Reliance - an exciting startup

In previous posts I mentioned that I am part of Reliance (רליינס), a startup that tries to make sense of the relationship between landlords and their tenants. 

We want to provide the means to make payments online, enable messaging between the landlord and his or her tenants, enable them to find quality maintenance personnel, keep the books so that they have a full record of income and expenses, and much more.

For example, John and Sue have rented an apartment from Mr. Smith. He has asked them to give him 12 post-dated cheques for the year's rent, plus other securities. Two months later, a pipe bursts and floods the hallway. John and Sue send Mr. Smith an urgent message. He instructs them to have it mended and provides them with the details of his plumber. He'll pay them back by cheque.

With Reliance, Mr. Smith enters the rent as a recurring expense, it is automatically deducted each month, and for the month with the burst pipe, John and Sue only pay the rent minus the cost of the repair. Not only that, but if they don't know a plumber, they can locate trusted maintenance people on the site. Once a maintenance item is identified, a docket is opened and its progress can be tracked by the tenants and landlord.

Both the tenants and the landlord can keep track of their detailed monthly expenses and income, and the landlord can quickly understand what each property is earning or costing.

So that's the idea, and currently we are getting close to releasing the MVP. This is the basic product, and will be used for the pilot. Not all the features I mentioned will be there, but they will be available soon after (we hope).

We have a web page up, www.reliancerent.com, that provides more details. You can sign up to be part of the pilot. 

What do I do for this project? Well I started out by taking the concept and creating well documented user stories so that a developer would know the logic behind each step. Of course these are constantly being updated. In addition I do whatever is required - that's the great thing about startups; you are exposed to so many other facets of running a company. This is not the first startup I have worked at, but it is the first that I am so emotionally invested in. 

The view from our startup space and entering the Challenge Cup

The Library (the space that we call our office) is situated on the 9th floor of Migdal Shalom. Built in 1965, Migdal Shalom was Israel's first skyscraper, and the tallest building in the Middle East. But even though we're only on the 9th floor, the view is amazing. You see the oldest buildings in Tel Aviv, built at the end of the 19 century by people trying to escape the overcrowded Jaffa. And of course you see the Mediterranean.

View from Migdal Shalom with Jaffa and the Mediterranean in the background

So Reliance  (רליינס) was asked to take part in the Challenge Cup 1776 (http://challengecup.1776dc.com/). 

This is (as they tell it)

"a global competition to identify and celebrate the most promising startups tackling the biggest challenges. The competition will center on startups innovating in four primary categories: education, health, energy, and smart cities"

I think we were only asked to fill in the numbers for the Smart Cities section. All the other entrants are up and running with users, whereas we will soon start our pilot. Different traction entirely. But we are looking at it as a learning exercise as the guys receive pitch coaching.

Update after the event: It went brilliantly. Both co-founders learned a lot and also had exposure to other startups. Omri (the CEO of Reliance Rent - www.reliancerent.com) gave the 1-minute pitch, and though I may be biased, it was a good pitch. As we thought before going in, we didn't have a chance as some excellent up-and-running products were introduced. But a good time was had by all.

Working with a startup

Wow, it has been a long time since I added an entry to this blog. I have been working as a freelancer for three years. At the beginning I was very busy, and then life settled down. 

Me with the Reliance team

Today I work with four companies. I do the documentation for two companies and product management for the other two (plus documentation as required). There are times when I am rushed off my feet as all companies approach a similar deadline, and other times when I have hardly anything to do. Funny thing is that when I actually do a scan of my average income it isn't that bad; it isn't what I used to earn as a salaried employee, but then I work much less hours (which is a good thing as I find myself tiring a bit more). I have made the decision not to actively search for any more work, but am happy if someone approaches me to help them.

At one of the companies, Reliance (רליינס - www.reliancerent.com) I work for free. The idea belongs to my son and I believed enough in the idea to work on it with him. I'll talk more about it when the right time comes, but it is taking much longer than we anticipated, mostly because we are trying to get to the beta stage without external investment. As it is a company that will be dealing with payments, we made the decision that quick & dirty  was not an option. I do hope that we made the correct decision.

We have each (four of us) been working out of our own homes, and meeting once a week (or more as needed). We have just been accepted to "The Library" (http://www.thelibrary.co.il/). Tel Aviv municipality offers startups practically free facilities. So now we have an office - well a shared table - we can call our own. There is a meeting room where we can hold meetings, say with investors, and a number of other groups that we can brainstorm with. I see that the site is not yet updated, so we don't appear yet as residents.

The team at 'The Library'

Anyway, as I work less hours nowadays, I decided to offer my services as a mentor (no money involved) to anyone at the Library who needs advice on turning their idea into a product. That was yesterday, and that evening I saw that my LinkedIn profile had been visited my many people, and I also received new invitations to connect. Interesting.

It will also be interesting to see how I manage now that I need to get to an external site; I have become attached to my home office.