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RentBits, in business for going on 7 years, is one of Denver's more established tech startups. As they're looking to nearly double in size this year, we were very interested to sit down with founder and CEO Dan Daugherty.
RentBits offers solutions for the rental industry. That includes single and multifamily homes; anything non-commercial. These are solutions to simplify the renter's life, such as marketing, tracking, reputation management, and resident retention services for the rental industry. We also help with rental search.
How did you get started? What was your vision?
I started in 2006 out of personal frustration. At that point in time I was working for Google and doing some real estate on the side. I had bought 9 rental properties in 9 months, and all of them were vacant. I needed to find an efficient way to martket those properties. I told my property manager I was going to market them online, and that all she'd have to do was show ithe properties and get hte leases signed.
I started posting to about 10 existing sites - Craigslist and the like - but you think about 9 properties on 10 sites, that’s 90 postings to keep updated. I became very frustrated with adding photos, updating details, etcetera. The "aha" moment was when I thought, "why can’t I just use technology where I post my property one time and the system posts that info to several sites for me?" So I started to create it.
We initially launched as rentmarketer.com as one of the first syndication services in the rental industry just for single-fmaily homes. We got feedback from the apartment industry; they loved it and wanted us to do the same thing for them. Then we launched apartmentmartketer.com. In 2010 we launched a search engine called rentbit.com where renters could search across hundreds of sites. At that point we consolidated all three brands as RentBits. Over time we started to add more solutions on top of that, and now we’re one hub for all of those different services.
What were the big markers of success or turning points for your company?
Reaching profitability. We bootstrapped this thing, so from an entrepreneurial standpoint, it was really significant when we no longer were worried about making payroll.
Having the business reinvest in itself was really cool. We've also had some really big wins in each industry that we’re in – going from single family homes and individual property managers to going after some of the the top real estate investment trusts. We now have 20 of the top 50 apartment managers and owners in the U.S. as clients.
Tell us about where you're headed and some of your goals going forward.
We have some new things coming that we're really excited about. Currently, we help property managers acquire renters, engage with them, and then help them keep them. Our new product – residentbuddy.com – is a communication tool designed to simplify renter’s life. They'll be able to pay rent online, buy and sell business services within their community, communicate with the property manager, get notifications, see events, schedule events, sell furniture, everything they need.
... and that’s just the very beginning. We will be rolling out additional services and products that will completely simplify the renter's life and enable them to love where they live. We want to change it completely – and it’s a very large market. $36 billion/year is spent on replacing tenants that leave because they’re not satisfied. We want to make a very big impact across the world on making renters’ lives better and increasing retention rates and satisfacion.
Where have you tripped up over the years, and what did you learn from those experiences?
I'd tell someone starting out to hire slowly and fire faster. Many times we would keep people on who just didn’t fit culturally. In a small startup one person can change the dynamic dramatically.
Look at your PNL - every single line item - at least weekly. In the beginning we never did that. You’ll be surprised at what you can save if you look at what you’re spending on every single line item.
Celebrate the wins. Celebrate them early and often.
Communicate – overcommunicate. Even though we’re small we have a weekly meeting where we talk about every single division. It's everyone's chance to find out what's going on, and where we can do some of that celebrating.
In the beginning – focus. Our technology can be used for pretty much all verticals. In the bginning we were tempted to go all over the place; you have to focus on one thing and be the best in the world at it. It’s very easy to get off track, for sure.
You said you're looking to hire quite a bit this year, and that a right fit is really important. For those who might be interested, how would you describe your corporate culture? What makes a good fit?
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We have our core values on the wall. (Pictured to the right.) At an early stage, we got the team together and came up with those core values, narrowed it down to ten. This helps us answer a lot of the questions that might come up. We take that and celebrate that too. We reward people with recognition. When we’re hiring, that makes it a lot easier. If the person isn't smiling, not fun, aftriad to take a risk – they're not going to fit in our culture.
Why did you decide to locate here?
We were originally in DTC – obviously far away from all of the other startups. Once we heard about Galvanize, that was a no-brainer. It was an opportunity to go from being completely isolated and surround ourselves with like-minded people who know what we’re going through. I love what Galvanize has done on having events here. It’s that opportunity for serendipitous interaction. It happens all the time. There’s access to everything and everyone.
I think that we as a community should figure out a ways to have more of the types of events that happen here; bringing the like-minded people with common experiences together is really beneficial.
Learn more about RentBits in their company profile, via their website, on LinkedIn, follow them on Twitter @rentbits, or like their Facebook page.
This week we also visited FluentStream Technologies and Digital Fridge. Learn more about the Startup Tour and find links to past weeks' profiles here.
