As a previous submission (from Steve Blank's blog) said, you need to "get out of the building" and find out what donut shop owners, tow truck operators and dentists want.

One site that allows makers of hand-crafted goods to set up "shop" is Etsy (http://www.etsy.com). One thing they have are the tools for crafters to communicate with each other and teach each other how to build a shop. Note that in this case, sellers have something more like an eBay store than their own site. Maybe that's all some niches need.

Dentists wouldn't want that. At all. Real estate agents have their own needs. You will have to do the classic build and iterate to find what they want. Do you have experience in a niche that can help you get started?

I think one thing that got him inside was the execution. Mint is just cool to use. If I was an investor, I'd try the site and just say "Hey, this is really cool to use. And useful. And in a lucrative niche." Then I'd write a check.

Yes, yes and yes. SEO matters for almost every site, but it is a really big deal for this kind of site. I tweaked the internal SEO of my site to highlight and description (One Bedroom Apartment in Newark, New Jersey) of the listing and it paid off for those "long tail" searches.

Initially, those are the competitors for sure. But They are already on the first page for the query you listed, so they've go that going for them.

I learned about scams that hit renters and landlords, but thankfully I got rid of them fast.

Also, people posting would either not capitalize anything or leave the CAPS LOCK key on. Spell checking their own ads was just too much to ask. That struck me as very odd, because I thought they would try their best to make it right to get a unit rented. I just let them post what they wanted as long as it seemed like a legit listing.

Then there's the whole second tier of rental sites, such as eBay's rent.com, apartments.com, rentals.com and more. They are usually pretty to look at, but I found all their UIs to be difficult to use. That's where I took a simpler approach to search that I thought users would like better. Still, they get hits and engage in fierce search engine battles.

I still think there has to be a way to connect renters with rentals that's easier than what's out there. I do like rentHop's design at first glance as well. I do wish the rentHop team success. Anything that makes life easier is great.

I will say that I learned a LOT about coding, which has helped me on my day job and a lot about startups which will help me enormously, should I do it again.

What would I do differently?

- Try to get more seed money. I was working with about a $100 total. I would go with one like Shotput Ventures in my current Atlanta home, or YC if I could swing living in SV for three months. I could use the funds for stuff like the PR that got them this article. I'd get advice and connections to hopefully get that next round of funding, if I need it.

- Take a city-based approach. I tried to to the whole USA at once. It's a lot of territory to cover.

- Get a technical co-founder. I partnered with someone who had a little real-estate experience, but couldn't help out on the tech side. I personally need someone who could really handle the UI design and make something that looks pretty and is dead-simple to use.

- Pick a better name. Seriously. I'm not even going to tell you the name we picked because it was unmemorable, unpronounceable, difficult to spell, and lacked even a hint of SEO-keyword-mojo.

All those lessons, and the tech skills I picked up will help me greatly If I try this again. You know I wouldn't be here if I wasn't thinking about it. ;-)

If PG is reading, what made you/YC decide to fund yet another rental listing site? I'm kind of surprised to be honest. It's been done and has the biggest competitor out there.

How is he an insider? Because he went to Princeton? Is he related somehow to Larry, Serge, Bill, or one of the Steves?

I think the best description of the process comes from an editor explaining why so many manuscripts fail: http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/004641.html#00...

It's harsh, but has given me insight into how the startup world, including iPhone app startups, works.

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=865411

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