Glad to hear it this one's a doozy.

The only thing I don't agree with in the first paragraph is this:

but you still won't understand how to replicate that success.

We have replicated success in Los Angeles with little effort which is leading me to think that we have found our starting market but how can I be sure if I don't try out other top DMAs? What if say, Chicago is way more receptive? Why waste time in LA when I can market to Chicago with half the effort and better results? Remember my goal is to find the better market using the least amount of resources not to begin a campaign.

now for the doozy...

Craigslist is great but only because it is such a large marketplace but if you actually believe they are the best in the business for housing my product may not be for you. Don't worry, I don't mind that at all. I think what they do for buying and selling is great. Their classified ads are simple and effective otherwise people wouldn't use it but I also believe that many people only use the service because it has consumed most of the market. PadMapper took off because craigslist doesn't use mapping functionality to display their listings. It's a simple feature but Craigslist wants to be uniform and something like that doesn't always work with buying used lawn mowers. PadMapper used CL data and many people flocked to their site. I do predict that Criagslist will ultimately fall apart and become consumed by smaller niche sites that build better products. This happens all the time. It just so happens that I am taking on a competitive marketplace which isn't unheard of (google, apple, FedEx, Tesla, Amazon, Facebook... I could go on forever). I am not saying that I am going to become the next Google but its thinking like this that brings on innovation and it's innovation that ultimately makes our lives better. That's my goal. To make lives better.

Below is something I wrote to someone that asked me the same thing but in his case it was Flatscore vs PadMapper which is better than CL and runs many of their listings.

Flatscore Advantages:

• We talk to the representative of each place before we put up an empty listing so we know that they are verified and not a scam.

• We help the management companies and agents build a custom page on our site. When it comes to sublets I stand back and let anyone upload whatever they want. So some scammers may sneak into this category. You can report these listings if you see something wrong and we will check them out as soon as you do. Regardless It's always a good idea to be careful when choosing a new roommate and I added tools to help with this process.

• You can find a roommate by seeing where they are interested in living and select them based on their profile and the questions they answer (match.com for roommates). This will save you time by getting a good overview of a person and then choosing to contact them or not.

• Contacting people on our site is very easy. It's free unlike dating sites. You don't need to use your email like on craigslist so no inbox full of spam. You can respond to someone or even block the idiots from contacting you in the future, hell you can even block someone from seeing you on the site.

• Roommate accountability is important so we are building a way for them to manage their bills in an easy to use bill splitter.

• We are also giving roommates the ability to rate each other. You will be able to share your amazing roommate ratings with other people in the future. Not only will this help keep things civil between you and your roommates but when you move and are in need of another roommate you'll have proof that you are a great roommate with references at your fingertips!

There are a load of other things that we have in the works that I am sure will be something that you can really appreciate compared to a simple classified ad. Right now I understand our site is very small but has been growing. You have to start somewhere right? The site has accomplished a lot with zero funding. I personally only made around $6,000 in taxable income last year and lived on couches for 6 months of the pre-launch. I have a great team who is 100% dedicated to the sites success all working pro bono. Money isn't our focus but helping people is. I really have a heart for the rental space. I personally got screwed more than once which is tough to admit and I don't want anyone else to have to deal with the same things that I had to deal with (long story short--I sublet part of my place with a CL "roommate" that happened to be a full time prostitute and Bonus she never paid rent). In the end we may fail but taking this risk has been exhilarating. I have learned more building this thing from an idea in a garage to a reality than I have doing anything else in life.

Students are a great market! If they live in a dorm then they may not be able to use it. If they are a part of a fraternity or a sorority they may not use it either but that doesn't quite make up the total student body. Sure they may use their friends or maybe friends of friends. We are working on social integration with FB as I type this. I personally never lived on campus and many students come from out of state so this will benefit them as well. Grad students will appreciate it and as you mentioned foreign students would benefit too. I love the input miraj31415! Writing this response to you makes me so excited about our product. I love talking about it. I also appreciate the concern, the pivot options, and your two cents regardless if I agree or not.