Find the perfect home, but also the perfect person to share it with. This is the vision of SpareRoom, a startup that was founded in 2004 in the UK. It works to help people looking for accommodation find it on the basis of zeroing in on the perfect flatmate. Consider it as an online dating service, to find matches in flatmates, and not partners.
Already available to customers in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles, it will now be spreading its wings and expanding across many more cities in the US. Among its targets are Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Las Vegas, Miami, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Diego, Seattle and Washington DC.
SpareRoom CEO and founder Rupert Hunt will be moving to New York from the UK so that he can oversee the careful expansion process himself. He says:
We’ve already launched SpareRoom in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Our user numbers have more than doubled this year as people look for a better way to find flatmates; one that puts people matching first.
The unique feature of this expansion effort is that the company is putting in $6 million of its own money, a valiant exercise in self-funding. The reason this is being done, Hunt says is,
We chose to fund the expansion ourselves as SpareRoom was bootstrapped from the start. I firmly believe that putting your customers’ needs first, rather than those of investors or shareholders, makes for a far better user experience.
SpareRoom is therefore diving into the American market scene with a fresh new take on already existing ideas of expansion and investment. This unique spin on being able to find a place to live in, and really make it your own, will be one that especially young people looking for shared accommodation can benefit from. All eyes are now turned to SpareRoom and its determined, user-friendly venture.
