On Stompstart by 29 February 2016 · New York · United States
Riley.
A New York text-message home-search assistant that turned into a Y Combinator-backed lead service for agents, then closed in 2019 with a candid farewell.
Real estate
Timeline
- Changed course
After joining Columbia University's Almaworks accelerator in fall 2015, Riley switched from a consumer service to a business-to-business service for brokers and property managers.
Change of course · Announced - Listing page saved
The Wayback Machine saved this listing page.
- Funding
Riley raised a $3.1 million seed round from investors including Y Combinator, Social Capital and Kleiner Perkins.
Funding · Announced - Closed
Co-founder and CEO Daniel Ahmadizadeh announced Riley was shutting down and would return roughly 20% of initial investments.
Closure · Announced - Listed on Stompstart
“Riley is a personal assistant for real estate via SMS.”
As listed on Stompstart
“Riley is a personal assistant for real estate via SMS.”
Riley is a personal assistant for real estate via text messaging. Users text [removed] to find their next home. Riley uses a combination of user input and big data to provide users with the most personalized listings, leading to increased conversion rates and lower vacancies for realtors and property owners. Riley is the only mobile-first real estate service that does not require an app download. SMS is a functionality that is on every single mobile device in the world whereas other real estate apps are dependent on operating system, device type, etc. We believe that we are able to accumulate more data from both sides of the marketplace via SMS as compared to other services due to our ability to directly engage with users.
- Topics
- Ecommerce, Real estate
- Location
- New York · United States
In our words: The listing described Riley as a personal assistant for real estate by text message: users texted a number to say what they wanted and received personalized listings, with no app to download. It pitched the model as a way to gather data from both renters and realtors.
See the saved page ↗Stories
FeatureThe apartment search by text message that became a lead service for agentsRead the storyPublication record
- Release
sha256:53917a2ce62eb634125c1ff362d7740ab64feae2d83ad7e0e2c6da3fde426fcd- Revision
sha256:0fc6b3d7eb539b1cb7053093811d66937a8a9d52f655c1203213944a2ac42fc1
Every statement here carries its date and stays true as of that date.