Startup Spotlight

Each week, we profile one early-stage startup from our submission pool; companies you won't find covered elsewhere. Some are raising their first rounds. Others are building in stealth, gathering early users before they go to market. This week: Krewe Living.

Finding an apartment in New York City often means navigating a system designed to extract maximum fees from both sides of the transaction. Renters pay broker fees that can reach 15% of annual rent, $4,500 on a $2,500/month apartment, for services that amount to a few hours of work. Landlords pay similar commissions and still end up with unverified tenants who may not qualify or pay reliably. The system is opaque, expensive, and frustrating for everyone except the middlemen. For renters who don't fit traditional qualification criteria—freelancers, contractors, recent graduates, people between jobs—the barriers multiply. Even those who can afford rent struggle to qualify on paper, leading to months of couch-surfing despite having the means to pay. That was Jake Chackman's experience: 18 months of being effectively homeless while able to afford rent, simply because he couldn't qualify through traditional channels.

Krewe Living built a platform that connects tenants and landlords directly, eliminating brokers and the fees they charge. The system focuses on verification rather than traditional qualification metrics, allowing renters to demonstrate their ability to pay through alternative documentation. Landlords list available units on the platform and receive verified, qualified tenants without paying finder's fees or commissions. Renters gain direct access to properties and avoid broker charges entirely. The platform targets midsized landlords, those managing multiple properties but not large enough to need full property management companies, and mobile renters who move frequently or don't fit traditional employment profiles. The approach is broker-free by design, treating the rental process as a direct transaction between the parties who actually matter.

Krewe Living was founded by Jake Chackman, a real estate professional based in New York. Chackman's firsthand experience with rental market dysfunction, spending 18 months unable to secure housing despite financial ability, shapes the company's approach to verification and qualification. The team consists of real estate professionals who have worked both sides of rental transactions and understand the inefficiencies that plague the current system. That perspective informs Krewe's focus on direct connections and alternative verification methods rather than replicating the traditional broker-dependent model.

The company has completed its MVP and is preparing for product launch. Krewe currently has a waitlist of 500 renters in New York City, representing early demand for a broker-free alternative. The product is pre-launch with no active users yet, but the waitlist provides a demand signal from renters looking to avoid the traditional broker-heavy process. The immediate focus is onboarding landlords and launching the platform with initial properties to convert waitlist interest into active transactions.

New York City has roughly 25,000 active renters searching for apartments at any given time, according to rental market data. The residential brokerage market in NYC processes billions in annual fees, with both landlords and tenants paying commissions on each lease—typically 12-15% of annual rent per side. Krewe competes with traditional listing services like StreetEasy and Zillow but differentiates by focusing on direct connections and verification rather than aggregating broker listings. The platform positions itself as an alternative to the broker-dependent system rather than another listing aggregator. The broader opportunity extends beyond New York—most major U.S. cities have similar broker-dependent rental markets, though NYC's broker fees are among the highest in the country.

Krewe Living is currently focused on product launch and building initial traction with both renters and landlords. The immediate priorities include converting waitlist demand into active users and onboarding the first cohort of landlords willing to list properties without broker involvement.

Know a startup building something interesting? Submit for consideration at captablenews.com

Interested in learning more? Contact Jake Chackman at [email protected].