Christian Ries founded and grew his startup Jonny On It for three years in the Atlanta Tech Village coworking space. But the COVID-19 pandemic caused a downturn from which the property technology startup couldn’t recover.
The startup closed at the beginning of this year. However, his work didn’t go unnoticed.
The team at Atlanta Ventures, the early-stage investment firm based in the Atlanta Tech Village, was watching his entrepreneurial journey. And they saw a spark.
Now, Ries is six months into his next property tech startup Zeto with support from Atlanta Ventures studio, an incubation program that helps entrepreneurs ideate and launch businesses. Atlanta Ventures founder David Cummings co-founds the business, provides an initial investment and extends the firm’s resources to the founder.
The studio program incubated two big names in the Atlanta innovation ecosystem — Salesloft, a billion-dollar sales engagement startup, and Terminus, a marketing tech startup with $90 million in investments.
Tech-enabled Intown Golf Club and landscaping robotics startup Greenzie are also members of the Atlanta Ventures studio with Zeto. Greenzie has raised $5.5 million on its quest to automate commercial lawn mowing.
Zeto is a home management company that helps owners schedule and take care of their residences’ maintenance needs. The startup is growing at a time in which investments into property tech have grown 300% each year for more than a decade.
Cummings sees a growth opportunity for Zeto, despite the difficulty of scaling property tech startups because of their reliance on physical infrastructure.
“Zeto rides the tailwinds of Covid’s dramatic reshaping of society, especially around the demand for single-family homes and remote work,” Cummings said.
A homeowner can text Zeto what they need, such as a pipe repair, broken window or firewood delivered, and the startup will find and book a Zeto service expert or a professional in its local network. Zeto can also send a representative to meet with the maintenance person if the homeowners aren’t available.
Homeowners can become members of Zeto for between $99 to $300 a month. Zeto has two full-time employees and 17 customers right now. This iteration of the platform is the third model that Zeto has tried. Ries thinks the team has hit a winner.
“Customers are starting to recommend it to their neighbors, their friends,” Ries said. “We look at things like ‘authentic demand,’ which is something David Cummings talks about. People are leaning in.”
As Zeto continues to adapt to its customers’ needs, Ries said the next step is automating the scheduling for these maintenance requests to create a more “seamless experience.” Zeto is also working on recommendations for homeowners, such as asking if they would like a Christmas tree delivered.
“We get it delivered and picked up, all you have to do is text back, ‘yes,’” Ries said.
The startup plans to develop the model in Atlanta for the next year or two, then expand to a new city, Ries said.
