YC S20 Proptech Startups Ranked
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YCombinator’s S20 Batch had 6 proptech startups, and I ranked them all in this video. While YC isn’t exactly known for its real estate prowess, 3-6% of its batch classes are proptech. Here’re the batch stats if you’re interested.
Atmos – The entire homebuilding process all online
At first glance Atmos’s scope and ambition seemed as ridiculous as it sounded. But then I went to their website and played around with picking out a plot of land and some pre-approved home designs. It was ridiculously ambitious, but I loved the process. And I’m also very bullish on Raleigh, NC.
Scaling this kind of business is prohibitively hard, but if that doesn’t work out, they’d probably make money as a medium sized home builder. https://www.buildatmos.com/
Flat- The Opendoor of Mexico
Whenever a startup markets itself as a ‘something’ of ‘some region that doesn’t have that something,’ I’m a little more skeptical than my usual already skeptical self. Opendoor is an asset heavy and incredibly complex model to run with very little wiggle room for failure. Execution risk is very high here. https://www.flat.mx
Inspectify- A managed marketplace for home inspections
Marketplace startups are a pet peeve of mine. I don’t need any hands to count how many times I’ve used marketplace startups as a real estate developer. Because I don’t use them. Apps have trouble conveying the factors that matter to me in establishing trust with a contractor, because it’s hard to distill them into quantifiable metrics. Then add on top how low the barriers of entry are to create a marketplace app and you see how much of a red ocean this sector is. Three out of the six proptech startups in this batch are marketplaces!
That being said, Inspectify makes money. As a developer, I’m not the ideal customer here, but first time home buyers and brokers are. http://www.getinspectify.com/
Ladder- Labor Marketplace for Construction
Another marketplace app! I just can’t really imagine my contractors installing an app to find workers. For that reason, it’s hard for this product to capture a huge share of the market. Not very impressed. https://www.meetladder.com/
Tangobuilder- Automating structural engineering jobs
Tangobuilder is one of my favorite proptech companies in this batch, and I’ve spoken to the founder. It’s also the least sexy startup in this batch. But if they can deliver on what they’re setting out to do, it saves me time and money, two of the most important factors I try to optimize on in a development. https://www.tangobuilder.com/
Toolbox: On-demand labor marketplace for skilled construction workers
It’s hard for me to take a look at this next to Ladder and really care to determine what makes them unique. It’s the same business model. (As of 2023, they’ve pivoted). https://www.trytoolbox.com
Derek is the founder of The Proptech Scout, as well as an NYC landlord and real estate developer. In a former career, he bootstrapped and exited an e-commerce business while side hustling as a strategy consultant.