Renters Have Been Left Behind

Childhood friends and co-founders, Alec Slocum (CEO), Adam Olien (CTO) and Chad Aldous (Head of Design) founded ABODO in 2012 for a simple reason: apartment hunting was just plain painful.

As recent college grads — with 10+ apartment hunts between them — they had far too much personal experience with the typical, stressful apartment search.

The never-ending list of scammy Craigslist ads. The apartment listing sites that looked and functioned like they were built in the ‘90s. And the all-too-common resignation to wandering through neighborhoods looking for 'For Rent' signs.

It was obvious to Chad, Adam and Alec that while the world we live in had grown and benefited from innovative new technologies, the rental industry had not...yet.

So, they set out to change that, starting in their hometown of Madison, WI.

Working nights and weekends, the guys built and launched the first version of ABODO in a matter of months.

Upon launch, ABODO listed ten times the number of apartments that were available on old-school apartment search websites on a user interface that finally prioritized empowering renters to find their best home above all else.

In the months following ABODO's launch, more than half of the renters in Madison used the service. The guys knew they'd found a way to help renters using technology.

So, they expanded.

With support from some of the largest investors in the Midwest, ABODO quickly grew from operating in just Madison, WI to serving renters in thousands of cities across America.