Two years ago, I launched WhoseYourLandlord (WYL), a site that enables you to rate your landlord and to find your next home, along with one of my best friends, our COO Felix Addison, and a new friend I had just met at the time, our CTO Nik Korablin. In the name, we decided to use the possessive form of the word “who” because we wanted to give renters ownership of their living situation by putting housing in their hands. Soon after launching, we thought we’d be the next Pay Pal mafia or new Zuckerbergs. We had 8k users, a modest product that focused on a niche of the rental market, and media coverage. We figured we were just months away from receiving a huge check, making our first real hires, and taking over the East Coast. But, none of this happened. Not one bit…Here’s what really happened.
The start
Each day when I’d go to work, whether it was out of our home office in NY, our short term coworking space in SoHo, or bouncing between NYC and Philadelphia for meetings, I never knew whether the day was going to end on a high note or low one. People would say I’m a very even keel person and, from what I’ve experienced in the startup world, you have to be in order to survive this game.
We started this journey while I was a senior at Temple University. I was in the midst of running for the VP of the student body and while having a late night meeting with my soon to be student government team, I thought “what if students could rate their landlords so that those coming behind them would know what to expect before signing a lease?” That idea caught on with the students and within weeks, I had our co-founders, our current COO, and CTO, in place ready to build the next great tech company.
After a successful beta launch during my senior year and upon graduating in May 2013, I chose to jump head first into WYL. I was 21 and had just moved to NYC with a couple hundred bucks in my pocket from acting and modeling, on the side. I was eating one meal a day (a trend that went on much longer than anticipated) and living in Brooklyn, NY. We initially worked out of our home the first year until moving into offices in Union Square and then SoHo in the summer of 2014 through the Rose Tech Real Estate Tech Accelerator. Through this period, Felix and I were living in a two-bedroom apartment in Bed-Stuy and learning a lot about the city and ourselves as we’d go.
The struggle to secure funding
Rewinding back a bit: In August of 2013, our COO Felix Addison moved to Brooklyn to join me in the company full time. He’d given up a full-time salary and left his family and his puppy behind. For the next six months, we’d struggle together, scrape together meals as we could, and attend as many events as NY had to offer. By the fall, we hopped in my Nissan Altima and embarked on a self-funded college tour to help spread the word about what we were building. Things were still growing although we were just barely getting by.
By mid-2014, after tons of so-so investor meetings and after dealing with a crooked lawyer who took over $10k from us in bogus services recorded, we’d finally began receiving sizable infusions of cash into the business. In total, through two years and by May of 2015, we’d raised $86k through accelerator programs, competitions, and from friends and family supporters.
Still Overcoming
We are still in the process of overcoming the lack of funding by being persistently creative. We’re constantly meeting with folks who are connecting us with new investors, new opportunities to gather funding and new ways to expand WYL with the limited resources we have available. We’ve held steadfast to our convictions and vision even having had to turn down several hundred thousand dollars from an investor whose personal desires didn’t align with the company mission of WYL. We’ve been able to hold on to what we have, prepare ourselves by establishing a strong foundation, and are now hitting our stride this fall in funding and investment.
Today, we’re a strong team currently in the midst of raising our seed round. We’re picking up a bit of traction on the investment side thanks to some amazing angel investors we’ve met. We recently graduated from DreamIt Ventures Philly. We’ve begun leaving our mark in Philadelphia having (over 45% of our user base is there) and will look to do the same in the next cities we touch. We’ve expanded beyond just the college market because we realize that our purpose is to make quality living the standard for all by enabling renters to find their next home and to review their landlords and housing complexes. Our #WYLcommunity grows by people contributing to it. So, the more reviews our users post to help each other, the better off we’ll be.
I have confidence in our team and confidence in our abilities to make things happen. We’re finalist for a few upcoming programs and competitions that will help to drastically ramp up how fast and effectively we can grow. We’re game, we’re prepared, and we’re ready. We realize that the future is in our hands and my team is committed to making the journey for our brothers and sisters behind us one that is smoother, more rewarding, and open to giving, those who deserve it, a real opportunity to help change the world.
What I’ve learned
- When picking a team, surround yourself with people who are committed and are willing to go to bat for you any day of the week. Look out for people with one foot in and one foot out. And, in the startup phase, don’t wait. If someone doesn’t fit your company culture, fire them.
- When picking advisors, make sure they really care about you and are consistently providing value to your team and company. For women and minorities this is even more prevalent because, often times, we’re paraded around to different events and functions because it looks good for some old guy or corporation to say they’re associated with the sharp young woman or ambitious black kids; but, when it comes time to actually invest money behind them, they’re nowhere to be found. Find people who are truly invested in your success and who truly understand your vision.
- Realize, in this journey, your friends and family won’t understand why you have to go through the things you do. This is unlike any industry and the rules of the game are different. No one can relate to you but other founders. Make friends with many of them and stay close. Your peers are your biggest support group.
- Lastly, for women and minorities in tech, understand you’ve got to be damn near bulletproof because the microscope is even more zoomed in on us. There aren’t many of us getting funded, at all. Make sure your team is right and everyone knows their roles. Make sure your traction is growing strongly from month to month. And, make sure you’re showing a clear path to generating real revenue. You’ll need a flawlessly running company just to get an investor on the phone. Toughen your skin up.