Her Campus: In a short summary, what is Leaseful?
Lilly Sisto: Leaseful is a peer-to-peer marketplace for college students to sublease their unused rooms and book their own temporary housing. Quite basically, Airbnb for college kids.
HC: How did Leaseful start?
LS: Leaseful was born as a solution to a problem that Alexander and Chad faced in college. After their junior year at Southern Methodist University (SMU), they both received offers for their dream summer internships in New York City but eventually had to turn them down when they couldn’t sublease their place in Dallas and find reasonable summer housing in NYC. And it wasn’t like they didn’t try; their disappointing decision came after months of scouring Craigslist and posting in Facebook groups.
They created Leaseful with the belief that students deserved a better way to sublease: a platform that eliminates the uncertainty that comes with posting on Craigslist and a way to improve on the limited success that comes with advertising through friend referrals. The aim of Leaseful is to provide students with safe and easy subleasing options, while also having a positive impact on their wallets.
HC: How did you become involved with Leaseful?
LS: I became involved with Leaseful for two reasons- I had always wanted to move out to LA, and I saw the vision that Chad and Alexander both have for the future of Leaseful. I had reached out to them my senior year of college and they weren’t hiring at that very moment, but I was really determined and persistent about it and that is how I landed an interview. We had very similar views on how we wanted to expand to college students and market to them and they liked some of the ideas I had, and I think we all connected very quickly on that. They wanted someone who was still in touch with college culture and who understood the demographic we are trying to reach.
HC: Do you like working for a start-up? How is it different than a normal business?
LS: I absolutely love it. Obviously, some days are better than others, but I would not trade it for the World. It’s different than a normal business in the sense that we run on a college students schedule- we are extremely busy when they are busy and vice versa. Monday- Thursday are extremely stressful and it pays off when we have some relaxed Fridays. Working for a startup is exciting because each day is different and you never know what to expect, everyone is learning as they go along, there is no handbook, but that is what makes each day so rewarding and exciting.
HC: What do you like most about the Leaseful culture?
LS: That’s a tough question! I’d have to say what I like most about the culture is that we all understand each other very well and we all have the same common goal at the end of the day and that is to get as many students all over the country to use our platform to sublease their rooms and eventually all over the world. We all have each other’s backs and we are a very tight-knit crew. We also all help each other out and we have a lot of fun together. Despite the daily stress that comes along with the each of our roles, we always find time to make each other laugh.
HC: What is the top priority in marketing strategy?
LS: The top priority in marketing strategy is to get the word out to as many college students as possible and in the most creative and different ways as possible. One thing that makes us stick out from other real estate companies is that we are all somewhat recent college grads and we understand the college demographic extremely well and we use social media as a tool to reach kids across the country and it is so powerful. If you look at our Instagram https://www.instagram.com/leaseful/ you can get a glimpse of what I am talking about!
HC: Are there any deals coming up for Leaseful subletters?
LS: If you sublet a place in New York City this summer, you get an amazing housewarming basket upon arrival with a few of our favorite things. You can check out the basket on our Instagram and Facebook.