

 

What do you see as the biggest shift in the real estate tech landscape over the past year?

 

The biggest shift has been the demand for better reporting and data accessibility. REALTOR® associations and MLS organizations need real-time insights, customized reports, and easier access to key metrics without relying on outdated or disconnected systems.

 

In response, we’ve seen a push for more advanced reporting tools, automation, and integrations that help organizations make data-driven decisions. Relevate One has focused on delivering more flexible reporting, intuitive dashboards, and streamlined workflows to give organizations the visibility they need to operate more efficiently.

 

As membership in associations becomes less of a “requirement,” associations especially need to up their data analytics game to better understand who their most valuable members are, how to connect with them, and keep them engaged so they recognize the value of membership.

 

What industry challenge do you think is currently underestimated but will become critical in the near future?

 

In the near future, those that can elevate data best will be rewarded, but not enough vendors in the industry are acknowledging that. By “elevate data,” we mean elevating data to information, information to knowledge, and knowledge to wisdom. Mining the data that our clients have collected to produce actionable insights that actually result in improved business outcomes. Mashing up data from disparate sources to unlock a previously hidden path forward.

 

What impact do you aim to have on the industry?

 

At our core, we want to eliminate the technology bottlenecks that hold real estate trade organizations back. Too many organizations are stuck using outdated, disjointed systems that create more work than they solve. By giving them a modern, efficient, flexible, and intuitive platform, we help them focus on what really matters—serving their members and growing their organizations’ impact in their local markets.



Client-Centric Strategy

What’s a leadership lesson you’ve learned the hard way?

 

One of the toughest lessons I’ve learned is that not every client is the right fit. Early on, we tried to be everything to everyone, but that stretched us too thin. We’re at our best when we’re focused on serving clients that treat us as partners—that’s where our passion is, and that’s where we make the biggest impact.

 

How do you approach building long-term trust with your clients?

 

Trust isn’t something you get once—it’s something you earn every day. We build trust by being transparent, responsive, and listening to our clients. We don’t just sell software; we partner with clients to ensure they get real value from our platform. 

 

A key part of this is our annual user group meetings and regular focus groups, which we’ve held for many years, and especially throughout the development of Relevate One. These sessions allow us to gather direct client input, refine features, and ensure our platform is built around solving real problems.

 

Our philosophy is simple: when our clients succeed, we succeed. By keeping communication open and continuously improving based on feedback, we build lasting relationships that go beyond just software. Our average client engagement of 17+ years is a testament to our values.

 

How has user behavior influenced Relevate One’s roadmap over the past year?

 

We constantly poll our users for feedback and incorporate it into our product roadmap. We noted recently a number of clients had started using third-party form software, like JotForm, to gather information from their members. But then, they had to manually duplicate that data into their AMS, leading to a major productivity loss. So, in Relevate One, we built a full-featured Forms Module for capturing feedback and information from members, tying responses to member records, and allowing workflows to take place upon approval of the forms. It’s yet another example of how an all-in-one platform really does drive efficiency. 

 

Another example is having a help desk or CRM software. We had a number of customers that started using third-party help desks or CRM software like ZenDesk or HubSpot, and they all complained about the same things: the disconnect between those platforms and the AMS member/office/billing data and the propensity of those platforms to create duplicate records when agents change offices. Ultimately, it just makes more sense to build a ticketing, knowledge base, and CRM platform directly into the AMS, so that’s what we’ve done with Relevate One. Our clients can’t wait to sunset those minimally integrated and expensive solutions and start using our new Help Desk Module.

 

A Future-Proof Team

What’s one risk you’ve taken as a leader that significantly paid off?

 

As a leader, and as a person, what I perceive as the biggest risk might not be the same as what someone else would say. The biggest risk I’ve taken in the past five years is absolutely paying off: delegating more to my management team. As someone who believes “sweat the small stuff and the big stuff works itself out,” it’s very stressful for me to delegate, but my management team is so great—they know that I struggle with that sometimes and give me space to decide what to keep for myself. They have no reservations about telling me, “You need to get that off your plate… today. Here, give it to me.” And then I know they’ll see it through to the finish line. It helps me keep my mind five years in the future, which is where I need to be as CEO, not in the day-to-day or next quarter operations.

 

How do you maintain alignment among your team as Relevate scales?

 

It all comes down to communication and shared goals. At Relevate, we prioritize keeping everyone aligned by setting a clear vision and ensuring every team member understands how their role contributes to our success.

 

Each year, we hold an in-person annual management meeting where we align on our strategic goals for the year ahead. These discussions shape the direction of the company and ensure that leadership is unified in guiding the team toward shared objectives. The insights and priorities established at this meeting are then disseminated across the company, shaping the goals for individual teams for the rest of the year.

 

Beyond our annual planning, we maintain alignment through monthly company-wide meetings, where we provide updates on progress, reinforce our mission, and keep everyone informed about key initiatives. On a more granular level, we hold weekly team meetings to ensure projects stay on track and teams remain connected to our broader vision.

 

We don’t chase trends or pivot without purpose—every adjustment we make is intentional and always driven by the needs of our clients. By keeping open lines of communication and ensuring transparency at every level, we create a culture where everyone is working toward the same goal and understands how their contributions drive our success.

 

What are you most proud of regarding your team?

 

I’m proud of the fact that we have a team that genuinely cares. People aren’t just here to punch a clock—they believe in what we’re building, and it shows in how they go above and beyond for our clients. That’s rare, and it’s something I never take for granted.

 

How do you balance work and personal life in such a demanding industry?

 

I don’t believe in “perfect balance.” Some weeks are heavier on work; some are more focused on family. What matters is being fully present—whether I’m in a meeting or spending time with my family, I give it my full attention.