Nomad is the winner of the 2022 Colorado Inno award in the real estate category.
PJ O’Neil and Matt Thelen launched their rental technology startup Nomad right before the Covid-19 pandemic shook up both the rental market and the venture capital industry. The duo persevered and raised $20 million in February to take their rental solution to 10 new markets by 2024.
Location: Denver
Top Exec: PJ O’Neil, CEO
What was Nomad’s biggest accomplishment in the past year? We are proud of so many accomplishments this past year, [but] the biggest thing that stands out is our peoples’ growth and development. We have hired and developed a team of people that are intelligent, empathetic, strong and truly special.
What about your biggest challenge? Self-managing a rental property can be very rewarding, but it also demands an extraordinary amount of time and can be full of headaches — vacancies, late payments, late-night calls from residents, big repairs, etc. These challenges existed before the pandemic, and Covid-19 only exacerbated them, while adding new challenges, such as delinquency spikes, deflationary rent prices in many areas, urban flight and a lack of safety net for small-time landlords. As we refined the concept, we realized we’d have to raise funds from angels and VCs to build the business we wanted. Everything was on track for this dream story. However, Covid-19 had other plans. Global economic uncertainty and U.S. lockdowns made our timing to fundraise disastrous. We reached out to so many investors and slogged through scores of investor meetings during Denver’s lockdown. It was painful. Investors were skittish — especially for a concept like Nomad during the employment upheaval of the time.
How did you overcome those challenges? With some grit and some luck, we found and partnered with a truly amazing group of investors whom we are incredibly grateful for. We knew that something like Nomad had to exist, and we believed we were the people that should make it so. Nomad has since doubled our employee headcount and moved into three new markets.
What are your goals for the next year? Continue to offer the best product for both rental owners and residents, and scale it.
How does Nomad inspire its employees to innovate? We have intentionally created spaces where we “build out loud.” Whether this is in a group meeting or a public slack channel, this allows all our colleagues to contribute, as well as watch the innovation process happen live. The other vital component to being able to innovate and shift rapidly is fostering an environment where it is safe to be audacious, take risks, fail and learn. If/when something goes wrong or doesn't work the way we'd hope, we work rapidly to address it, but we do this without finger-pointing. It is on all of us to try things that won't work. That is a part of growing and learning.
Colorado Inno Awards real estate finalists:
- Aimco
- AvenueWest Global Franchise
