Venture for America came to Detroit two years ago, bringing about a dozen talented young people with entrepreneurial ambitions to work in startups in the city. This summer members of that first cohort of fellows are launching their own startup.
Castle is a software play that aims to make the lives of landlords easier by bringing the property management process into the 21st century. Three Venture for America fellows are launching the startup out of their Virginia Park house that helped serve as the inspiration for the company.
Venture for America pairs recent college grads from across the U.S. with startups in economically challenged cities like Detroit. The idea is modeled off of
Teach for America, which brings talented young college graduates to teaching positions in inner city schools. Participants, or fellows, of both programs agree to work the jobs for two years. Where Teach for America works to bring talent to the teaching profession, Venture for America paves a way into entrepreneurship for 20-somethings.
A couple of members of VFA's first Detroit cohort started
Rebirth Realty, which is taking an abandoned, tax-foreclosed house on Virginia Park in New Center and renovating it into a home for future Venture for America fellows, the first of whom are are moving in this summer. The experience inspired the renovators to build a better landlording system.
"We didn't like the way things are being done," says Max Nussenbaum, CEO of Castle. "We didn't see anything out there that worked."
Nussenbaum and two other VFA fellows began working on the startup six months ago as they neared the end of their two-year fellowship. They interview landlords to find the best pain points on which to capitalize. They have since left their jobs, or are in the process of doing so, to build out the software platform. They are aiming to launch a closed Beta in early September with 10-15 landlords. They are doing it all in the house they bought for a few thousand dollars last fall.
"That's one of the great things about being in Detroit -- it's super cheap,” Nussenbaum says. "We're all in out early 20s, so we don’t need a lot."
Source: Max Nussenbaum, CEO of Castle
Writer: Jon Zemke
Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
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