#8: SmallSmall
connecting people to quality living solutions.
I once read an article about an Australian millionaire who said millennials could not afford to own property because we spend all our money on avocado toast and lattes. It was such a ridiculous thought; frankly, I’m shocked it crossed his mind.
Avocado toast and lattes? Not the rising inflation, the skyrocketing cost of living, low income, and overall poor macroeconomic conditions, but avocado toast and lattes?
Interestingly, folks at the Marketplace crunched the numbers in 2020 and found that if you eat avocado toast priced at $12 three times a week and choose to forgo it to save for a property worth $313,200, it will still take you over 33 years to save up for a 20% downpayment. If that isn’t absurd, I don’t know what is.
Owning a property only seems possible in the dreams of millennials and gen-zs. This shouldn’t be the case.
The availability of sound credit systems has made it hard [not impossible] to buy a home and pay your rent in the West. Unfortunately, most Africans don’t have this opportunity—accessing credit is almost impossible for the average Nigerian. The low income levels and the constantly increasing inflation rate have made it difficult to access this necessity.
It gets even trickier because landlords prefer yearly rent payments in African countries like Nigeria. Essentially, you have to save up enough money for a year to be even considered, which sounds easy in theory but is challenging in practice. And these are just some of the problems plaguing the Nigerian housing market.
The good news is that our product feature of the week solves some of these problems. They offers services that allow people looking to lease houses to pay their rents monthly instead of yearly. They also enable people hoping to invest in properties to do so fractionally and receive rent on their share of the property. That way, people can start small and reasonably generate returns on their investments.
I’m super excited about this product feature. Let’s get to it.
Product Profile
Name: SmallSmall
Website: http://smallsmall.com/
Countries Served: Nigeria for now
Product Area: Property Tech [PropTech]
Price: Free
Founders: Tunde Daniel Balogun [CEO], Naomi Olaghere, Pidah Tnadah
Funding Stage: Pre-Seed
Year Founded: 2018
SmallSmall in the news: TechCrunch, ThisDay, TechCabal
Open Roles: Finance Manager
In their own words:
Mission: To connect people to today’s economic opportunities by providing access to flexible living solutions.
SmallSmall is a property technology company created to connect people to better living solutions that is seamless and efficient. Through our products, we are providing ease and flexibility, eliminating the hardships that come with renting, buying, listing or staying in a home.
For us, it is about the small steps—starting small and growing bigger through the journey. It is why we are focused on providing convenience backed by flexibility. We are more than a real estate company; we are your partner in building the best life you envision.
Backed by technology, we want you to access opportunities seamlessly and live comfortably without breaking the bank. We are solving the living challenges peculiar to Nigeria and Africa in small steps through our products and services.
SmallSmall has three product offerings:
RentSmallSmall: a platform that allows people easily find apartments and houses to rent and pay monthly at no additional cost.
Buy2Let: a platform that allows people to buy houses and apartments fractionally as an investment and ensures that their home investment generates rental income for owners.
StayOne: a platform that allows people who need premium quality living spaces to rent those spaces at a nightly rate.
In Summary:
For people looking to rent a home in big African cities like Lagos, RentSmallSmall can help reduce the stress associated with finding a place and streamline the process. Most information on housing availability is shared by word of mouth and newspaper listings, which is highly inefficient.
Furthermore, finding a reliable and trustworthy real estate agent can be a hassle. And the charges for viewing places and closing transactions are getting ridiculous. I would know; my dad has been a real estate agent for 26 years now 💀
It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for you to find a good real estate agent in Lagos.
Don’t even get me started on finding a place to rent as a single woman, which is very tough for many unnecessary reasons. With their solutions, SmallSmall is making life easier for people who want to rent homes and people hoping to invest in properties, which is amazing!
If you like what you’ve seen so far, you can check SmallSmall out for yourself here.
What do you think about SmallSmall?
On an unrelated note:
Here are some of my favourite things I read in the past week:
Mastery for Generalists by David Hoang [Life & Career focused]
Beans and Noses by Jared Spool [Life & Career focused]
The Gift of Details: What Startup Founders Can Learn From Improv Acting 101[Product & Startup focused]
Bowing out:
That’s it for this week, folks! I hope you found it enlightening.
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I hope the rest of your week goes great! See ya next week!
Yours in Product Discovery,
Dumss
Great product! It's so necessary.