Doorstead, a property management startup that guarantees rental payments to homeowners, has closed a Series B funding round of $21.5 million.
In 2019, Ryan Waliany and Jennifer Bronzo launched Doorstead, using a pricing model tested on Craigslist. Through data science and machine learning, their system became capable of predicting rental prices more accurately than ever before.
Doorstead’s prediction model works well and they charge a 8% management fee, with no incentive to list properties at unrealistic rents. This means if they get higher rent than guaranteed, the extra money goes back to the property owner – not Doorstead.
CEO Waliany told TechGround, “We prefer not to take that upside due to misaligned incentives. Instead, we provide a risk-adjusted guarantee based on the market.”
Property owners can request a guaranteed offer from Doorstead by entering basic information about their property on the company’s website. If eligible, Doorstead will communicate the minimum amount they’ll receive each month and when payments begin.
Bronzo, COO of the company: “We guarantee rent for the owner even if we have to pay out-of-pocket or take a cut from our 8% commission. That way, they’re always getting what they should.”
Doorstead aims to list homes above their baseline price 75% of the time, reports Waliany.
“The guarantee works great financially for us and helps eliminate unnecessary vacancies,” he noted. “Without it, property managers can be slow to act.”
Doorstead has seen great success since its launch: a 270% property growth in 2022, revenue that exceeded the property growth with “healthy unit economics,” thousands of owners served, 30,000 rental offers made and over $1 billion worth of properties under management. The startup operates across 7 U.S markets and hopes to expand even further this year – aiming to double or triple their footprint.
Doorstead only partners with individual landlords of single-family homes, condos, and townhomes – no institutional landlords.
Waliany and Bronzo bring complementary backgrounds in product and property management to their tech-enabled, ‘full service’ property management business. Their joint experience has provided them with a comprehensive perspective on how to best manage this type of venture.
Ryan Waliany (CEO) and Jennifer Bronzo (COO), co-founders of Doorstead, pose for a picture.
When we began, our goal was to create a tech-powered property management company like Uber Eats. However, after speaking with customers, we realized their biggest challenge was landlords getting overpromised rents and having properties sit vacant for months—sometimes leading to financial ruin. So instead of just managing properties, we decided to guarantee upfront rent before finding tenants.
Avanta Ventures, MetaProp, M13 and Madron have joined forces to raise $37 million for Doorstead since its inception. Backers include Eric Wu and Tom Willerer (former CEO/CPO of Opendoor) as well as Avanta – the venture arm of CSAA Insurance Group (better known as Triple A or American Automobile Association, AAA).
Doorstead, a San Francisco-based startup with 150 full-time distributed employees (80 of them in the US), has its sights set on geographical expansion and capital efficiency. The goal is to “improve unit economics” and become profitable.
Waliany stated that their aim is to grow, but with a focus on profitability.
Steve Bernardez of Avanta Ventures was drawn to Doorstead, citing the large and growing rental property management market as one that has been historically underserved by legacy providers.
Doorstead announced a raise and the acquisition of Knox Financial’s Boston assets, which closed at the end of 2020.
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