Vertical Builder (m/f/d)

About Buena

Buena is building the technology that real estate runs on. We're making every part of real estate – from finding and financing to buying and managing – as seamless and transparent as possible. We do this by acquiring property managers across Germany and rebuilding them as technology companies. In under three years and with fewer than 25 people at HQ, we've already become Germany's second-largest property manager. The next trillion dollar company in real estate won't sell software. It will run the industry.

About the Vertical Builder role

We're hiring a Vertical Builder to own one of our next revenue verticals from zero.

Property management is our entry point, but every unit we manage opens the door to adjacent businesses, complementing an end-to-end real estate experience for our customers. These verticals are also worth billions: Brokerage when owners sell. Energy and metering services on every building we touch. Insurance. Financing. The list keeps growing.

You'll own the P&L, the strategy, the partnerships, and the product.

Responsibilities

• Own the P&L for your Vertical. Revenue, margin, payback.

• Drive the product, don't request it. Our software runs property management today. You'll define what needs to exist for your vertical to work, write the spec, work directly with our PMs and engineers, and ship it. If you need a feature, you fill the product manager role until it's built.

• Roll out across all portcos: One good deal × 60,000+ units. You design the rollout, measure it, and ship the playbook so it works the same way in every portco.

You may be a good fit if you

• You've started something before. A company you founded, a product you built and sold, a freelance business you scaled. You know what it means when no one is going to do it for you.

• You think commercially first. Unit economics, margin, payback, deal structure. You don't need to learn this, you already think this way.

• You won't be a brokerage or banking expert on day one. You'll be one in 60 days because you'll outresearch and outthink everyone: including the people who've been in the industry for 20 years.

• You act fast. Reversible decisions don't get a second meeting. You move, get the information, and adjust.

• You can sell. You've personally closed deals, signed partners, or convinced people to give you money.

• You speak native-level German. Most partners, regulators, and customers operate in German, sometimes with heavy accent. This is a hard requirement.

• You work from our office in Prenzlauer Berg. This is not a remote role, not even hybrid.

Bonus: The instinct of "this is mine, I'll figure it out" is what we're hiring for.

Your first 90 days

Days 1–14: Property management before vertical.

Every vertical at Buena is built on top of property management, so before you build yours, you'll work in it. You'll handle tickets, call customers and tenants, onboard new owners, digitalize documents, run cost audits in portcos, and solve whatever shows up that day. This is how you'll learn the systems, the economics, and the operational reality your vertical depends on.

You'll meet most of the HQ team in your first day. You’ll have daily check-ins (morning and evening) with Jan for the first two weeks to sync on how you each think and work. You'll also get a first book to read (which we’ll discuss thereafter)

Days 14–30: Start building the vertical.

You start writing your Day 90 plan: the bets, the metrics, and the resources. You visit your first portfolio company in person. We sign you up for the WEG Verwalter examination at IHK. By Day 30, the plan is final and you're building.

Days 30–60: Ship the first wins.

Ops weekly with your peers, monthly Portfolio Review where you'll present your vertical to the rest of the company. Daily check-ins are reduced to weeklies.

This is where the first obvious wins land. Not "we're making progress," but revenue or signed partners or a closed pilot that doesn't need a slide to explain.

Days 60–90: Own it.

By Day 90: you're a certified WEG Verwalter, all requests and problems related to your vertical flow to you and stop there, and you've got first profits on the board. You've also got a roadmap for the next 90 days that goes beyond "more of the same."

You’ll have read three books together by then.

Your Benefits

• Up to €500 close-to-office bonus, if you decide to live within 10-20 mins walking distance to our office.

• €110/month lunch budget, €50 fitness subsidy.

• €1,200 yearly education budget.

• Free books: Buena pays for any book you'd like to read.

Why you should apply now

• We're high-growth with a small, tight-knit team: In less than three years we have become Germany's second-largest property manager with around 25 full-time employees in the HQ

• We're meritocratic: Your impact gets rewarded, quickly. Our CEO started here as a Junior Product Manager three years ago, our COO started here as the Chief of Staff two years ago. Our VP Property Management joined as a Junior Integration Manager.

• We're personal: We work from our office in Prenzlauer Berg and place high value on knowing each other well.

• We care about outcomes: Homeownership rates in Germany are far below Global average. We're here to enable wealth creation for everyone.