Thousands of professionals, especially bachelors, working in India's congested cities face significant challenges in finding safe and comfortable accommodation.
Traditional online portals and broker networks are often inadequate, youth are often vulnerable to scams, high fees and unsuitable living conditions, while women face additional challenges of safety and harassment.
The issue took a personal turn for Hemant Solanki as he helped a working professional friend who was unhappy with the PG accommodation in his search for a more suitable flat. Despite scouring online portals like Magicbricks and Housing.com, Hemanth's friend found no 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 and affects a large number of individuals. To solve this problem, CityConnect, a safe and supportive community to connect urban bachelors, was founded.
Initial challenges
Hemant's start was not easy as it faced multiple challenges including the market and current solutions offered by existing companies in the PG and hostel segment. During research, he realized that most PGs and hostels mainly cater to students and not to working adults who want a bit more freedom and their own space. Another major challenge was establishing a reliable community. Instead of Facebook, Hemant created a community on WhatsApp, with more control and removing 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 conducted a survey and talked to about 700 to 800 people, we found out that they mainly struggle with three things: finding a place to live, getting food, and making friends. The biggest problem they have is finding a place to live, so we decided to help with that." He explains.
Differentiates from other platforms
Citynext offers sharing flats, flatmates, pre-occupied flats (main category), as well as PGs for working professionals, corporate stay houses and private flats for bachelors.
Citynext focuses on serving bachelors, especially working professionals, making it a unique platform where renters can directly connect with each other. "That's our differentiating selling point," adds Hemant.
Funding and growth
Citynext started with just Rs 20,000 and has been a bootstrapped startup ever since. It is noteworthy that the startup received an SSIP grant of Rs 1.3 lakh.
"We used resources like AWS credits to save our costs. Having an in-house tech team was very helpful in saving money," said Hemant. The startup is looking to raise funds to fuel its further expansion plans.
The startup claims to have helped more than a thousand bachelors in Ahmedabad find accommodation. It recently started offering premium services, attracting more than 250 subscribers and generating pre-revenues of around Rs 2.5 lakh.
Unlike other funded startups, Citynext focuses on organic growth and hires interns to manage its operations. This approach has made it profitable, contributing more than 60% profit.
Future plans
Citynext aims to become a global brand by offering a comprehensive platform for accommodation, networking and lifestyle management.
Hemant said that while the startup is primarily targeting Bengaluru, Mumbai and Hyderabad, it faces significant challenges in these cities due to the presence of other major companies.
“The main challenge lies in understanding the deep roots of these regions. "While we have been active for the past year, seeing customers from Bengaluru and other regions moving to Ahmedabad, similar user behavior indicates that the primary challenge is on the owner's side and their mindset towards our platform," explains Hemant.
യഥാർത്ഥ പരിഹാരങ്ങൾ വാഗ്ദാനം ചെയ്യുന്നതിനും മൊത്തത്തിലുള്ള ഉപയോക്തൃ അനുഭവം മെച്ചപ്പെടുത്തുന്നതിനും AI സാങ്കേതികവിദ്യയെ അതിൻ്റെ ഓൺലൈൻ പ്ലാറ്റ്ഫോമിലേക്ക് സമന്വയിപ്പിക്കാനും കമ്പനി പദ്ധതിയിടുന്നു.
