Layoffs and an business office auction sparked rumors that property rental startup Radpad was on its deathbed previous yr. Right after raising above $12 million in funding, hefty legal fees from a “data scraping” lawsuit with Craigslist experienced set the LA-based mostly startup virtually out of organization. But TechCrunch has discovered that RadPad has observed alone a new property. Dallas-based mostly LandLord Station has acquired them for an undisclosed rate. The RadPad website will be kept substantially the same and a number of remaining personnel will be signing up for the new business. LandLord Station, which provides tenant screening, felt that RadPad complemented its organization. RadPad founder and CEO Jonathan Eppers will be stepping apart, but keeping on in an advisory purpose. Though he is relieved that anyone wound up shopping for RadPad, he spoke to us about his aggravation that RadPad didn’t get the consequence he felt it deserved. “Craigslist experienced definitely a single objective in brain and it was to set RadPad out of organization,” mentioned Eppers, who vehemently denies that his business scraped Craigslist for rental listings. He mentioned that there experienced been other future purchasers, but they “didn’t want to purchase RadPad underneath the settlement circumstances that were being agreed to.” Calling it “blackmail,” Eppers pointed to Craigslist’s litigious past and suggested that the business is hoping to wield unfair lawsuits to damage lesser opponents. He mentioned that in advance of the drama with Craigslist, RadPad experienced about 50 % a million lively end users hunting the website for rental listings. They were being also processing hire payments by means of the system and experienced to halt the assistance, but LandLord Station intends to convey the feature again by spring. The a few-yr-old startup experienced just $one.eight million in profits, but “we felt like we were being on a route to profitability,” mentioned Eppers. They took a modest fee on rental payments and experienced begun to get a proportion of prosperous landlord listings. “This has been some of the most devastating 6-eight months of my lifestyle,” mentioned Eppers. It’s a unpleasant reminder that even startups that elevate tens of millions from VCs often never operate out. Rapper Nas’ QueensBridge Undertaking Associates, SGVC and Altpoint Ventures were being among the lengthy listing of investors. But LandLord Station is hoping that they will be equipped to employ the service of again a number of of the laid off RadPad personnel and continue on to develop its organization. “We consider that they experienced the design correct,” mentioned LandLord Station CEO Copley Broer. Supplemental reporting by John Mannes
Showcased Impression: TechCrunch
Layoffs and an business office auction sparked rumors that property rental startup Radpad was on its deathbed previous yr. Right after raising above $12 million in funding, hefty legal fees from a “data scraping” lawsuit with Craigslist experienced set the LA-based mostly startup virtually out of organization.
But TechCrunch has discovered that RadPad has observed alone a new property. Dallas-based mostly LandLord Station has acquired them for an undisclosed rate.
The RadPad website will be kept substantially the same and a number of remaining personnel will be signing up for the new business. LandLord Station, which provides tenant screening, felt that RadPad complemented its organization.
RadPad founder and CEO Jonathan Eppers will be stepping apart, but keeping on in an advisory purpose. Though he is relieved that anyone wound up shopping for RadPad, he spoke to us about his aggravation that RadPad didn’t get the consequence he felt it deserved.
“Craigslist experienced definitely a single objective in brain and it was to set RadPad out of organization,” mentioned Eppers, who vehemently denies that his business scraped Craigslist for rental listings. He mentioned that there experienced been other future purchasers, but they “didn’t want to purchase RadPad underneath the settlement circumstances that were being agreed to.” Calling it “blackmail,” Eppers pointed to Craigslist’s litigious past and suggested that the business is hoping to wield unfair lawsuits to damage lesser opponents.
He mentioned that in advance of the drama with Craigslist, RadPad experienced about 50 % a million lively end users hunting the website for rental listings. They were being also processing hire payments by means of the system and experienced to halt the assistance, but LandLord Station intends to convey the feature again by spring.
The a few-yr-old startup experienced just $one.eight million in profits, but “we felt like we were being on a route to profitability,” mentioned Eppers. They took a modest fee on rental payments and experienced begun to get a proportion of prosperous landlord listings.
“This has been some of the most devastating 6-eight months of my lifestyle,” mentioned Eppers.
It’s a unpleasant reminder that even startups that elevate tens of millions from VCs often never operate out. Rapper Nas’ QueensBridge Undertaking Associates, SGVC and Altpoint Ventures were being among the lengthy listing of investors.
But LandLord Station is hoping that they will be equipped to employ the service of again a number of of the laid off RadPad personnel and continue on to develop its organization. “We consider that they experienced the design correct,” mentioned LandLord Station CEO Copley Broer.