"The person in charge of real estate at one of the largest corporations in the world was still managing his company's worldwide holdings by filing copies of each lease in a three-ring binder on a shelf behind his desk back then," Friedman explains.

He says he formed Accruent, a provider of Real Estate Performance Management (RPM) solutions, to give companies a more efficient option to coordinate lease negotiations, construction schedules and a host of other related tasks. "Most companies deal with single pain points. They determine a problem or a pain point and then address it. However, the solution may not integrate with the solutions they select for other pain points," Friedman says. "The solutions aren't integrated. Our focus is streamlining the solutions into a unified suite."

Early this month, the firm came one step closer to its goal when it completed an all-cash acquisition of Irvine, CA-based Famis Software Inc., a developer of Integrated Workplace Management Systems (IWMS).