Toby Thomas-Smith

This is so hard to post and has been on my mind for weeks but f**k it. This is me completely transparent.

Depression.

Ever since the passing of Jake I made a New Years resolution promise to myself to share my real journey & not just the wins.

It was 1 month ago, midnight, 21st May, I looked at myself in the mirror and thought “god you look & feel like shit” during our biggest week ever. Everything seemed like it was winning on the outside, but inside I’d been having the worst time since I started EasyRentANZ 4 years ago. I was in the early stages of depression. Nothing I did made me happy for weeks on end. I genuinely thought this was impossible but here I was.

So what did I do? Had the most open conversation I’ve ever had with my co-founder Jack & Alexander with endless support from Mahesh. It was one of the hardest things to do but it’s made us so much bloody stronger. I wouldn’t want to be taking on the world with anyone else but you Jack & Alex.

Looking back, it was the best thing that could have happened. I used to not take mental health seriously enough, but now it’s the number one priority. I’ll never question anyone’s reasoning for needing time out. If Alex turned around tomorrow saying I need whatever time off it would be yes instantly. This comes from trusting your team till your grave & prioritising them ❤️

I’m learning to become a CEO, it takes time but I can promise you we will build the best place to work in the history of startups.

#mentalhealthmatters in #startups

We hired 2 legends, moved to NYC, only launched 7 days ago & saved New Yorkers $30k rent?! 🥨

This is the maddest update yet. Fizzing just typing it tbh.

So after all the news broke and the incident on TV we were absolutely flooded with 474 freaking job applications to join our founding team 😳. That’s 474 people who wanted to pack up their life and move across the world to join Kiki.nyc. I spent 2.5 years trying to get anyone to join, now this? Insane. But what’s even crazier is that every single application was custom made (since we banned CVs). We had people renting out Times Square billboards, flying for 17 hours, picking us up from the airport, sneaking huge signs in Wimbledon just to get an interview. To every single one of you, thank you. We’re rapidly hiring over the next 12 months so can’t wait for you to join us 😉

But as a result we’ve managed to pull the best uncut 💎 out of Aus & NZ and move them to NYC.

So who on earth did we end up hiring?

Welcoming Jacob Binnie 🥨 Mihailo Bozic

The definition of uncut 💎. You are the reason this is starting to blow up in NYC. You gave up so much to be here and Jack, Alexander & I are honestly over the moon.

Jacob is 27, from Auckland and is one of those guys who was born to fit outside the norm. The fact he’s only been a software eng for 2 years is mind boggling as he’s already at the level of engs who’ve been coding for 10+ years. I’m calling it now I reckon we’ve found one of the fastest learners in Australasia and that’s the number 1 thing we look for. You fit into the team like a house on fire and we’re building a cultural like no other because of your infectious energy. So so so so stoked to have you Jacob.

🥨 Mihailo Bozic is 24, from Perth and had his own startup envited that had raised half a million dollars, that he’s now selling off. The launcher role is something I hold very close to me as there’s only a certain kind of person who can do it. It’s absolutely exhausting, incredibly complex and never been done in our way before. But from the first call I knew he was the one. Since joining Mihailo has just blown me out the water. He’s literally as good as two people. All week I’ve sat here thinking how tf did we get this guy?

But we’re still searching for our multi 🎩 wearer (hiring again in Nov)

So the team rocked up to NYC and we launched 7 days ago. It has blown up. We can’t keep up with messages, people are begging for unlock codes and we’ve already had more traction than 3 months in Sydney…

NYC launch traction (in 7 days)
- Filled 7 homes
- 43 listings
- $30k of rent saved
- $3k revenue
- Earning 3x more per home filled than Sydney

We’re on track to fill 1000 freaking homes by Christmas, save New Yorkers $3.7m rent and earn $370k of revenue (all in 3 months from launch). We’re watching NYC change how they live infront of our very eyes.

This is exceeding even my wildest dreams. Let’s gooo! Homeless or somewhere 🥨

- Love Toby ❤️