My Place
My Place is a company.
Active
Updated: ·
Financial History
Total Raised
N/A
Valuation
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Leadership Team
Key people at My Place.
My Place is a company.
Key people at My Place.
Key people at My Place.
MyPlace is a New York-based social network launched in 2019 that enables friends and trusted connections to privately share homes for stays, often for free, distinguishing it from public rental platforms like Airbnb.[1][3][4] It serves travelers within personal networks, solving the problem of empty homes during trips by facilitating organic, invite-only exchanges that generated $2.5 million in transactions last year, with 30% free stays, amid 40% monthly user growth and operations in 86 countries.[1][4] The company raised $5.8 million in a preemptive seed round in February 2022 led by Freestyle Ventures to fund an iOS app and U.S. expansion into cities like NYC, LA, and Miami, relying on word-of-mouth for organic scaling.[1][3][4]
MyPlace was founded by entrepreneurs Zach Bell (CEO) and Rameet Chawla, who built it as a simple Squarespace website to coordinate their own travel schedules and share empty homes with friends while working remotely.[1][4] The idea emerged organically: they added calendars showing availability, shared the password with about 100 friends, and it snowballed as friends-of-friends requested to list properties and invite others, turning personal utility into a platform without initial business intent.[1][4] Early traction came from this viral, password-protected growth, evolving into a global network by 2022 with thousands of users across 86 countries, prompting the seed funding to formalize and expand.[1][3][4]
(Note: A separate Ireland-based MyPlace (founded 2017 by Peadar Gormley, rebranded from MyPlace Connect) focuses on WiFi marketing tools, but context points to the home-sharing startup.[2])
MyPlace rides the sharing economy's trust pivot, shifting from stranger-based platforms like Airbnb toward private, social networks amid rising privacy concerns, overtourism backlash, and post-pandemic preferences for familiar stays.[1][4] Timing aligns with remote work enabling frequent travel and empty homes, plus economic pressures favoring free/low-cost options—evident in 30% free trips and organic global spread to 86 countries.[1][4] Market forces like regulatory scrutiny on short-term rentals (e.g., fees, insurance) favor its non-rental model, potentially disrupting by capturing "friends-of-friends" exchanges that bypass public markets.[4] It influences the ecosystem by proving word-of-mouth scalability in social travel tech, inspiring hybrid trust-based models.
MyPlace's trajectory points to app-driven acceleration, targeting U.S. hubs like NYC and LA while chasing high-travel communities globally, potentially hitting critical mass to nibble at rental giants.[1][4] Trends like AI-personalized invites, Web3 trust verification, and hybrid work-travel will amplify its network effects, though scaling trust at volume remains key. Its influence could evolve from niche exchanger to mainstream "social stays" leader, redefining access in a fragmented travel market—echoing how it turned founders' calendars into a $5.8M-backed global web.
