What Semestersublet does
Prior to Study Abroad semesters it is difficult to find subletters for apartments. Oftentimes, parents are left spending thousands of dollars on unused bedrooms in rental apartments and off campus houses. Realizing these stressful and financial burdens are on many parent’s and student’s minds, a solution was created.
The Current Landscape
Campus housing offices deal with on-campus residence hall living only. Once students move off campus, colleges have little to do with student housing. In the past, hit or miss attempts to advertise a sublet included posting on college bulletin boards, hanging flyers in coffee shops and posting on Craig’s List (sketchy!). Today, desperate requests can be found on private, university-centric FaceBook pages. However, fellow students looking for housing don’t use FaceBook, creating a glut of “sublet available” advertised apartments going unseen by the target audience. Semester Sublet’s platform is an important and innovative game changer in the college sublet marketplace.
Company Birth Story
As parents of 3 college graduates, Nancy and her husband had to endure the stress of getting their students to locate subletters prior to each embarking on their study abroad experiences. Shocked that there was no assistance during their first subletting go-round, Nancy and her husband expected to find assistance at a different university three years later, and then again three years after that. They were surprised to be on their own to find subletters, again and again. Well aware of the financial burden and stress ahead if their third offspring didn’t secure a subletter, they worried incessantly. Shortly afterwards, Nancy hired a tech company to design the user-friendly platform she envisioned to innovatively solve the all too familiar “one semester housing dilemma” once and for all. The idea, which was born from personal experience, percolating for eight years, was now ready to launch.
The Solution
Launched in early November, ’23, Semester Sublet has seen explosive growth and positive response from parents and students alike. Within 3 weeks, 70 listings could be found under 6 different university searches. The list of universities covered has grown to include over 50. Proactively addressing another college student housing dilemma, a “Summer Internship Housing” section was added to the platform, covering 16 major cities. Philanthropically, ownership has been in discussion with the Children’s Miracle Network, umbrella organization to the popular and hugely successful Dance Marathons held at over 400 schools nationwide, for a long term sponsorship relationship.
A Customer Story
Kaylee, a Junior at a Big 10 university was on a financial aid package which barely covered her college costs and half of her living expenses. Brought up by a single mom, Kaylee was financially and acutely aware of ways to keep costs down and the need to save money while she worked during her summer breaks. Her sorority sisters were always talking about plans to study abroad in their junior year, but Kaylee never thought she could swing that. Discovering Semester Sublet, she realized that if she could find a subletter she could take that housing money and put it toward a semester abroad program. Kaylee is currently enjoying her Spring semester in Prague.
The Team Culture
Founder, Nancy Schwartz, had a successful career as Director of Advertising for a Fortune 50 firm in NYC and then moved to Boston with her husband and started a family. A successful entrepreneur, Nancy created and has grown her real estate company, become a trained Executive Leadership Coach and started a private practice helping high school and college students with presentation skills, interviewing skills and improving their emotional intelligence. Finding solutions to challenges has always been in Nancy’s wheelhouse and creating Semester Sublet is her largest and most altruistic business endeavour yet. Nancy brought her childhood friend, Jodi Greene on as a partner, to lead business development to bring in domestic and international corporate partners.
A founder quote
“Taking the financial burden, as well as the mental stress of subletting, off the minds of students and parents is our goal. Simultaneously, there are college kids in desperate need of one semester housing. Our platform helps solve these problems and saves thousands of dollars in the process”, says Nancy Schwartz, founder of Semester Sublet.
Check it out : https://www.semestersublet.com/
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