Barely a landlord website anymore

👩🏻 Top insight to share with you

I've been told I just wanted to be an influencer, and that I've pivoted to AI!

It’s been 860+ days since Co-Founder Vishal and I decided to leave the corporate world to build Openroom. We self-funded this entire operation at the start, and then with customer’s help, have been able to maintain the entirety of Openroom for thousands of people visiting openroom.ca every single month.

We were 28 when we started. Time flies.

What I can tell you is that there are many days I have thought about what life would be like doing something else - one that allows me to bake under the sun by a nice beach.

But what these last few years have taught me is that:

1. When, and if, we’re given a platform to create change, we should speak up and do something about it!

2. We started off as two landlords frustrated with the system but our work was not just landlord-focused. The vision is a future of a transparent and connected rental ecosystem - for tenants and landlords.

This edition of the newsletter is brought to you by our friends at Singlekey.com.

Openroom was never just a software company. We educate, we advocate, and build - and we happen to have this software element you can use too.

What people didn’t see behind the scenes was the Openroom team spending thousands of hours:

• speaking to politicians and industry leaders. I nearly got into a car accident driving up north in the winter.

• guiding individuals online pro-bono. I try to get back to every email I get, and also hop onto support tickets and calls myself.

• building resources to share with you, with no strings attached, because I want you to have what I didn’t have.

To be honest, the last thing I thought about when we started this company was that I would end up being best friends with Instagram and TikTok.

Funny thing is…

In Grade 11 English class, I couldn’t recite one of Shakespeare’s soliloquies even after practicing the entire week. I failed that assignment. I was horrible at memorizing lines.

I choked up at a business case competition at York University in front of judges, I couldn’t even remember the single line I was given to present by my team of 5. My teammate came to save me as I fumbled my line.

Bleh, that’s embarrassing!

So I spent the next decade practicing by leading meetings and hosting conferences just so I can introduce speakers and get my two minute time slot to say something out loud.

It’s slightly different now where many have seen me on social media, on podcasts, or on some stages at events.

The difference now is I don’t ever try to memorize anything but I still get nervous!

Thing is, my team and I chose to put me out there because we have knowledge that we wish someone had taught us back when we were younger.

Now with over 100K connected community members joining in the work we do through media channels of newsletter, Instagram, TikTok, Youtube, and Facebook - this is our opportunity to share more knowledge & create positive change, together.

Does that make me an ‘influencer’?

🤷🏻‍♀️

Thank you to the Openroom community members who believed in us since Day 1 and those who came along the journey with us throughout the last few years.

I appreciate you so much from the bottom of my heart.

📊 Research Poll

Have a great rest of the weekend!

Weiting Bollu
Mom, Rental Housing Provider, Rental Housing Advocate, Educator, and Openroom Co-Founder & CEO

Openroom collects public tenancy records and connects them to the broader financial credit system to help you make informed decisions on who to rent from and rent to.

We enable you to screen tenants or future landlords, help you report rental debt, give rewards to great residents, or bundle it all into BureauEdge.

We also educate about rental housing and we advocate for a more transparent and connected rental ecosystem to support both responsible housing providers and residents. Send us an opinion piece to [email protected].