A Black-owned business that came to Buffalo as part of the 43North competition received a vote of confidence from one of the world’s biggest technology companies.
WhoseYourLandlord is among 50 startups across the U.S. to receive $100,000 from the Google for Startups Black Founders Fund.
The fund was started by Google last year following widespread unrest through the country centering on relations between the police and communities of color.
It provides “non-dilutive” $100,000 grants to businesses, along with advertising and data storage credits, sessions with a therapist, access to mentoring and potential business relationships with Google.
WhoseYourLandlord, led by founder and CEO Ofo Ezeugwu, is a software platform that seeks to forge meaningful connections between tenants and landlords. The firm has undertaken pilot projects with major developers in Buffalo such as Newmark Ciminelli and Savarino Cos.
Ezeugwu has embraced the community, serving on the boards of the Buffalo Niagara Partnership and D’Youville College.
He said WhoseYourLandlord is in the midst of an equity raise, working on major integrations with a handful of property managers and building out the software to support the growth it envisions.
“Google’s backing is huge,” Ezeugwu said. “We’re able to talk to their sales ops team, their people ops team, their app store team. And they can drive a lot of eyeballs, energy and traffic to founders doing great work."
