Thousands of professionals, especially bachelors, working in India's busy cities face significant challenges in finding safe and comfortable accommodation.
Traditional online portals and broker networks often don't come close enough, and young people are often vulnerable to scams, high fees, and unsuitable living conditions, while women face the additional challenges of safety and harassment.
The problem became personal for Hemant Solanki as he helped a friend, a working professional, who was unhappy with his PG accommodation, in his quest for a more suitable flat. Magicbricks, Housing. Despite falling prey to online portals like Amazon.com, Hemant's friend did not find any help and was duped by two brokers.
Hemant widened his search. He checked online flat and roommate hunting groups, revisited online portals and contacted over 100 individuals. This experience made him realize that this problem is not limited to his friend alone and it affects a large number of individuals. To solve this problem, Citynext, a safe and helpful community, was established to connect the city's bachelors.
Initial challenges
Hemant's beginning was not easy as he faced multiple challenges, including the market and current solutions offered by existing companies in the PG and hostel segment. During the research, he realised that most PGs and hostels cater mainly to students and not to working adults who want a little more freedom and their own space. Another major challenge was to establish a trustworthy society. Hemant has created a community on WhatsApp instead of Facebook, with more control and removal of unwanted people.
Hemant recalls that in March 2023, they started with the idea of creating a networking app for single people moving to new cities for work or study.
"But after we did a survey and talked to about 700 to 800 people, we found that they were struggling mainly with three things: finding a place to stay, getting food, and making friends. The biggest problem for them is finding a place to live, so we decided to help with that, "he explains.
different from other platforms.
Citinect facilitates sharing of sharing flats, flatmates, pre-occupied flats (main category) as well as PGs for working professionals, corporate stay houses and private flats for bachelors.
Sitinect focuses on serving bachelors, especially working professionals, making it a unique platform where tenants can directly connect with each other. "That's our different selling point," adds Hemant.
Funding and growth
Sitinect started with just Rs 20,000 and has been a bootstrapped startup ever since. Notably, the startup has received an SSIP grant of Rs 1.3 lakh.
"We used resources like AWS credits to save on our costs. Having an in-house tech team was very helpful in saving money, "Hemant said. The startup is looking to raise funds to scale up its further expansion plans.
The startup claims to have helped over 1,000 bachelors in Ahmedabad find accommodation. It recently started offering premium services, attracting over 250 subscribers and generating a pre-earnings of around Rs 2.5 lakh.
Unlike other funded startups, Sitinect focuses on organic growth and hires interns to manage its operations. This approach made it profitable, helped by a profit of more than 60%.
Future plans
Sitinect aims to become a global brand by offering a comprehensive platform for accommodation, networking and lifestyle management.
While the startup primarily targets Bengaluru, Mumbai and Hyderabad, it is facing significant challenges in these cities due to the presence of other major companies, Hemant said.
"The main challenge lies in understanding the deep roots of these regions. While we have been proactive over the last one year, seeing customers from Bengaluru and other regions shifting to Ahmedabad, indicating similar user behaviour, the primary challenge is on the owner's side and their thinking towards our platform, "explains Hemant.
The company also plans to integrate AI technology into its online platform to offer real solutions and improve the overall user experience.
