Doorstead, a Full-Service Property Manager That Provides Cash-Flow Certainty to Residential Landlords with Its Upfront Rental Guarantee, Raises $12.5 Million in Series A Funding

Doorstead, a technology-operations company that specializes in full-service property management, announced today that it has raised $12.5 million in Series A funding. The round was led by Madrona Venture Group, an early investor in tech-enabled residential real estate brokerage Redfin. The oversubscribed round also included operating executives from OpenDoor, Uber, and Docusign.

Doorstead was founded by Uber and Y Combinator veterans Ryan Waliany and Jennifer Bronzo in 2019 to create a new class of property management that applies AI and technology operations to simplify the lives of residential landlords. The company targets the 15 million small real estate investors who own 95% of single-family rental residences in the U.S. and are largely underserved today.

Pricing and occupancy, two of the biggest drivers of landlord happiness and financial success, are core to the Doorstead value proposition, and why the company has seen such strong adoption by early customers. The company analyzes millions of market-specific data points on a daily basis to calculate the optimal rental price to maximize rental income while minimizing vacancy. Within 24 hours of request for a given property, Doorstead provides a guaranteed rental rate, occupancy date, and a year of cash flow for the owner.

Once owners sign with Doorstead, the company does everything from preparing the property for lease, marketing the property and screening tenants, negotiating rent, and managing the property through the term of the lease. On average, Doorstead landlords earn $2,300 more per year with Doorstead than their prior property managers; and Doorstead has been able to deliver this performance, with guaranteed cash flow to its owner-customers, in a rental market that has seen headwinds associated with the Covid pandemic.

"Doorstead's service has not only simplified the entire process of being a landlord, but also given me a peace of mind," says Candy Wan, a property owner in Hayward, California. "Having a trusted, close-knit management team which will search for the right tenant and take care of the little details to meet tenant's satisfaction on my behalf is awesome. The best part of all is Doorstead will guarantee a monthly rent payment even if the property is vacant."

Doorstead now manages more than 300 properties in the San Francisco Bay Area, its first market, a footprint that grew by 50% each quarter of 2020. With more than $10 million of rent under management, the company recently launched in its second and third markets, Los Angeles and Orange County.

"We are just getting started in our journey to provide cash-flow certainty to all small residential landlords everywhere. Starting with pricing and occupancy, we are applying deep technology and operations capabilities to eliminate all of the headaches, friction and uncertainty involved with owning residential rental properties," said Ryan Waliany, CEO and co-founder of Doorstead. "We are excited to partner with our new investors, Madrona Venture Group and an incredible roster of prop-tech and ops-tech executives, to help further our mission to deliver a better property management experience for owners and tenants, throughout the U.S."

"It's rare to find markets as large as single-family property management with very little technology adoption and no brands with national scale," said Scott Jacobson, Managing Director at Madrona Venture Group. "We love the approach the Doorstead team is taking, bringing technology and business models together to eliminate friction and provide better service to owners and tenants. The company's technology-operations model is ideal for local and national scale, and we look forward to working with Ryan, Jenn and team on the journey ahead."

Doorstead will use the funds raised in its Series A to accelerate investments in its pricing and fulfillment technology platform, to build out its product, engineering, and marketing organizations, and to finance its expansions into new cities across the U.S.

ABOUT DOORSTEAD

Doorstead endeavors to eliminate the headaches, friction and uncertainty involved with owning and operating single-family rental properties. Starting with pricing, cash flow, and occupancy, Doorstead provides complete peace of mind for its owner-customers. Doorstead's application of data and technology to the full lifecycle of the rental experience enables the company to provide better cash flow to owners and higher satisfaction to both owners and tenants.