A new local startup that aims to simplify the apartment subletting process for students came in first place at one of the University of Chicago’s annual student pitch competitions.
Subli, founded by Melody Li, a sophomore at the University of Chicago, and Luke Iida, a recent grad, won $25,000 at UChicago’s College New Venture Challenge in March. The startup has built an online platform designed to take care of the entire subletting experience for college students.
Currently, many students use sites like Facebook and Craigslist to find subletters, which can present challenges on vetting tenants and receiving payments.
Using Subli, renters can communicate with potential tenants, schedule home tours, sign documents and schedule cleaning services all within one platform. To ensure that only students use Subli, the software requires users to have a .edu email address to sign up.
“People generally feel uncomfortable subletting their room to someone that’s considerably older than them, especially when they’re in college,” Iida said.
“There’s a level of trust within the student community,” Li added.
When a lease is established, Subli takes a small fee. However, because of the COVID-19 crisis, Subli waived all fees for its platform throughout the month of March. When the pandemic became serious in Chicago and UChicago transitioned to online learning methods, many students returned to their hometowns, meaning they suddenly needed to either get rid of their university housing or find subletters. Once students began leaving campus, Li said Subli saw an increase in the number of users.
Flip, a startup in New York that’s raised more than $7 million, also makes a sublet-finding platform, but unlike Subli, it is available to anyone.
Subli says it is going to use the financing won at the CNVC to ramp up its marketing initiatives and spread the word about their business.
This year, the College New Venture Challenge included a group of entrepreneurial students from The Grainger College of Engineering’s City Scholars program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The City Scholars program is a semester-long study and work program based in Chicago, which enables students from U of I to intern in the city’s tech sector while completing coursework. The CNVC course is the cornerstone of the new program and provides students with access to mentors and business resources.
“It’s great to have a whole ecosystem of professors and mentors who were willing and able to help us grow and expand our idea into something better,” Iida said.
Besides Subli, six other teams competed in the CNVC. Sneaker rental company Teneez came in second place and won $20,000, and Talket, a mental healthcare company, landed $10,000 in third place.
Other Chicago-based startups that have previously competed in the CNVC include Cubii, Fronen and Quevos.
UChicago's other student startup competition, the New Venture Challenge, is slated to take place June 4. Because of the coronavirus crisis, the program is operating virtually this year.
