Photo courtesy of Fredonia Enactus Facebook page.
COLIN HART
Staff Writer
Nate Winn and Alex Czechowski, seniors at SUNY Fredonia, are the founders of Nexnest, LLC, an online startup company that assists tenants and landlords with off-campus housing. On April 20, the pair won first place in the IT/Software category at the annual Western New York Student 2 Biz regional competition.
The two left the competition with a trophy to be displayed on campus, a cash prize of $1,500 and the chance to compete alongside 80 other businesses in last Friday’s statewide competition in Albany, N.Y.
This is the first year in the history of the WNY Student 2 Biz competition that the University at Buffalo did not win the award.
“It’s definitely refreshing to hear that, and it gave us a little boost in confidence in the business,” said Winn, a business marketing and music industry double major. The trophy will likely be displayed outside of President Virginia Horvath’s office.
Nexnest is a platform that allows landlords to place listings online and for students to easily narrow down search results based on lease terms, number of bedrooms and distance to campus, among other preferences. Students can then schedule tours based on landlord availability and submit maintenance requests upon residence.
The idea for the business came two summers ago when Winn and Czechowski were going through the housing process themselves.
“After we had gone through that cycle of finding the house, we knew we needed something better,” said Winn. “We can’t just keep using Craigslist, we can’t just keep referring to our friends. And that’s actually when Alex pitched it to me over the summer. We modeled our whole site and user experience around the student and really wanted to facilitate an easy and professional process of listing to the landlord.”
In April of 2017, Winn and Czechowski pitched Nexnest at the FTI Student Business Competition. After winning the contest, they were provided $1,200 and 12 months of office space at the Fredonia Technology Incubator, where they have currently been operating. The entrepreneurship also allows access to business mentoring and other professional services.
“It’s provided a great space to get creative and really develop our business,” said Czechowski.
“Working out of an Incubator provides legitimacy for a business,” said Charles Cornell, Incubator director. “It basically doubles the chance for success.”
When asked about professors at Fredonia that have been influential to their business venture, Winn highlighted the work of Shazad Mohammed.
“He’s just a brilliant-minded marketer,” said Winn. “Some of our approaches, specifically strategies to target students and landlords, are taken straight out of my lecture notes or books from his classes.”
According to Winn and Czechowski, the business has generated revenue but is currently not for profit. Nexnest aims to become profitable in the coming year as the pair look to expand their service to college campuses other than SUNY Fredonia and Jamestown Community College.
“Right now we’re just working in the Fredonia area,” said Winn, “but we have plans to roll out our Grand Ambassador program to other universities which will then expand us to a couple other campuses. We’re looking at SUNY Oswego, UB and Daemen for next year. We’re actually looking to get college interns on those campuses as well. And we’re looking to get more funding obviously so we can finance the expansion.”
Czechowski, a computer science major, highlighted a rating and review system similar to AirBnB among the company’s future plans.
“There will be verified reviews from tenants on landlords and their property,” said Czechowski. “The landlords will also be rated on different qualities on a five-star scale. Those are things such as level of communication and maintaining property, but one that we see a lot of value in is leniency. If it’s a really strict landlord, and you know your group is going to be a little more disruptive, maybe you want to find a landlord who is rated higher in leniency.”
The duo would also like to incorporate all aspects of student apartment rental onto their website, including signing a lease, making a deposit and paying the rent. Nexnest can be reached online at nexnest.com.