In this exclusive interview with CanadianSME Small Business Magazine, Yauheni, Co-founder and CEO of Odyssey3D, shares how his innovative company is reshaping the real estate market with immersive 3D virtual tours and cinematic video walkthroughs. Over the past eight years, Yauheni has led Odyssey3D from a small startup to a thriving company, capturing over 30 million square feet of real estate and working with top-tier clients in education, commercial real estate, retail, and more. As a hands-on leader, Yauheni is committed to scaling the company while maintaining a strong, client-focused culture. With the demand for virtual property experiences growing, Yauheni’s vision is to take Odyssey3D to an international level, making it the best virtual tour company to work for and with.
Yauheni is a co-founder and CEO of Odyssey3D, a virtual tour & media company specializing in capturing and presenting physical real estate in its best digital form. In 8 years, fresh from TMU, he has scaled the company with his co-founders from 3 to 20+ staff without any outside funding.
Odyssey3D has become a go-to partner for companies, small businesses and realtors, offering the latest media visualization tools to capture residential and commercial physical spaces s. How has the increasing demand for virtual property experiences in 2025 shaped your business strategy, and what new client expectations have emerged as a result?
The shift started way earlier, during the pandemic, as people needed a way to see homes and spaces online without the possibility of being there in person. Now it has become a new reality. Any real estate based business that does not have a good presence online will not be able to stay competitive, just because peoples’ behavior has shifted to first building trust with a brand/product online, before deciding if they want to check it out in person. For example, in residential real estate, we’ve heard so much from potential buyers that they “won’t even look at properties that don’t have a 3D Virtual Tour” because they don’t “trust” just the pictures, and ultimately they want to connect and understand the space. And with customer-facing brick-and-mortar businesses, people will see the location first and if it fits their vibe – only then they will make the call to set up an appointment.
For us that means investing into the latest capturing tools and producing high-quality media to ensure that we help attract as many clients as possible to the partners that we work with.
Your recent demos and presence at major industry events highlight Odyssey3D’s position as an innovator in real estate visualization. Can you share a recent project or achievement that best exemplifies Odyssey3D’s impact on the real estate market?
It’s hard to pinpoint to a single project, but what I can say in terms of impact is that at this point, we’ve probably captured over 30 million square feet of space and worked with names that you’ve heard of. On education side – UofT, York Uni, MacMaster, etc. On commercial real estate side Mattamy Homes, Colliers, GWL, JLL, etc. On retail side – Lululemon, Sportcheck, BMO, Scotiabank, etc. On residential side realtors from RE/MAX, Royal le Page, Century21 and pretty much realtors from every brokerage that exist in Canada. Plus, multitudes of small business brands, art galleries and cultural spaces. And with every one of the projects that means that our partners have great visuals that attract clientele or help their sales initiatives.
Odyssey3D has serviced over 10,000 listings and partnered with 2,000+ realtor clients since 2016. What have been the most valuable lessons learned about scaling a creative tech-driven company in the competitive Canadian real estate sector?
The most valuable lesson was probably not being afraid of competition. We were competing with companies that were way older and more expereinced than us. The companies that charged much less. The companies that could do certain things much better than we could at the time. But the real thing is – running a business is hard and multifaceted. I’ve seen big brands collapse and talented entrepereneurs go out of business or scale down. There are so many things that you need to get right, but the most important ones in my opinion are 1) the right co-founders/parterns (with complimentary business accumens -sales, operations, strategy) 2)the right hires (with the right hires – the business should be able to operate without the founder involved in day to day so that the founder can focus on scale) 3) financial management (boring, but key to scale and survival)
With your background as a founder, entrepreneur, and hands-on leader, how do you foster a culture of innovation and client-centricity within your team to stay ahead in digital marketing for real estate?
Our mission to the world is “Enhance the digital real estate experience through modern tech, creativity and world-class service” and we live by every single word in the mission. And our internal mission is to “Be the best virtual tour company to work for and with”, which means that everyone who works for us actually wants to be here and will do their best in supporting our mission to the world.
Finally, what advice would you offer to small and medium-sized businesses looking to leverage technology to stand out in their market and build lasting client relationships?
I’ve heard this new research that 70% of people will guess correctly if they like the person or not based on first 3 milliseconds of seeing them. I think that works the same for businesses and their interaction with their prospects and clients. People will always search the business online first and that first second will give them an idea if they want to associate and work with that business or not. So having the right visuals will first attract the client and having high quality immersive media will actually start building relationship and trust before they even reach out and talk to anyone. So invest in your online presence. Make sure they see you and trust you, before they even reach out.
