By Allan Maurer
WASHINGTON—HotPads Inc., a D.C.-based online housing search-engine, has raised $2.3 million from Pittsburgh-based Meakem Becker Venture Capital. The nearly two-year old company is seeking an experienced chief executive officer, will also hire engineers, and plans a move to new offices.
Douglas Pope, director of operations, and a co-founder, tells TechJournal South the seven-employee company needs a CEO “because we started the company when we were 23 and we’re 25 now. It’s time to bring in someone with a little experience.”
He and two co-founders, Matthew Corgan, president and director of technology and John Fitzpatrick, director of sales and marketing met at the University of Notre Dame. After multiple job-related moves, they decided they could improve on existing housing search sites.
Seeking new offices
They self-funded the start-up in May, 2005, operating from a townhouse on Dupont Circle complete with their office dog, Dora. Pope says the company expects to move to offices of about 1,500 to 2,000-square feet in the same area within the next few months. “It’s funny, our VCs in Pittsburgh are paying about $9 a square foot and we’re looking at $35,” says Pope.
He says the company likes the D.C. area for a number of reasons. The co-founders are young “and it’s a young city, with all those government employees and interns,” he says. It has plenty of museums and other attractions to take people to when they visit, and the co-founders are all interested in politics, he adds.
The HotPads Web site allows users to search for apartments or homes by location. Maps show apartment communities or private rentals with vacancies. The maps include schools and parks and additional features are planned. The site has about 25,000 active listings. Both listings and use of the site are free.
“We make money from advertising on the site,” says Pope, “although we’ll eventually add features we may charge for.”
The company partners with real estate investment trusts and software providers. Partners include Equity Residential, United Dominion Realty Trust, Archstone Smith, Lincoln Property, Home Properties, Fairfield Residential. Private Realtors also list their properties on HotPads.
For more information see: www.hotpads.com
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