RentHop (YC S09) Video Pitch on Reuters

http://www.reuters.com/news/video?videoId=112441

by hussong • 17 years ago

27 15 17 years ago

zaveri• 17 years ago

Wonder how their YC application video was?

christonog2• 17 years ago

$15,000 in revenue in the first month is impressive. I wonder how many business dev and customer support people they need to want the 250K. It seems that the business is healthy enough to hire based on revenue, which is what I would do instead of getting funding. The hosting cost seems almost negligible at this point, too.

rogerthat• 17 years ago

$15,000 in revenue in the first month is impressive.

Unless they made that up.

However, even if it's a fabricated figure (and I'm not saying that it is), they would not be the first company to lie to the press to generate some hype. I also don't believe it would be against the law, except perhaps if someone were to rely solely upon that information to make a decision about whether to invest in the company.

gruseom• 17 years ago

Unless they made that up.

I've met them and can assure you they're a lot smarter than that.

abossy2• 17 years ago

Newsflash: It IS possible for Web startups to generate revenue.

nobody_nowhere3• 17 years ago

If $15k/mo (180k/yr) is "ramen profitable" it doesn't leave much room for growth/reinvestment. Maybe that's two people and various operating costs. Maybe three. Probably no more -- it's not cheap to live in or around New York.

If they raise 250k and spend it just on salaries for a year, think one bizdev guy and three salesguys who also get commission. Something in that neighborhood. Maybe one less guy and increase the marketing budget. You could cover a lot of territory with a team like that.

christonog2• 17 years ago

I mean, $15K is just their first month, who knows how much their revenues have grown since then. I feel that with the manpower they currently have and their traction, they can scale much higher (and in turn spend profits on new hires) on organic revenue growth instead of seed funding. But hey, what do I know? Many times things look too easy to those who don't know what they're talking about or are on the outside.

I do agree that living in NYC isn't cheap. But neither is Silicon Valley, where many YC start-ups are based and are probably struggling to make $15K in their first three months after launch. Rent, which is most likely their biggest cost, could possibly be scaled down if they do live in the true spirit of being "ramen profitable."

stanleydrew• 17 years ago

I think I heard him say they are transitioning into lead-gen for brokers? Isn't that kind of anathema to the no-fee idea? I suppose you could try to do lead-gen only for so-called "no-fee brokers," but that seems hard to enforce. This seems like a complete shift away from their original philosophy.

nobody_nowhere3• 17 years ago

I heard him say he's adding this, not transitioning to it. Why not do both? Then you've still got revenue coming in from landlords listing direct, and people who want to search for-fee listings can see those as well. As long as they're transparent and respectful about it, there's no downside.

hussong2• 17 years ago

Lead-gen makes a lot of sense as a secondary revenue stream. If you can't make the transaction, you can still sell a qualified lead. Once you hit big volume, this becomes a significant source of income.

RentHop (YC S09) Video Pitch on Reuters

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