47% is a crazy number

Why we got into this biz

That’s how many multifamily residents turn over, on average, every year. 

Isn’t that number ridiculous? 

We got into this business because that’s a ton of people. People who are willing to find a new place,

• Buy $8 boxes

• Negotiate with sketchy movers

• Convince their friends to help them unpack

• Deal with padded service elevators

• Change their addresses

• Build IKEA furniture

• Stay on hold FOREVER with AT&T

+ many other obnoxiously painful and expensive things

...all because they don’t love their places. 

Oh, and while 47% represents multifamily apartments, office tenant turnover is north of 40% (even in the best of times).  

These numbers got us thinking: why do we not love our places? We don’t cut ties with our subscription providers at anywhere near 47% (or a VC would never fund a SAAS startup) and we spend WAY more money on our apartments, offices and hangouts. 

Also, why are the most expensive consumer goods in our lives—our places—easily substitutable?

Here’s what we figured out: the reason we don't love our places is that our placemakers don’t know us. 

It's a safe (and educated) guess that most placemakers are in entirely different life stages, have different perspectives, and certainly different socio-economic backgrounds than their consumers. 

But that’s okay. The first step is realizing there’s a problem. 

The key to making more valuable and differentiated spaces—ones that we want to hang onto—is to understand what we care about. And that’s where we come in.