Flashmates helping you find housing and roommates

All right, we're live. GM, GA everybody and welcome to what's going to be another great DevNTell. So, if you didn't know, DevNTell is a 30-minute window for builders to showcase something they're passionate about or been working on in Web3. This could be an awesome project you've been working on, demonstrating new testing best practices, automation goodies, smart contracts, how to structure a project, etc. Basically, if you've got a passion for something, this is your opportunity to share it with the Web3 community here. And today I'm ecstatic to have Amrit on, who's going to be giving us a demo of his passion project called Flashmates. Welcome Amrit, a pleasure to have you on, man.

Thank you so much for having me. And a little bit of intro. So, my name's Amrit, I graduated from Kent State University a while back with a Bachelor's in computer science. And right now I'm working on this project called Flashmates. But before I tell you what it is, let me actually tell you about a very annoying problem that I faced in life. So, I'm an international student when I moved to the US, I moved from Dubai. And the thing is that I had no clue about the place. So, I went to university in Ohio. We all know we've all seen memes of Ohio. So, it was quite confusing about how things were. So, what basically happened was that I had no clue about the place. I had to go to these platforms where like Craigslist, go to Facebook groups. And the thing is that I don't know how close it is to the university. Like, and even on simple Google search would not get me the best results. So, I was like what if there was a website through which, based on the commute, like how far it is from the university, based on allowing me to see like verified students, like getting to room up with students and all the stuff. Like basically that's why I built the entire platform because I've seen a lot of students go through this problem, like finding a good rental, getting scammed, because I know a lot of friends who were scammed. They're like, 'Hey, give us a fixed deposit.' So this is why I decided we need a platform and that's why I built Flashmates. And just to give a reason why it's called Flashmates, the university I went to is called Kent State University. We are known as Golden Flashes. So flash from that and mates from roommates. So that's a bit of intro about me and yep.

Wow, that's awesome. Yeah, usually these most successful projects start out with you having to solve a problem for yourself or or whatnot. But that's wonderful to hear that you're taking this initiative to solve such a hard problem. I guess, in the interest of time, let's get right into it.

Sure thing. So, I'm going to show a demo of how this works. So, fun fact, Flashmates is relaunching and this is what you're seeing is the current version. The new one, I'll be giving a link at the end of this stream, so here we go. So, this is Flashmates and how it works is that you can either view a listing, so you can just go here, you can type in your university. So, I'm going to type in university and I can see listings over here, I'm at my university, or you can type a city. So, I'm going to type, let's say, San Francisco. And yep, there is a listing. Now, in order to post a listing, you have to like get started, you have to enter in all these details. And here's a fun fact, you can enter that you're a student. You enter the name of your like just put in your student email and it will show that Flashmates is available in the university. The reason why I do this is because like a lot of people they put in their emails, the thing is that you need to verify that you're like legitimate. Like a lot of people they put in their Gmail, I've seen them putting it a different different types of emails. Like, I think students need to put their student email ID because it can easily verify that you're legit. And let's say when you're looking at listings you can easily see who are students, like verified students. So, I'm since I already have an account because I built it, I'm just going to go to just going to log in and show how it all works. So, that's the dashboard, housing, there's listings, I can just enter some place so I'm going to put Eagles Landing, view. So, yep, and you can do show all or you can post a listing instead. Or if you don't want to view listings of people who are looking for roommates or all the stuff, you can we have this product called Rental Finder, where based on plethora of factors you can see a lot of rentals. And apart from that, there's this thing called MatchMaker. This is something that I'm working on and this is obviously going to be made much better in the new version. Like, I know if you're thinking why is the design not that great? In the new version, then like there's better features, better design and a lot of cool stuff. It's just that I'm using React, lots of limitations there, but in Next.js I think it can be much better. So what MatchMaker does is basically it's a way through which you can, let's say, you are just looking for housing in general, you don't want to go through listing, but you want to let the system know, 'Hey there, I'm looking for housing.' So there's a form you have to fill. I have filled out filled it out. So it basically you can register your interest saying that 'Hey, I am looking for housing, I'm going to sign up as a potential roommate or a potential tenant and you put in your various interests, for example, what are my hobbies, what's my budget, what are the languages that I speak?' And based on that you can actually match with someone and you can become roommates. And here a bunch of things that I try experimental for fun. There's this thing called SplitIt. Again, it's it's a very funny design. And we have a store called Remart. All these are just experiments. So basically the thing is that if you're a student and let's say you're living with a bunch of like three or four people, splitting cost is going to be a huge challenge, which is why SplitIt basically helps you do that process, like you can split cost, you can do a lot of cool things. And this was before I discovered Splitwise. And when I discovered Splitwise I was like 'Holy damn, that's what.' So that's how Flashmates works. And there's this other cool thing called like we have this thing on Twitter. So I'm just going to go to Twitter and search for sublet. Ah, it's a bit slow. So we have like three ah these four bots: Sublet NYC, Sublet SF, Sublet Toronto, Sublet London. These are actually Twitter bots. So let's say you are looking for housing in you're coming to SF for an event and you want to say like, 'Hey on Twitter I'm looking for housing I need a crash all the stuff.' The only problem is that you only your close circle's going to see it. What if you want to reach a much wider audience? That's why I built these bots through which you can just tag it and it's going to retweet it. And if you're in India, we have this thing called Gruhum bot where it will retweet any housing request and Gruhum means housing in Sanskrit. So that's what it is. And the final demo that I'm going to show is of the subletter thing. If you have attended BuildSpace I'm sure you this might make sense to you as to why this product is there. So Nights & Weekends by BuildSpace, it's like a very famous thing. That's how I met Narb, that's how I got to know about DevNTell and Developer DAO. It's basically an access free accelerator type of program where you can actually come up with an idea, work and all the stuff. So at the end they have these like three day event, either in Dubai or San Francisco. So you can just select a city, Dubai, type, hotel, minimum budget, let me just say zero, 200. I don't think there's anything in that budget. So let me go back and refresh. San Francisco, type, hotel, I'll just type hostel for now, 0, 200. Yep, it basically this is like experimental thing it's not yet like completely launched I just did for soft launch for Nights & Weekends, so it shows you everything, it shows you the price of how it starts per night, and also how far it is from the venue and the airport. So yeah, that's basically the demo of how Flashmates works. And basically the whole point is to make the whole process of housing easier. Another good use case for that in terms of Web3 is that let's say I see a lot of people going for Web3 hackathons. Like I've seen people going for like ETH NYC, ETH Barcelona, it's like they keep traveling the world and I'm sure housing is a huge challenge. So one of the things that I'm trying to do with this that in the future, not now, in the future, is through finding a place through Flashmates but you instead pay in crypto. So that's another use case like the subletter that's for Nights & Weekends, subletter for crypto hackathons where you can find a place over here, just pay in crypto and yep that's it. So that's Flashmates that's the huge that's the complete overlook of Flashmates in general, but the main goal is to make the whole process of finding housing completely safer, faster and efficient. And in the future, like in actually next month, I'm relaunching this with better features, and also if you're a landlord you can list your place on the platform. So yep, that's it for me.

Wow, that's awesome, man. And how long did it take you how long did it take you to get to build Flashmates up to this point? How long have you been working on it?

I've been working on since 2020. Do you want to see the first version of the Flashmates? Just to give some motivation to people over there? Yep. Yeah. Yeah, of course. So if anyone's watching this and you're scared to build something, I'll show you the first version. And and there's a a quote by Sam Altman, 'If you're not embarrassed by your first product, you're not doing good things.' And this was actually I was actually quite embarrassed by my first product that was like, 'Oh my gosh should I continue working?' But then that quote struck me I was like, 'Okay, continue.' So you can actually go here, flashmates. Yep, that's that's actually the first website of Flashmates. It's a very funny design. Sign up as a This was written this was written Next HTML back then I was not good at web development I was good at mobile development so I was like, 'How do I break in this and everyone's always telling me use HTML.' So I'm just going to show the dashboard as well just to give some motivation. Yep. That's that's literally how it is like. You can see all these like fancy alerts and all this stuff and if you take a look at the background it's even funnier but that's basically the first product. So so here my learning is that like no matter what, just get started because that's the only way through which people can learn. So let's say if you have an idea but you're just scared to build it just go ahead and build it you'll figure along the way because for me the first time I built this thing it it worked out well because when I launched it we had like within like 15 minutes 15-30 minutes we had like 300 signups which was which was a huge thing and there was only like two listings posted. So I was like, 'Okay there's a need for the product.' But the only thing was that I was not a good designer, I was not a good I was not a like good web developer but then I learned along the way like so my only like learning, not like an advice, but based like reflecting on this what I think is more important is that just start, go with the process, you'll figure out things along the way. And that's when I learned React I was like, 'Okay React looks scary,' but I learned React and now I just learned Next.js and and it's working out well. So my only suggestion to everyone: if you have an idea just start, you'll figure out don't be scared, it's okay to make mistakes but that's that's the whole point.

Yeah, and that's that's a wonderful message to to relay to all the young builders out there and people just starting to code or wanting to start their next project just just start it doesn't matter how how good it looks, how bad it looks. It's the point is you get something out there, you get it into people's hands and you iterate from there. Like, nothing is built perfect from day one. In fact, if you try to be perfect you'll never actually launch anything. So yeah, thank you so much for for bringing that up. I guess, in terms of use cases, I know you brought up the rentals and finding accommodations. So is this particularly targeted at students or is it like is that your market or is that or is it like basically anybody looking for accommodation?

So right now it's mostly students and anyone looking for like if you're a young working professional moving to like a tech city like say Bangalore or SF, NYC, it's meant for them and international students. But honestly I get a lot of demand for like other types of rentals for example let's say sublets. Because there was a person who posted a sublet and he actually found someone and he's like, 'If you add some extra features and all this stuff, I think it's going to be great.' So my goal with the new version of Flashmates is to basically cater to much like larger audience and are like different set of like use cases. For example, subletter the bot, I'm trying to make that into Web App within like like a product within Flashmates where it only for sublets. And like another product for like students called so that's I'm going to be renaming each project. So it's like for students it's Flashmates U, if you're just someone looking for sublets it's going to be subletter, if you're just using in general it's going to be Flashmates and yep.

Gotcha. And I guess do you ever foresee Flashmates kind of going beyond the rental space and perhaps going towards hotels like you were showing with the Nights & Weekends demo?

Yeah definitely one day that would be the goal. So one use case like as since you've mentioned hotels and vacation rentals. As I as I mentioned in the beginning, one of the most annoying things like trying to find a place within a walking distance or like within a good commute option with to where you actually want to go for example in the university. So in the future one of the things I want to do is that let's say if you're going to a city you're visiting a city or like you have a event my goal is to cater to them. That's why I was talking about the Nights & Weekends thing. So let's say if you're hosting an event and you have people coming to your event from different parts of the world, which is quite which is kind of what's happening almost everywhere because I went for an event in Bangalore, there were people from across the globe. So the goal is like instead of them telling, 'Hey you need to figure out your own accommodation,' I work with them through which they can help their attendees find accommodation that's within a walking distance or that has a good commute route to the event venue. And here this is where I can include hotels or like vacation rentals.

Yeah, I think that would be an awesome use case. I I think there's that market is still kind of growing and there's those short-term rental is more or less dominated by Airbnb and VRBO at this moment. So more competition, more more supply for folks to be able to use. There's also regulation problems as well, unfortunately. There is, yes, yes, there is. It's not it's not an easy easy space to traverse but some I mean need folks like you to kind of push the push the boundaries of that space and continue to innovate there. So I do want to touch on you did mention you're planning to or at least thinking about introducing cryptocurrency payments for people to be able to to book their accommodation. I guess that that's kind of one of the things that I'm hopeful that travel marketplaces or or online travel agents will start to kind of give that option for folks as like a different means of payment just because as we all know there isn't very many places for us to spend our crypto right now and if we do actually want to move forward with our vision to make crypto a a form of payment, we need to start accepting it in different places and I know there's a lot of regulatory gray space to kind of overcome that. But I don't know if you've heard of Travala, they're basically a online travel agent that sells hotels and flights if I'm not mistaken. But their main thing is they offer folks the ability to pay for that for their accommodations with crypto and with regular payment rails. And what was actually interesting is they they post all their quarterly or monthly progress reports with like how many sales they did and what the split was between people who paid in crypto and people who paid with credit card. And actually even when folks are presented with both those options, they I think 70% or something like that opted to pay with crypto. So I think there's there is a market for that. I guess, the whole point of this is like what what is your driving factor between for wanting to offer crypto for folks as a payment?

So I have a reason why I want to include crypto and that's because let's say if I'm traveling to a new country and if I use my credit card from like a different country let's say I am going to Europe, if I use an Indian or US credit card I'm going to have these conversion fees, it's going to cost me extra, there's going to be tax, there's going to be a lot of like things. So I I think there was this concept of decentralized I mean of course going with the decentralized concept the thing is that the thing with crypto here is that it's going to like make it easier to pay for it. Like it's like the borderless I think Balaji has this term for it I I keep forgetting the term. Like he has this proper term. I think that system capture essentially captures the main point where it's like the borderless economy. So the whole goal is like instead of me use my credit card like I just have this one payment method, sign using the wallet and like immediately pay for it. So I mean I think that would help a lot a lot of people and and I've seen like a lot of people struggle let's say in India or like in in the US I don't remember where from one certain country like when they make a payment, they they just go through a very hard time trying to make the payment. They're like, 'It's not possible for us to do that thing.' So I think crypto solves that thing because it's borderless and like there's no like completely decentralized. So I think paying your rent in crypto would be a cool thing. But the only problem here is that the the fluctuating price, that's the only concern and also regulation for example in certain countries if crypto is not allowed and even if it's allowed you have to pay like certain extra costs as well.

Sorry, sorry I was on mute. Yes, totally. And another thing is some people don't even have or have a really hard time getting their foot in the door into the financial system, right? So the opportunity to kind of unlock a new customer base just by introducing cryptocurrency as a payment method I think is a very powerful powerful tool to basically create or to create new users for for any platform any travel platform or whatnot but even still just enabling people to be able to participate in travel even though they can't participate in the traditional financial market I think is a very powerful very powerful thing to to kind of think about. But yeah, but in any case, I guess what was your biggest challenge when you were working on Flashmates? I'm sure there there were many, but like is there any particular things that you want to share with the folks here?

Yeah, the first thing is that there many things I had no clue about and figuring it out on my own I think that's thing. The first thing is to accept that you don't know anything at all. Because a lot of people think, 'Hey when I build I know everything, I'm going to figure it out.' The only thing is that you need to first know that you need to unlearn certain things and then learn along the way. Because in when I first did bit HTML I'm like, 'Oh it's going to be easy.' Then I did then I did React, I was like, 'I need to like let go of my knowledge about HTML and then like know that, okay, I don't know anything, let me just learn from scratch like get into the beginner mindset.' Because a lot of people they are like, 'Oh I already know a lot of things.' And you have to relearn. It's okay that's totally fine like relearn, unlearn and again learn, I think that's important. The second thing is that touch reach out to people build in public. So my my biggest mistake was like not talking to users that much in the beginning and like just keeping it to myself, whereas building in public helped me gain a a lot of users gain a lot of customers like a lot of paying customers, I got like that helped me a lot. So go publicize your work, talk to people, build an audience and don't be afraid of like showcasing your failure because that's when people help. Because for me, I've realized a lot of people one thing they fear is that what others might think about them in terms of building, like 'Oh I screwed up, I'm if I post to Twitter people think I'm stupid.' That's totally fine because people will actually help you because there was a there was a dude from India, he in the beginning he's the one who actually helped me learn React and it was through him that I like figure out certain things. And then I got the grasp of it. And and the second best one of the biggest things that happened because of like me publicizing my work, I got into Replit Ventures. Like Replit had this thing called Replit Ventures, like Amjad saw my work and he was like very impressed and like I became part of Replit Ventures through which again like I I got mentorship from the Replit team, a bunch of engineers and even got a chance to like talk to YC as well, Y Combinator. So that was a huge experience and and I think it was if it was not for me publicizing my work, talking to people, this would not have happened. So network as much as you can, talk to people, don't be afraid to make mistakes and like it's okay to publicize them. So I think that's all the distance I have for now from what I've learned but of course there's much more but I just don't realize it yet.

Yeah, there there is something just magical about publishing your work or just like building in public like you say. A lot of a lot of the folks from Developer DAO from the early days that have found success in the Web3 space actually did just that. They were perhaps reserved or maybe not as inclined to share the work in public but once they did start sharing their work in public they started joining more hackathons, sharing their works, started businesses, they got into and some of them even landed their dream jobs in in Web3, which is really like awesome to see. So it's a very subtle thing and it's very odd that not more folks actually do it. But yeah, take it from Amrit, like he he he's a hustler, he he has been hustling ever since I met him since BuildSpace or probably before that. And yeah, if he keeps going this way there's no doubt he's going to reach his goals just through building in public. So really looking forward to continuing to see Flashmates get built out here, man. Thank you so much for coming on the show.

Thank you so much Narb, deeply appreciate it.

My pleasure. And before we leave here today, how can people get in contact with you if they want to learn about Flashmates or or start using it? What's the best place for them to to reach out? Sure thing, so my username is here on the screen, 0xastro98. That's me on Twitter. If you don't use Twitter you can email me Amrit@flashmates.tech. Like those are the two ways through which you can contact me. But yeah, I'm mostly active on Twitter and I do check my email as well because that's very important. But yeah, that's the best way. Oh yeah, post it. And I'm on Discord as well, on Discord 0xastro98 that's the same username on Discord so these three platforms is where I'm mostly active and you can get in touch with me. Awesome. And we will have this information on the description of the YouTube video, so definitely get in touch with Amrit if you're looking to find your next rental. So with that, just want to wish everybody a very happy Friday, happy weekend. And before you leave, before everyone leaves, I want to show the bank the QR code for you to scan to claim your NFT for being an attendee today on DevNTell. So what you'll want to do is take out your regular QR code scanner, scan this code and you'll have a hour and a half from now to be able to claim your DevNTell NFT for being an attendee today. So again, you want to use your regular QR code scanner, scan this bad boy and fill out that form and within the next hour and a half and you will get airdropped your NFT within the next couple days. And again, just want to wish everybody a very happy Friday, happy weekend. Thank you again Amrit for coming on, really appreciate you taking the time and you're always welcome back on the platform.

Yep. Thank you.

All right. Cheers everybody. See ya.

Bye.