Rise of one person companies

👩🏻 Top insight to share with you

According to Harvard Business Review, the average age of those who created the top 0.1% of startup was 45.

So hey, no rush to the rest of us who aren’t in our 40’s or 50’s yet. Still got time!

I had a chat with someone I'd consider to have 'made it,' and I asked him why he still wants to hustle. He told me staying current energizes him, and that the greatest wealth in a person's journey gets built between 50 and 65.

This chart shows solo-founder startups climbing.

The number of new businesses launched in early 2026 almost doubled from the same stretch last year. Almost all of them were launched by one person with no co-founder and no team on day one!

AI tools are making it far easier for one person to start and run a business alone.

I’m hosting another virtual event so more of us can connect and get inspired by what AI can do in our small businesses and the rental housing world.

I don’t think we’ve gotten to perfection on AI agents or automation yet there's still plenty that needs a human in the loop."

Last edition of this newsletter, I asked you a poll question.

A few of you told me you could show me what you’re building. You were serious about showing me after a workshop together…!

I got a message from Openroom community member Ian Hocking, who runs Hocking Property Management, in our small AI Agent Build WhatsApp group.

Then, Openroom community member Sherif Nathoo (runs CMG Toronto Property Management) built SHERLOCK. His firm’s own tenant screening system that is trained on how their team reviews incoming applications.

Alright, pretty cool folks.

Let's get together for a show-and-tell and pull some inspiration from each other next month.

I'm running a workshop on AI capabilities and agent automation for small businesses and everyday life. I'd love for you to join me.

I'll walk through what an AI Agent actually is, where to start, and the specific things I've automated in my own business. Plus, Ian and Sherif will join me to show off their own.

📊 Research Poll

Newsletters come with a poll to help us better serve the Openroom community members like yourself in the future. Thanks in advance.

One more thing on my mind: If building a product is getting easier, the hard part becomes getting it in front of people. Everyone says pick a lane: organic, paid, SEO, social. I'm curious which one you're actually in.

Hope to see you on a live call one day!

p.s. if you reply back to this email, I try to read everything and respond back to as many emails as I can. I welcome you to try!

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.