sayitstraight
New member
my story
TL;DR I made a roommate matching app I need help figuring out next steps to get the thing going. I am working on a SaaS that can make money but it wont bring me users and I feel like I've reached a stage where I would love to be able to afford more professional help. What would you do in my position ?
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ruumme/id6446409858
Here is some slides might be easier to understand
https://docs.google.com/presentatio...ouid=106845211007737035290&rtpof=true&sd=true
I knew nothing about coding or development or anything but had the idea and believed in the concept. I searched for a while to see what would allow me to create an MVP with little to no money as well as entry level technical skill. I created the entire app in Glide Apps and published it as a PWA all with only a few YouTube videos. Then found some more videos and ChatGPT on how to create iOS and Android wrappers with Xcode and Android studio so I can publish in the app stores. Again I am new to all of this my job is a data analyst not software dev so this took me a few months of trial and error. Apple is also very defensive of letting more matching apps into the app store and even more defensive of letting PWAs into the app store. It took me 7 or 8 attempts and a lot of reworking to the app for me to finally get my app approved. Some changes implemented were very good they have strong requirements for user safety and since its technically a social media platform I had to generate user agreements and get those approved too. Now I have a published fully functioning app that can scale without issues.
Main reason for making the app
My personal experience during covid I had just finished a move from a place I did not like to a place I did like and was able to spend my time working from home. This had a strong impact on my quality of life and I truly wanted to create a way for others move into there ideal apartments.
Other reasons
- Increased time spent at home due to COVID, remote work, online school, etc. I think people will see increased value in liking the place they live
- Rising cost of living and rent being the most significant expense for people in most cases
- National Association of Realtors: Average age of homebuyers increased to 47 from 31 in 1981 the lifespan of a renter is increasing
- Not only does where you live matter but who you live can have a profound impact on overall quality of life
- Being able to find an ideal roommate, an ideal apartment, and save on your monthly rent all via an app I think would serve an overall benefit for people 18-30
- I see many other use cases for this app one filter I created is whether or not a user cares if there roommate match has kids I see this being potentially being a helpful tool for single parents
I was very interested in the data side of the things my wife was a real estate agent and worked as an apartment locator in Dallas there is definitely money for locators, but I was so shocked to learn there is really only 1 flagship product that the vast majority of locators use called smart apartment data and IMO its basically just apartments.com with a few extra buttons. I would see her using it and after I started working on my app in glide I realized I could easily clone this product in Glide and probably offer it for a cheaper monthly rate then 40$/month subscription they charge. Then I thought if combine roommate matches the apartment locator app that could be a huge value add to my apartment locator tool as appose to others to have some type of way to connect actual leads to agents and it would also be a big value add to my matching platform.
I started working on the framework for the apartment locator SaaS and rather than going through another major learning exercise and teaching myself python I paid a worker on fiver 30$ to scrape all the apartment data from apartemnts.com so I could plug it into my SaaS product. I am still working on the SaaS product now but probably only a few months from an MVP then I realized the step I would like to take next with company assuming the app and SaaS are successful. Apartments.com is the main name in the game for apartment search engines and for good reason as far as I can see Zillow is the only close competitor no one else seems to be differentiating themselves enough to draw users away. I had the idea to make a CarGurus.com meets Apartmetns.com search engine so a search engine that is basically a clone of apartments.com but with the added benefit of CarGurus "deal" thermometer so my platform will be able to tell users based on the neighborhood/sqft/built in year/last remodel/amenities etc. is this apartment a good deal or a bad deal for the price. To me this would be an incredibly tool for looking for an apartment. This is actually already a software that exists but is a very expensive tool that is private to property management companies they pay data real estate data companies to generate these types of analysis so they can make sure they are pricing their units at a competitive rate the only catch is the public does not have access to this type of analysis and I want to change that.
I see this in 3 phases
I know typically startups look for investors to help them get to the next stage I am looking for some pure honest feedback. Should I be going about things differently or what would you do in if you were my shoes? Is this even a good idea or should I be trying to take a different approach?
All feedback is greatly appreciated
TL;DR I made a roommate matching app I need help figuring out next steps to get the thing going. I am working on a SaaS that can make money but it wont bring me users and I feel like I've reached a stage where I would love to be able to afford more professional help. What would you do in my position ?
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ruumme/id6446409858
Here is some slides might be easier to understand
https://docs.google.com/presentatio...ouid=106845211007737035290&rtpof=true&sd=true
I knew nothing about coding or development or anything but had the idea and believed in the concept. I searched for a while to see what would allow me to create an MVP with little to no money as well as entry level technical skill. I created the entire app in Glide Apps and published it as a PWA all with only a few YouTube videos. Then found some more videos and ChatGPT on how to create iOS and Android wrappers with Xcode and Android studio so I can publish in the app stores. Again I am new to all of this my job is a data analyst not software dev so this took me a few months of trial and error. Apple is also very defensive of letting more matching apps into the app store and even more defensive of letting PWAs into the app store. It took me 7 or 8 attempts and a lot of reworking to the app for me to finally get my app approved. Some changes implemented were very good they have strong requirements for user safety and since its technically a social media platform I had to generate user agreements and get those approved too. Now I have a published fully functioning app that can scale without issues.
Main reason for making the app
My personal experience during covid I had just finished a move from a place I did not like to a place I did like and was able to spend my time working from home. This had a strong impact on my quality of life and I truly wanted to create a way for others move into there ideal apartments.
Other reasons
- Increased time spent at home due to COVID, remote work, online school, etc. I think people will see increased value in liking the place they live
- Rising cost of living and rent being the most significant expense for people in most cases
- National Association of Realtors: Average age of homebuyers increased to 47 from 31 in 1981 the lifespan of a renter is increasing
- Not only does where you live matter but who you live can have a profound impact on overall quality of life
- Being able to find an ideal roommate, an ideal apartment, and save on your monthly rent all via an app I think would serve an overall benefit for people 18-30
- I see many other use cases for this app one filter I created is whether or not a user cares if there roommate match has kids I see this being potentially being a helpful tool for single parents
I was very interested in the data side of the things my wife was a real estate agent and worked as an apartment locator in Dallas there is definitely money for locators, but I was so shocked to learn there is really only 1 flagship product that the vast majority of locators use called smart apartment data and IMO its basically just apartments.com with a few extra buttons. I would see her using it and after I started working on my app in glide I realized I could easily clone this product in Glide and probably offer it for a cheaper monthly rate then 40$/month subscription they charge. Then I thought if combine roommate matches the apartment locator app that could be a huge value add to my apartment locator tool as appose to others to have some type of way to connect actual leads to agents and it would also be a big value add to my matching platform.
I started working on the framework for the apartment locator SaaS and rather than going through another major learning exercise and teaching myself python I paid a worker on fiver 30$ to scrape all the apartment data from apartemnts.com so I could plug it into my SaaS product. I am still working on the SaaS product now but probably only a few months from an MVP then I realized the step I would like to take next with company assuming the app and SaaS are successful. Apartments.com is the main name in the game for apartment search engines and for good reason as far as I can see Zillow is the only close competitor no one else seems to be differentiating themselves enough to draw users away. I had the idea to make a CarGurus.com meets Apartmetns.com search engine so a search engine that is basically a clone of apartments.com but with the added benefit of CarGurus "deal" thermometer so my platform will be able to tell users based on the neighborhood/sqft/built in year/last remodel/amenities etc. is this apartment a good deal or a bad deal for the price. To me this would be an incredibly tool for looking for an apartment. This is actually already a software that exists but is a very expensive tool that is private to property management companies they pay data real estate data companies to generate these types of analysis so they can make sure they are pricing their units at a competitive rate the only catch is the public does not have access to this type of analysis and I want to change that.
I see this in 3 phases
- Tinder for roommates
- Apartment Locator Saas
- Apartments.com X CarGurus.com
I know typically startups look for investors to help them get to the next stage I am looking for some pure honest feedback. Should I be going about things differently or what would you do in if you were my shoes? Is this even a good idea or should I be trying to take a different approach?
All feedback is greatly appreciated