Episode Summary

• Founder story: From personal hack to invite-only network; evolved into friends-and-friends home sharing (not public STRs).
• Funding path: Initial $100K blank-check safe; ~$1M pre-seed; $3.5M seed led by Freestyle; $1.5M follow-on note.
• Product: Contacts-based graph (WhatsApp-style) shows places from your friends/FOAF; privacy by default; groups onboarding.
• Go-to-market: Slow, steady, community-led growth; beta networks produced ~20M contacts in graph.
• Monetization (planned): Platform/network access fee; optional insurance; no take-rate on free swaps.
• Fundraising tactics: Tight process, momentum, avoid hype rounds; choose leads with real reserves and follow-on appetite.

Full Transcript

Jason Kirby: Welcome back everyone. Thank you for joining us at Fundraising Demystified. Today we have Zach Bell, founder of MyPlace.co. Zach, thank you for joining us on the show today.

Zach Bell: Thanks for having me, Jason.

Jason Kirby: Zach, you’re a serial entrepreneur currently working on MyPlace.co, which you’ve raised a total of $6 million for. Can you give the audience a little background on who you are and what led you to starting MyPlace?

Zach Bell: My name is Zach Bell. I love long walks on the beach and sunsets. But for real: I’ve been building community my entire life, traveling around the world fostering that community. My friends live all over. I wrote a blog called “I could never afford my lifestyle,” and realized that hosting friends and staying with friends—sharing my house with friends and having them share back—radically defined my life and access.

While building Habitas—a hotel brand we call “Luxury for the Soul,” focused on connection to self, nature, and others—I was traveling constantly and my places sat empty. I made a Squarespace page, framed a Google calendar and a form, gave a password to a few friends, and said: let me know if you want to come stay. If you can cover my rent, great; if not, no worries. Be careful what you build on a weekend—it can take over your life.

Jason Kirby: Did it go viral? Did the password get out?

Zach Bell: It didn’t go viral, but friends asked to add their places. Someone’s cousin wanted the password. I tracked who had it in Airtable. It grew to ~2,500 people and a bunch of houses in New York, LA, and San Francisco. The New York Times included us in a listicle about alternatives to Airbnb. I’d written “share with your friends” on the homepage, and people reached out saying, “I want to share my house, but with my own friends.” That product is complex to build—but we’re getting there and have early successes.

Jason Kirby: Serendipity: you solved your own problem and others got excited. I’ve seen co-home-sharing concepts—Launch House, entrepreneur houses—but MyPlace feels like community-first, regardless of background. Where are you now?

Zach Bell: We quietly came out of beta. We’ve never done anything loudly. For a while we were invite-only; now anyone can download the app or sign up on the site. We experimented with friending; ultimately we adopted a WhatsApp-style approach: when you download the app, we match your contact list and show places from people you know—friends and friends-of-friends.

Because of the influence of our beta community, we ended up with ~20M contacts in the database. Chances are your friends are here inside certain networks. We’re methodically bringing new networks online so that when people join, their friends are already here. You can share only with your friends; optionally extend one degree out. You can get more private, but you can’t go public—we’re not a public short‑term rental platform. We see ourselves as a social network.

Jason Kirby: From a business model perspective, how do you make money—or plan to?

Zach Bell: We don’t right now—an exciting time in 2023 (said with sarcasm). Sharing with friends happens everywhere online but isn’t well built into platforms. Most people won’t list their personal homes to strangers; Airbnb is a business for most hosts. We focus on staying with friends—hosting for free, swapping, trading, or covering costs (e.g., two months a year in NYC). We don’t want to monetize the transaction.

Instead, we’ll likely introduce a small platform/network fee (to use the social graph or FOAF share) and offer insurance—our top user request. We won’t facilitate payments; it’s hard to take a percentage of free, and we want free swaps to thrive.

Jason Kirby: Like early Facebook—don’t monetize until there’s real network scale. You consider yourselves a social network.

Zach Bell: More like a social marketplace. In a normal marketplace you create liquidity across the whole market; we have to create liquidity inside each user’s social graph—that’s the hypothesis we’re de‑risking. We’ve beta‑tested “Groups” (e.g., business school classes, alumni, Summit Series, Daybreaker, YPO) to jumpstart trusted networks, so onboarding isn’t just one‑by‑one friends.

Jason Kirby: Smart—high‑trust groups often coordinate via WhatsApp, not platforms.

Zach Bell: Exactly. We’re less like Facebook’s social graph and more like a marketplace with a social dynamic. We don’t want to trigger zoning issues or turn homes into businesses. We want your friends in your place—and the “right” people in the right places. Some homes are stunning; I couldn’t afford them but also can’t even see them if they’re not in my network. Ideally everyone’s network fits them.

Jason Kirby: Listeners are probably thinking: no revenue, social network—how much did he raise? You raised a $1M pre‑seed (2020), a $3.5M seed, then a $1.5M note. Walk us through when and why you raised, and how.

Zach Bell: While leaving my last company, a close friend said, “That website is interesting—make it for our group,” and handed me a blank check for $100K at a $1M valuation. I didn’t even plan to start a company; I drew down funds as needed. I called my now‑co‑founder (then running an agency), and we started building with minimal spend; I wasn’t taking a salary.

Early angels—including early Facebook builders (Groups, Ads)—believed “sharing with friends” hadn’t been solved online. We cobbled together ~$1M via $100K/$50K/$25K checks over a year‑plus, moved off Squarespace, and shipped real product.

Critical piece: we ran a closed beta and I personally onboarded every user via a 10‑minute call. One of those users was Dave Samuel from Freestyle Capital. After onboarding, he said he’d send a term sheet. We’d met 1.5 years prior in a different context—relationships compound.

Jason Kirby: Did Freestyle do the whole seed?

Zach Bell: Freestyle led most of it. It was 2021—once you have a lead term sheet, momentum hits. Haystack took much of the rest; Oceans Ventures also joined. We carved out room for strategic angels to help grow the network—an “open a bar” strategy so influential folks say, “Let’s go to my bar.” Some came via AngelList syndicates to consolidate small checks.

Jason Kirby: Then a $1.5M safe a year later—why?

Zach Bell: We were advised the market could tighten; we were in a good position to raise a little more. Freestyle led again; Oceans followed. Also: we didn’t raise a “trendy” mega‑round in 2021. Friends raising $70M seeds in web3 got hurt later; our modest, reasonable round protected us. Avoiding hype and shark‑fin growth patterns has served us well.

Jason Kirby: Today you’re launching, going to market—still pre‑revenue but with $6M raised, which is rare now.

Zach Bell: It’s harder now. We’re closing a small round; having a strong lead with reserves is everything. We hit the metrics we set with the board, found PMF signals, but the Series A market wants exponential scale and at least a bit of revenue. So we’re adding revenue levers earlier—insurance, light platform fee—to demonstrate monetization.

Jason Kirby: What should founders ask prospective VCs?

Zach Bell: Ask how much of the fund is deployed, reserves for follow‑ons, and how often they support portfolio rounds. Some funds were fully deployed when we needed options. A lead with reputation and follow‑on appetite is a huge signal to the market—and motivating for the founder.

Jason Kirby: How often do you communicate with investors?

Zach Bell: We do quarterly updates; with Freestyle I have a standing every‑other‑week call (cancels sometimes). Monthly email updates can build momentum and activate angels; I could do better there.

Jason Kirby: Biggest fundraising mistake you’d fix?

Zach Bell: Run a tighter, time‑boxed process. Fundraising eats bandwidth; momentum builds momentum. Batch intros, move everyone through together. When you’re “in market” too long, things get stale. Also, rarely send your deck before a first meeting; use a short blurb to get the meeting, then tell the story live.

Jason Kirby: Where can people find you and MyPlace?

Zach Bell: Me: zachmbell.com and @ZachMBell across socials. MyPlace: myplace.co or search “My Place” on the App Store. We also share on Substack.

Jason Kirby: Zach, thanks for sharing your journey. We’ll get this out to the audience.

Zach Bell: Thanks so much, Jason.

FAQ