LeaseBuddies is an Austin startup that helps pair up prospective roommates based on personality compatibility, rent price range, neighborhood and other criteria. Credit: LeaseBuddies, Inc.
If you’re a startup these days, especially if your company idea has anything to do with the so-called “Sharing economy” (put strangers together for fun a profit!) it doesn’t hurt to associate yourself with the big gorilla in the space, Uber, the ride-hailing company.
I get lots of pitches for companies with new hardware products, apps or online services and several of them are in the business of connecting people in some way by building a platform for a very specific thing.
Take LeaseBuddies, for instance, an Austin-based website launched in August and created by two former Dell employees in sales who had the idea of creating an alternative to Craigslist for finding a roommate in Austin's hot, crowded rental market.
There’s no app for LeaseBuddies yet, but using the mobile-friendly website, you can create a new profile (or login via Facebook or Google+) and start seeking a compatible roomie, whether you’re looking for a place to live or have a place you need to share.
The site asks for some basic information about your needs in terms of location, price range and whether you’re seeking a male or female roommate. You can choose no preference on that and as far as Austin areas available, you can go as far as Round Rock or Cedar Park; LeaseBuddies is currently only available for Austin renters.
Using the profile name "MidLifeCrisisMan," I tried out LeaseBuddies, making it clear that I was researching an article, not actually looking for a new living situation, though if a $100-a-month lakeside house was available in West Austin, I would be tempted given Austin's record-high rents.
The site asked some general questions about how often you expect visitors, what your tolerance is for noise and how you’d handle things like utility bills, the thermostat or dishes. For instance:
How do you feel about household chores?
Everybody pitch in whenever its needed, especially in common areas
Divide them up, make a chart, and hold people accountable
Keeping score is lame unless there's an obvious problem
Once I filled out all my preference, which I made not too picky, I was matched up with potential roomies from a pretty wide age range from about 23-59, both male and female, some with rooms already available in the $450-$800 range.
When you find a roommate you want to consider, you can private message them or add them to a shortlist (like a bookmark) to keep a running list. The site tells you how soon a roommate is needed, from ASAP to months from now and doesn’t reveal real names, addresses or more than a username and a profile photo, which is optional. LeaseBuddies gives you a list of how compatible a roommate might be based on your earlier answers with a user-friendly “PROS” and “CONS” list. For a 30-year-old guy I was otherwise a great match for, LeaseBuddies alerted me that, “Your temperature preferences differ.”
Co-founders Adam O’Neal and Jeremy Shreve say they tried to create a solution for all the ways that a roommate situation can go wrong. By letting people view specific profiles and getting a sense of someone’s personality, Shreve said, renters can avoid a bad situation. “Some people will have a whole long list of pet peeves. Other people are clearly more easygoing,” he said.
Adam O’Neal (left) and Jeremy Shreve (right), the co-founders of LeaseBuddies, met while working at Dell and created a website to help renters find compatible roommates. Credit: Samantha Tran, Samantha T Photography / Contributed by Leasebuddies, Inc.
Most people seeking roommates in Austin use Craigslist, Shreve said, which can feel hasty and lacking in enough information to make a good choice. “None of the roommate options we looked at are focused on compatibility. It just doesn’t feel right. We wanted to make it friendlier and make people feel less like strangers.”
The site was built by O’Neal, Shreve and a few freelancers and the two founders say it will always be free for those seeking roomies. They plan to make money by offering ads for services such as apartment locators and cleaning services and to partner with businesses that align well with their company.
Future goals for LeaseBuddies include expanding to big rental markets including San Marcos, Houston, San Antonio and Dallas.
In Austin, the site currently has more than 1,700 users. O’Neal and Shreve say they’re not worried that once someone finds a roommate, they won’t come back as a return site visitor.
"If we give you a way to find a roommate, you're going to use us again someday," O'Neal said. "We expect them to come back when it's time to look again."
(This is the first in a series of three short Uber of… profiles I’ll be posting on the blog here this week.)
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