College Annex to Pioneer the Digital Marketplace for Student Housing as an Inaugural Member of the elmspring Accelerator

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College Annex is exactly the type of company the elmspring accelerator was created for: a highly qualified team, a great idea, and huge upside.

Chicago, IL (PRWEB) June 20, 2014

The elmspring accelerator, a new seed-stage technology accelerator for real estate tech startups, selected Cleveland-based startup College Annex as one of three participants in its inaugural program. The elmspring accelerator is held in partnership with 1871, Chicago’s premier entrepreneurial hub for digital startups.

College Annex is the marketplace for student housing. College Annex’s integrated web platform streamlines the rental process for students, parents and property owners. In addition to cost-saving online tools, property owners are offered a free advertising platform to promote listings to renters. Students and their parents can browse a marketplace of listings relevant to their college, schedule tours, connect with the landlord online, and even manage and pay rent.

elmspring co-founder Thomas Bretz says, “The student rental market is completely fragmented. College Annex has huge potential to pioneer this space with tools that will make things so much simpler for both renters and landlords. College Annex is exactly the type of company the elmspring accelerator was created for: a highly qualified team, a great idea, and huge upside. Like any startup, they need to work through a number of business issues. We can put them in front of the mentors they need from the business, investment, and technical communities to address those issues and get this company ready for market.”

The College Annex team has one mission: to create a simpler rental experience for everyone. Their founding team consists of CEO Philip Shea, CMO David Spooner, CTO Yasir Drabu, and recently Curtis Pittman. Philip, David, and Curtis are graduates of Miami University who studied economics and computer science, and Yasir has a PhD in Computer Science with over 11 years of experience in the software industry.

“The elmspring accelerator is exactly what we need at this stage,” says Shea. “Nowhere else can we have access to this amount and variety of experience relevant to our business. We have access to a dedicated team of proven leaders to help us understand how this marketplace works, help us with marketing and technical issues, and position us to get the capital we need to hit the ground running.”

The elmspring accelerator program provides promising startups like College Annex with seed capital, mentorship, and access to invaluable resources. Bretz continues, “We think College Annex is going to be big, and we’re happy to help them get there. By exposing the team to the mentorship of business leaders, developers, marketers, investors and others, the elmspring accelerator is going to help College Annex be the leader in the student rental market.”

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