Tell us a little about yourself, team members, and company.
We are ShelterSpace. We met for the first time at the AngelHack Tech4Good hackathon and came together around an issue that we all care about which is homelessness.
Homelessness in the Bay Area is very prevalent and heartbreaking. In Silicon Valley, technology is leveraged to address nearly every problem imaginable; we wondered why the process of finding shelter was still very much a manual process which requires a person calling dozens of different shelters to find an available bed.
If you look at how this problem would be addressed in the traditional business world, you would see that there are already many solutions such as Travelocity, Expedia, and Airbnb. With that in mind, we created a simple and straightforward platform which aggregates and displays real-time shelter bed available throughout a given county/city.
How would you say you, your team, or company has evolved through the HACKcelerator program? What is your future vision for your startup?
Our core product has, for the most part, remained consistent, the evolution has come more in the form of our tactics to gain traction.
When it comes to addressing important problems like homelessness, we’ve learned that the reason the issue is so difficult to solve is not that people don’t care, it’s because it’s a very complex issue. In the research and development of our company, we have found that there are so many organizations and individuals out there who care deeply about helping the homeless community. However, many of these organizations are strapped for resources and getting time with the folks who have the authority to enact change can be challenging. Our evolution has required us to strike a balance of patience and persistence.
Our vision for our startup is first to ensure that if there is a bed available, nobody will have to sleep on the streets unnecessarily. We understand that homelessness is a multi-faceted issue with many components that need to be addressed such as mental health, addiction and the lack of affordable permanent housing — but if we can start by reducing the number people who end up sleeping on the streets due to system inefficiencies, we can then look for additional ways to make an impact.
Do you have any words of advice to give to other entrepreneurs trying to found their own companies?
Find a problem that you really care about and start taking steps to fix it.
Each member of our team started off by simply showing up for a hackathon centered on social impact. We had no idea how it would turn out, but we all knew we wanted to leverage technology to make a positive impact on a social issue. That simple first step led to an amazing opportunity to launch a company with awesome people. It doesn’t matter how big or small your first step is, just get going.
To learn more about ShelterSpace visit their site.
