Short-term rentals were one of the most talked-about corners of real estate, and almost nobody could get in. Owning one meant a six-figure down payment, financing, and the work of operating it. If you had five thousand dollars and wanted exposure to that market, there was no product for you.
A platform that pooled investors into short-term rental property. Megalo raised the capital, acquired the homes, and shared the income back to investors in proportion to their stake, on a modified REIT structure. The economics of ownership without the title, the mortgage, or the midnight call about the hot tub.
It shipped as a mobile app: a feed of properties with live availability, a detail page for each home, an investment calculator, and in-app verification and payments.
My partners bought me out. They kept the software and turned it into the tool they use to run their own properties. The product turned out to be worth as much as an operating system for a portfolio as it was as a marketplace, and that lesson stayed with me.
Version 3 is what I'd build today: shares priced at $50 instead of a minimum ticket, a secondary market so nobody is locked in, and a monthly payout people can see in one chart. Same thesis, far less friction, and a third revenue line that version 1 never had.