Transforming Property Tours Through Tech 

Over the last 10 years, Jennifer Cox Cyphers and her team have grown Pynwheel into an established company with clients across the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada.

After graduating from Lewis & Clark, Jennifer Cox Cyphers BA ’00 saw two paths in front of her: one was medical school, where she could apply her psychology major and interest in physiology, and the other was business, building on her world languages major and love of travel. 

Her first job out of college helped make the decision for her. The position involved data entry for a tech company, and she was promoted quickly in recognition of her analytical skills. This set her on the entrepreneurial path to founding Pynwheel, a property-tech company that is working to modernize the building tour process through touchscreen applications. Using a range of interactive, self-guided tools, potential residents are able to take virtual tours of multifamily buildings, like apartments and condominiums, with the goal of finding the best possible unit for their needs.

Persistence was key in realizing her vision for Pynwheel, especially in the business’s early years. “I had this great idea for a company, but I had to be really scrappy and tenacious to get it off the ground,” Cox Cyphers says. 

She took out a small loan from a family member and built the company’s website with the help of a friend. To demonstrate the product, Cox Cyphers dragged a 300-pound touchscreen on a dolly to prospective clients. The business officially launched in 2013. 

Cox Cyphers credits her education at Lewis & Clark with some of the foundational traits that enabled Pynwheel to succeed. 

“A liberal arts education is very entrepreneurial,” she says. “For a start-up company, it’s so valuable to have people with hunger, drive, critical thinking skills, and a love of learning, as opposed to only a basic skill set.”

In the last 10 years, Cox Cyphers, along with a small team of remote workers, has grown Pynwheel into an established company with clients across the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada. Clients are large multifamily property operators and managers, many of whom bring Pynwheel’s touchscreen applications to luxury apartment buildings. 

In its current incarnation, Pynwheel offers clients several tools, including an interactive property map, galleries of floor plans and media, a site-specific neighborhood map, and a digital brochure builder. In the near term, the plan is to relaunch Pynwheel’s self-guided tour mobile app, which will feature Bluetooth integration in partnership with an industry-leading digital lock company: “It will turn self-guided touring on its head,” she says.

For Cox Cyphers, building a successful business has required patience and determination. She is eager to see the tech sector become more diverse and is aware that oftentimes when she joins meetings, she is the only woman in the room. 

For budding women entrepreneurs, she has this advice: “Do not be daunted. There is room for you.”