When Nova Scotia, Canada-based real estate agent Brynn Carmody burned out at 25 years old, it wasn’t because she lacked leads. It was because she had too many — and no system to handle them.
She was manually stitching together disconnected tools across CRM, marketing, transactions and communication platforms. The result was long days, longer nights and eventually, a breaking point.
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“We had built a huge pipeline — thousands of leads, massive email lists — but no infrastructure to support it,” Carmody told Inman. “I was doing everything, acting as the integration layer across a fragmented tech stack. That kind of burnout is more common in this industry than people talk about.”
That experience became the foundation for Her Market Lab. It’s a new entrant in the growing wave of all-in-one real estate “super apps” aiming to simplify how agents use technology and actually make AI work.
Carmody is the solo founder and CEO behind the platform, which launched on April 13 with access granted to founding members. Carmody said Her Market Lab can replace five or more separate tech platform subscriptions for most agents.
A gender gap emerges in AI adoption
Carmody’s frustration, which led to the founding of Her Market Lab, reflects a deeper issue across the industry. While AI adoption among agents is widespread and continuing to grow, she said its real-world impact remains limited.
She pointed to a recent National Association of Realtors Technology Survey, which found that 46 percent of agents say AI has had little to no meaningful impact on their business. Carmody argues it isn’t about willingness but about usability.
Agents, she said, are often handed powerful AI tools without clear guidance on how to integrate them into their workflows. For many, the learning curve is simply too steep.
The divide may be even sharper when viewed through a demographic lens.
NAR’s 2025 Member Profile shows that women make up 63 percent of agents. Yet a growing body of research suggests women are adopting generative AI at lower rates than men, particularly in workplace settings.
A recent study from Lean In, the nonprofit founded by Sheryl Sandberg, which focuses on women’s leadership and workplace equity, found that men are 22 percent more likely than women to use AI tools daily or constantly on the job.
Carmody has a few theories on why an AI adoption gender gap persists.
“The most advanced AI tools being built for real estate agents are undeniably powerful. They’re also out of reach for most agents,” she said. “Setting up servers, managing cybersecurity risks and configuring open-source infrastructure isn’t realistic for someone running a real estate business between showings.”
According to Carmody, that’s the disconnect: The agents who could benefit the most — often women running independent, bootstrapped businesses without dedicated tech support — are among the least likely to adopt these tools.
“Not because they’re unwilling, but because the technology hasn’t been designed with their reality in mind,” she said.
Why onboarding is the real differentiator
Carmody said Her Market Lab’s approach flips the typical proptech model. Instead of leading with AI features, the platform focuses on building a functional business infrastructure first, then layering automation on top.
The product combines CRM, transaction management, email marketing and lead funnels into a single system, pre-configured specifically for real estate workflows.
But Carmody said its key differentiator is onboarding.
Agents are guided through a structured, seven-day setup process designed to build out a working business system from the ground up. Only after that foundation is in place do the platform’s AI agents activate. The goal is to eliminate the fragmentation that causes agents to fall behind in the first place.
Early users say the difference is noticeable, especially in output quality. Carmody said initial feedback highlights AI-generated content that requires minimal editing and better reflects an agent’s voice — a common shortcoming in generic AI tools.
Community as a feature
Her Market Lab also leans into a support model that goes beyond traditional onboarding. Instead of static tutorials or recorded walkthroughs, the platform includes ongoing “lab” sessions, where users can ask questions, troubleshoot workflows and refine how they use the system.
That community feature is designed to address a core industry problem: Agents often fail not because of bad tools but because they lack the time or support to implement them effectively.
“Instead of just handing someone a CRM or all-in-one platform — and maybe a Loom video for onboarding — we’re creating something much more hands-on,” Carmody said. “Our users get weekly labs and implementation sessions with clear, actionable takeaways for their business, and they can bring questions directly to us. That’s really where we bridge the gap.”
A bootstrapped bet on control
Her Market Lab is not venture-backed. Carmody chose to bootstrap the company, using income from her real estate career to fund development. The decision, she said, was about maintaining control over the product’s direction and avoiding the compromises that can come with outside investment.
“Too often, product decisions get lost in translation in boardrooms, and once you start adding more voices, it can quickly become a slippery slope,” Carmody said. “I had a very clear sense of my positioning from the beginning, and I didn’t want that diluted. The other factor was that I had the luxury to take that approach. I’d spent years in real estate and was able to support myself while building, so I leaned into it.”
The rise of the real estate ‘super app’
Her Market Lab enters a market that’s increasingly consolidating. From CRM platforms to transaction tools to AI assistants, the industry has seen an explosion of point solutions. Now, many companies are trying to bring those capabilities under one roof.
“Super apps” for real estate agents run the gamut from Rechat to Homie to Breezy — and more are likely on the way.
Carmody believes this trend will continue, but warns that not all “super apps” will succeed. The differentiator, she said, won’t be how many features a platform offers, but whether agents can actually use them without becoming overwhelmed.
Why AI won’t replace real estate agents
As AI proptech solutions proliferate, many agents may also be wondering about their future in the industry. Carmody, like many, believes it’s imperative for agents to learn AI while they can.
“I think the reality is that agents who don’t adopt AI are simply going to be outpaced by those who do,” Carmody said.
However, also like many in the industry, Carmody softened this statement with a caveat.
She noted that there’s a lot of media hype about AI replacing jobs and, specifically, that it’s going to replace real estate agents or that everyone will just use tools like ChatGPT to buy and sell homes. But that was never really the core value of an agent in the first place.
“The real value is in relationships and trust,” Carmody said. “No offense to platforms like ChatGPT or Realtor.com, but a first-time homebuyer navigating a stressful transaction or a deal that’s falling apart during inspection doesn’t want to rely on a chatbot. They want human guidance.”
That said, Carmody said the agent’s role will shift. AI will take over a lot of the transactional and administrative work.
“But if we get that part right for both agents and consumers, it ultimately expands an agent’s capacity to deliver better service and take better care of their clients,” she said.
