Sean Mitchell
Co-Founder and CEO, Ryse · 1 appearance on the record.
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Before entering proptech, Mitchell managed structured mortgage-backed security and credit portfolios at J.P. Morgan and Corbin Capital Partners. After co-founding and leading rental marketplace Rezi, he co-founded Ryse, a platform offering liquidity and financing on real estate leases.
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1 prediction · 4 assertions · 2 opinions · 6 insights · 6 disclosures · 1 what if · every statement was checked. The prediction and assertions are the 5 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 2 are resolved, and 3 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.
The record, in short
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Their most notable supported claim
Everything Sean Mitchell said on the Y Combinator Startup Podcast that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →
Mitchell: Algorithmic tenant screening reduces housing discrimination and prevents false applicant rejections
“And I think the fact that it's, you know an automated and algorithmic process really reduces the potential for discrimination reduces the potential for you know, not approving tenants who are you know, viable and potentially great tenants.”
Mitchell: Rezi screens tenants better than independent landlords in 90% of cases
“We really try to balance this line between giving a great experience, but also verifying that we're screening, you know, I would say probably 90% of the cases we're Probably screening better than our landlord clients would have if they hadn't used this.”
Mitchell: Traditional residential leasing agents bear zero financial downside for vacant units
“Frequently there are agents whether there be brokers or other parties who Don't have skin in the game. So, you know, the landlord who is effectively at risk of, you know, finding a bad tenant or not finding a tenant fast enough and losing money, they don't hav…”
Mitchell: Existing landlord price discovery tools lack precision around specific property amenities
“Because, you know, the thing is, when you think about the resources that landlords have to kind of get price discovery you know, the tools are not very nuanced and precise. They don't provide the landlord insight.”
Mitchell: Real estate landlords are a notoriously nebulous customer segment for sales
“I think landlords are probably one of the more nebulous communities to figure out how to sell to.”
Mitchell: Rezi uses structured debt rather than venture equity to fund receivables
“When we went to our VCs, we said, you know, pretty clearly we're, our intent is not to use the majority of the capital that we raise from you for funding these receivables. Our intent is to you know, create this financing solution that allows us to do it.”
Mitchell: Solving operational friction for landlords ultimately yields lower rent for tenants
“The interesting thing about it is that if you are able to solve the problem on the landlord side, that, that the, you know, the benefits really accrue to tenants, right? If landlords have lower friction, if they have lower risk, if they are happier with their …”
Mitchell: Onboarding mom-and-pop landlords requires human engagement due to emotional property attachments
“If you really want to work with a landlord and want to get ah, get them comfortable, you got to talk to them. That there's not a scenario where you're not gonna going to engage with this person. Like, you know, this is particularly if it's a mom and pop landlo…”
Mitchell: Renters increasingly demand frictionless, Amazon-style apartment leasing experiences
“More and more tenants are going to, they don't want to feel like they're applying for a mortgage to lease an apartment. They, you know, the same experience that they have with, you know, buying something on Amazon is the same experience that they want to have …”
Mitchell: Saturated new development in New York City drives up rental concessions
“New York, In particular is very interesting because of the saturation of new development. Has forced a meaningful increase in the concessions that landlords have to offer in order to get their units leased.”
Mitchell: The highest stress of founding is risking your early employees' livelihoods
“The most stressful thing is that you're putting other people's livelihood address, that if your, you know, concepts and ideas fail, like, it's not just gonna impact you, it's gonna impact them. And, you know, these are people who, you know, you likely are very…”
Mitchell: Rezi guarantees landlords rental income and boards tenants in 10 minutes
“Our first product is a product called Upfront, which Is essentially a solution that gives landlords a, ah, an option where they're guaranteed to lease out their vacant apartments and gives tenants the ability to lease, lease apartments from us in under 10 minu…”
Mitchell: Landlords face two principal risks: vacancy costs and tenant defaults
“A landlord principally has two risks with a vacant property. A, the, you know, the vacancy risk itself. So the lost income and the carrying costs from owning that asset every single day. If they're not generating income, that's a loss. But then when they lease…”
Mitchell: Rezi pivoted two days into Y Combinator and closed within weeks
“We got to YC January fourth. I told the team I wanted to, you know, pivot the strategy probably on January sixth. And we went to office hours. Kind of told them, Hey, yeah, you know what you let us in for the thing you let us in on. We're not going to do that …”
Mitchell: Rezi risked 40% of its available capital on its first deal
“The first transaction we did, I pulled my other two co-founders aside and I said, Yeah, I'm gonna probably use 40% of the money we have on this one deal. And it's like, if this doesn't work yeah guys, I don't know. I really did. That's what I told him.”
Mitchell: Rezi advances landlords between $30,000 and $50,000 upfront per apartment unit
“Depending on, you know, depending on a given transaction, it could be anywhere from call it 30 to 50,000 dollars.”
Mitchell: Rezi eliminates application and broker fees for prospective apartment renters
“Any person who applies for any resi apartment we don't charge application fees. So if you apply for a resi apartment and you're approved if you decide that you want to take, you know, apartment a instead of the apartment B, you're freely able to do that. We do…”
Mitchell: Consumer receivable investors typically target cash flow returns above 15 percent
“Investors in consumer receivables tend to like to earn something in the ballpark of mid-teens or greater. Yeah. Into the twenties returns on their on their cash flows.”
Appearances (1)
| Episode | Date | Speaking time |
|---|---|---|
| Helping Landlords Find Tenants – Sean Mitchell of Rezi · Y Combinator | May 4, 2018 | 50m |