Doorstead executives, from left to right: William Wu, CTO; Jennifer Bronzo, co-founder and COO; Jason Karas, VP of Growth; Ryan Waliany, co-founder and CEO. (Doorstead Photo)

New funding: Doorstead, a San Francisco real estate property management startup founded by former Uber employees, raised a $12.5 million Series A round led by Seattle firm Madrona Venture Group.

Company background: The 2-year-old startup targets 15 million small real estate investors who own single-family units and need help renting out their space. It provides data on optimal rental prices and offers a guaranteed rental offer in less than 24 hours.

Doorstead also manages the property, including preparing it for lease, the screening of tenants, and negotiating rent. It manages more than 300 properties in the Bay Area and recently launched in Los Angeles and Orange County. The startup has more than $10 million of rent under management.

Revenue model: Doorstead follows the industry standard of approximately 8% of monthly rents as a management fee, and 50% of one month’s rent when a tenant is placed. It guarantees payment to a property owner upfront — if the company misses estimates, it covers the difference, and if it rents out a higher rate, the extra cash goes to the owner.

Leadership: Uber vets Ryan Waliany and Jennifer Bronzo started Doorstead in 2019. Waliany worked in product at Uber and previously started Kitchenbowl, a Seattle social recipe app that sold to ABC Cooking in 2017. He also co-founded HotSwap, Bullet Media, and Idealix. Bronzo co-founded gaming startup Thumper Studios and hardware company ZowPow, and was also a property manager for Maywood Construction.

Funding: The 24-person company has raised $17.3 million to date. Other backers include executives from OpenDoor, Uber, and Docusign.

“Like we have seen in the market for buying and selling residential real estate with our previous investment in Redfin, when you eliminate friction and apply data and technology to the transaction, both buyer and seller (or in this case owner and renter) win,” Madrona’s Scott Jacobson and Elisa La Cava wrote in a blog post. “Doorstead has the winning approach for the market, and the team to build what we believe will become a household brand.”

Like what you're reading? Subscribe to GeekWire's free newsletters to catch every headline

Job Listings on GeekWork

Find more jobs on GeekWork. Employers, post a job here.