Castle YC Application

Winter 2016Inactive

Castle went through Y Combinator in the Winter 2016 batch as a Real Estate and Construction company. Below: what the company does, who founded it, and its application to YC, reconstructed question by question in the real YC form.

YC batch: Winter 2016
Industry: Real Estate and ConstructionHousing and Real Estate
Team size: 11
Status: Inactive
Launched: 2015

Founders

Max NussenbaumFounder/CEO
Tim DingmanFounder/COO
Scott LoweFounder/CTO

What Castle does

Castle manages rental homes for landlords using automation and on-demand labor. We find tenants, collect rent, and coordinate maintenance, allowing owners to kick back, relax, and never worry about their rental properties again. Owners either have to deal with this whole mess themselves, or spend 10% of their rental income on a traditional property management company that requires constant supervision and is often incentivized to act against the owner’s best interest. There are 43 million rental units in the United States, and most of them are currently managed with some combination of faxes, mail, and unreturned voicemails on the landlord’s personal phone. Castle moves all of property management into a seamless online experience, providing owners with transparency, speed, and incredible customer service - plus huge cost savings over traditional management. Renters get great service and instant updates about important issues.

Castle's YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

Castle, Winter 2016 batch. The real form questions, answered from public data.

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

Castle

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

Manages rental homes with automation and labor

What is your company going to make? Please describe your product and what it does or will do.

We built a platform that automates property management tasks for rental home owners. Castle finds tenants, collects rent, and coordinates maintenance through a combination of software and an on-demand network of labor. It removes the hassle of managing rentals and cuts costs compared to traditional property managers.

Where do you live now, and where would the company be based after YC?

We live in Detroit, MI, and after YC the company would remain based here.

Explain your decision regarding location.

Detroit is a large rental market with many landlords dealing with inefficient management methods. Being here keeps us close to our early users and the team is local, which helps with recruiting and operational logistics.

21 more answers in the full application

Founders, Progress, Idea, Equity, Curious, Batch Preference are in the full version. Create a free account to open it in YC Insights, next to every other YC batch.

See full application

Frequently Asked Questions

Is this the real Castle YC application?

No. Y Combinator keeps submitted applications private. This is a reconstruction: the real YC form questions, answered from Castle's public data (launch notes, founder backgrounds, product description). It shows how a company like Castle would present itself to YC, not the text they submitted.