Doorstead, a rental operations firm that calls itself “Opendoor for rentals,” announced several new hires Monday, including veterans from WeWork, Opendoor, Expedia and Uber. The San Francisco based startup manages rental properties and provides owners with a guaranteed set rent, determined by a dynamic pricing model.
Jennifer Bronzo, the chief operating officer and co-founder of Doorstead, said the new hires reflect a need to meet growing demand in the Bay Area, in a statement.
“We started Doorstead to eliminate unnecessary vacancies for property owners while being fair and just to our tenants and vendor partners, and we cannot retreat from that mission just because the market has shifted,” Bronzo said in a statement. “Our platform was built to tackle such challenges, and our risk models have held up remarkably well.”
Jason Karas, the former senior director of Expedia, is joining Doorstead as its new vice president of growth. Andy Szybalski, a member of the founding team of Uber Eats and its former senior director of product design, is joining Doorstead’s advisory board, as is Granit Gjonbalaj, former chief real estate officer of WeWork.
Additionally, three unnamed central operations team members from Opendoor are joining the company.
Doorstead has experienced a surge in demand since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, with inbound call volume increasing tenfold in the past nine months, the company reported.
Like a traditional property manager, Doorstead collects rent on behalf of a landlord. The firm will pay out of its own pocket to cover the guaranteed rate if it can’t find a tenant or the tenant stops paying. The company says its proprietary technology allows property units to fill units quickly, which results in lower vacancy and higher total earnings, especially in the current market conditions where rental prices are plummeting in the Bay Area.
Doorstead is part of a new wave of “iRenters,” which includes competitors, Bungalow, Blueground, and Domio.
