Start With Why
When Joan Manuel Serrat asked his mother where their home was, she answered “ Home is where you eat”.
Back to my roots
I have had many homes. My father is a diplomat, so I have lived in 9 cities in 7 countries, and I have shared houses and apartments along the way. Although I have been sharing a flat with my wife for the past 6 years, I do not consider myself as a flatmate anymore.
I fondly remember my flat sharing experiences. I still miss it sometimes as a vivid reminder of my younger years, when life was easier and I had few problems to worry about. But the reality was very different.
Being the elder of two siblings, sharing with somebody else other than my brother was an enriching experience that taught me valuable life skills, such as tolerance, patience, and discipline. It opened my mind and I learnt cuisine from all over the world.
Despite my mind embellishing the memories of my 20’s, I still acknowledge the pains I went through when I was searching for a room in NY. It was a big hassle! I couldn’t find anything, I met thousands of landlords and the only thing they were telling me was: “This room has already been rented out, sorry”. I had to sleep on a friend’s couch for two weeks until I found a French student from my uni (that loved doing push ups in the living room) to share a two-bedroom apartment in East Village.
Luxembourg: The Long Wait
Then, I moved to Luxembourg where I worked for Amazon. I packed all my things into my car and drove more than 1500km from the comfort of Madrid to the suburbs, where I stayed in a hotel for three weeks, frantically searching for a place on my scarce free time.
I was so desperate at that time that I was even considering living in Belgium and commuting two hours a day. I had to pay 5 euros for each message I wanted to send out to prospective roommates, with no response guarantee. I finally moved into a house with three Italian guys that weren’t fond of washing-up and where I encountered spiders in my window bigger than a baseball.
Paris: The Dodgy Landlord
There was also Paris, where I had wonderful — although messy — roommates in a flat just two minutes away from uni. And it would have been a fond memory if it weren’t for the landlord, who scammed us with the security deposit and some questionable charges when we had all left the country and were too far away to dispute them.
Barcelona: Sofa Surfing
I arrived in Barcelona in 2014, after accepting an offer from Airbnb, with just a 2-night booking in late August and nothing like a plan for where I was going to stay. I was left speechless by an old acquaintance’s generosity when — by chance — I bumped into him one day and he immediately took me in and allowed me to crash in a small, dark bedroom, in one of his tourist apartments while I searched for a flat.
Barcelona became my home for the next five years. I was working at a fantastic startup job but suffering with burnout when, one humid August day, I decided it was time to give notice to my boss. That’s when the founders of Badi — who had already shaken-up the room rental process — approached me with an irresistible offer to help change the way people live in a shared house. I didn’t even think twice before accepting.
A New Chapter: Badi Homes
And thus, together, we set out to create Badi Homes. The name was the first sign that something new was coming. Because we want to offer the chance for people to feel at home wherever they live. Badi made finding a room easy, safe, fast, and even pleasant if you are like me and appreciate a good UX/UI.
Living in a shared home should be an equally pleasant experience. Our aim is that people never have the issues that we have all encountered when flat-sharing across the world.
Why do we do it?
We started with that question. And we could write pages on the business opportunity, giving professional landlords the chance to rent by rooms, or adding supply to constrained markets, which helps contain escalating prices.
But, although those are all valid reasons, the truth is that everybody at Badi has gone through the struggles inherent to room sharing and we’ve all seen an opportunity to make a big impact on the lives of the people that are leaving home for the first time, arriving to a new city to start a new job, or simply starting a new chapter in life.
So we aim for operational excellence. We care for every little detail, holding our tenants’ hands through every step, because signing contracts (sometimes for the first time) can be confusing and scary. Because being far from your friends and family does not mean you can’t make yourself at home, and because roommates should be more than facebook acquaintances. With Badi Homes, you can make them lifelong friends.
