Turns out Twitter isn’t only a platform for bickering - it also can be a useful tool for securing capital.
Such is the case for short-term rental property management solution Uplisting, which raised $300,000 in funding after the company’s founder sent a direct message to an investor from Calm Company Fund on Twitter.
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“Twitter is a fantastic resource to find and communicate directly with like-minded people. It’s there that I met Tyler Tringas, the general partner at Calm. We’ve been chatting for a number of years - he ‘gets’ what we do and champions businesses like ours,” says Uplisting co-founder and CEO Vince Breslin.
“Once we opened our AngelList round, I DM’d him thinking he may be interested in investing $20,000 or $30,000 into Uplisting. He had a look at our pitch deck and said he was interested, but only if he could invest $250,00+. It took just eight days from my initial tweet to signing the deal.”
Launched in 2017, Uplisting is a property and channel manager that lets short-term rental businesses manage bookings, automate tasks, message guests and take payment. The company is an Airbnb Preferred Partner and recently integrated with Google for vacation rental listings.
The co-founders met working at HouseTrip, which sold to Tripadvisor in 2016. Up until now, Uplisting had been self-funded and operated primarily on organic growth.
Says Calm’s Tringas: “The Uplisting team has a deep understanding of the short-term rental market and the needs of hosts across Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking and other platforms.
"At Calm Company Fund, a core area of focus is software tools that allow small businesses and entrepreneurs to thrive, grow their revenue and run their business from anywhere on their phone or laptop. Uplisting is the must-have software platform for any short-term rental company or host and we are very excited to have invested.”
In addition to the Calm Company Fund investment, Uplisting has also secured an investment of $200,000 from its own members via the funding model AngelList Roll Up Vehicle.
According to Uplisting, more than 20% of its members are committed to investing between $1,000 and $50,000 via a SAFE (Simple Agreement for Future Equity) model.
Uplisting says it has ambitions for membership investment to grow as the business matures, with every member having the opportunity to invest on a rolling basis.
“We are indebted to every member who has provided investment and insight to help Uplisting continually add value. Watching our members scale their businesses up to 50x on our platform has been incredibly rewarding for our team,” Says Breslin.