STRisker
Regulatory data for short-term rental investors & operators
The initial MVP for STRisker is complete! The first three users signed up for Early Access!
Over the next few weeks, I'll be taking feedback from Early Access users. I'm limiting it to ~25 to start so that I can understand their problems well and build the features they need.
This MVP uses only no-code tools! Xano for the backend, WeWeb for the frontend, No Code Map App for the map feature, and Airtable for the behind-the-scenes stuff.
It took ~10 weeks from the idea to this point. I am tentatively looking to open a more extensive beta program later this summer and a paid product launch in early Fall.
It took a little over a week to complete my MVP primarily using Carrd and Airtable. The tech stack for this project isn't that complex.
The difficult part (where the biggest value add likely is) has been researching and compiling ~25 data points for 50 municipalities across 19 states.
I've also been validating the idea on Twitter and BiggerPockets' forum for short-term rentals.
I spent 2019 and 2020 working as an Implementation Manager / CSM at Host Compliance. We monitored short-term rentals (STRs) for local governments in the US and Canada.
Many towns and cities have been scrambling to keep up with all the new listings on Airbnb/VRBO since COVID started. The experience of helping local governments register, collect taxes, and sometimes enforce penalties was an eye-opener.
Investors/operators looking to operate outside their community or in multiple locations are often confused on how to research STR regulations. They usually don't know where to start looking or don't want to spend dozens of hours combing through 10+ websites.
Zillow is easy to browse and daydream. Government websites (with a few rare exceptions) are not places people want to spend time.
I'm building STRisker to help owners, operators, and non-profit managers understand STR rules across multiple jurisdictions.
2 Comments
May I know your thoughts using WeWeb? What you don't like and like about it? I'm trying to build custom apps and looking what's the best to use.
Overall, I have been impressed by WeWeb. I was expecting to give it a B- to a B. After using it for ~ five weeks, I'd give it an A-.
I don't feel limited by it. It's allowed me to set up quickly and share a beta product with testers in ~2 weeks. Anyone with some CSS/HTML experience will get significantly more out of WeWeb. That will allow you to debug and better think through your product decisions.
STRisker is primarily a regulatory data/search product. It allowed me to quickly build normal product functions such as tables, footers, and headers. The far more impressive part was how easy it makes creating more robust features (search/sort/filters). I have not worked with any other no / low code frontend tool that feels intuitive (for me) as WeWeb.
The part I don't like is getting locked into using it. Later on, if I hit a massive roadblock with it, the product might have to be significantly rebuilt. It seems to be the right tool for me for the next 3-6 months, but it may not be in 9+ months.
My biggest concern and the trade-off is speed/ease of building pretty powerful features vs. getting locked in.