3 Questions with the New Techstars Class: inRentive

Q&A with Melissa Moline, Founder inRentive
It’s that time again! Last week, Techstars welcomed its Summer 2014 class into 1871’s downtown Chicago Merchandise Mart space. Over the course of a 90-day period, Techstars offers startups $118,000 in seed funding, intensive mentorship, and a vast network of mentors and alumni for 7-10% equity in each company. After an intensive application process, 10 startups, 6 of which are originally Chicago-based, made the Techstars roster. Let’s meet them!

1. If you had to describe your company in one sentence, what would you say?

inRentive saves property managers time and money by reducing vacancy and eliminating the need for paid ILS (Internet Listing Service) marketing. We offer our customers a streamlined way to manage unit level listing content, analyze portfolio performance and market apartment units across Craigslist and social media through our direct integration with existing back-end property management software.

2. What led you to become a part of Techstars & 1871?

We were attracted to TechStars because of the unique opportunity to grow and learn from other entrepreneurs. In addition, the Techstars network is very powerful and we wanted to become better connected through our affiliation.

3. What are 3 things that get you excited about working out of Chicago?

As a lifelong midwesterner, Chicago made a lot of sense. The first thing that comes to mind is the people. I can’t think of anywhere else in the world that is as large and progressive as Chicago, yet somehow still manages to maintain a small town feel. While we all wish for shorter winters, there is something about summers in Chicago that make the wait worthwhile. Lastly, the central location makes it very easy for us to easily do business coast to coast.

Read more about inRentive here.
Read more about Techstars Chicago here.