The Gonzo Chronicles of YC S24 Startup Assembly HOA

In partnership with

I own a bunch of properties. One of them has an HOA. HomeOwners Association.

It has allowed my worst neighbors to gain power and use the HOA to fine their neighbors.

The HOA management company is terrible.

Can I replace them with software? This is my great hope for Assembly HOA.

I was somewhere around Los Angeles when the reality of Homeowners Associations (HOAs) began to take hold. 

The pungent scent of fear and loathing mingled with the acrid tang of progress, and I knew I was about to witness a revolution. 

Not the kind of revolution with banners and chants, but a digital upheaval seeping into the crevices of suburban America. 

Welcome to the world of Assembly HOA, a Y Combinator S24 company, where artificial intelligence and fintech collide with the mundane existence of property management.

I. The Birth of the Beast

Assembly HOA, a name whispered with reverence and suspicion in the manicured lawns of gated communities, emerged from the fevered minds of Shreyas Bharadwaj and Allen Liou. Two visionaries, driven by a shared disdain for the opaque, archaic systems that governed their homes. Shreyas, a data scientist with a penchant for machine learning, and Allen, a real estate maven with a startup swagger, joined forces to dismantle the creaking machinery of traditional HOA management.

Intercom for Startups

Join Intercom’s Early Stage Program to receive a 90% discount.

Get a direct line to your customers. Try the only complete AI-first customer service solution.

Apply now

Their mission was clear: to bring transparency, efficiency, and sanity to an industry plagued by outdated practices and misaligned incentives. They sought to expose the inner workings of HOAs, to shine a light on the dark corners where vendor kickbacks and financial mismanagement festered. In short, they aimed to drag HOAs kicking and screaming into the 21st century.

II. The Madmen Behind the Curtain

Shreyas Bharadwaj, the AI wizard, had seen the beast up close. As a condo owner, he’d experienced the Kafkaesque absurdity of community operations. His tenure at the RAND Corporation, developing experimental machine learning products for the Department of Defense, had armed him with the technical prowess to wage war on inefficiency. But it was his personal vendetta against HOA mismanagement that fueled his crusade.

Allen Liou, on the other hand, brought the street smarts of a real estate agent and the strategic acumen of a startup veteran. His upbringing in a townhome community had given him a ringside seat to the HOA circus. Allen knew the game, the players, and the stakes. His drive to innovate and improve client experiences was the perfect complement to Shreyas’s technical expertise.

Together, they were a force of nature, an unstoppable juggernaut tearing through the status quo with the ferocity of a thousand disgruntled homeowners.

III. The Vertical Integration Coup

The landscape of HOA management was littered with the carcasses of mom-and-pop operations, small-time players clinging to outdated practices. These relics of a bygone era prioritized cozy relationships with vendors and banks over the interests of the communities they served. It was a system designed to perpetuate itself, to maintain the illusion of control while the wheels of progress rusted away.

Shreyas and Allen knew that to truly fix HOAs, they had to do more than just tweak the system; they had to reinvent it from the ground up. Vertical integration was the key. By taking control of every aspect of HOA management, from financial oversight to community planning, they could ensure that their vision of transparency and efficiency permeated every layer of the operation.

IV. The AI-Driven Renaissance

Artificial intelligence, the great equalizer, the unblinking eye that never sleeps. Assembly HOA harnessed this digital leviathan to bring real-time financial insights to homeowners, to automate the mundane and eliminate the inefficiencies that plagued traditional HOA management. It was a bold move, but one that promised to revolutionize the industry.

With AI at the helm, homeowners could finally see where their money was going, understand the intricacies of community operations, and hold their boards accountable. The days of opaque financials and shady dealings were numbered. The power was shifting back to the people, and Assembly HOA was leading the charge.

V. The Fintech Fusion

Fintech, the wild west of finance, where innovation and regulation danced a precarious waltz. Assembly HOA integrated cutting-edge financial technology to streamline payments, manage reserves, and forecast financial needs. It was a marriage of convenience and necessity, a union that promised to safeguard property values and ensure the financial health of communities.

Homeowners could now make payments with a click, track their contributions, and rest easy knowing that their investments were being managed with the precision of a Swiss watch. The future was here, and it was bright, transparent, and efficient.

VI. The Human Element

Despite the technological wizardry, the heart of Assembly HOA was its commitment to the human element. Shreyas and Allen understood that behind every algorithm, every line of code, were real people with real concerns. Their approach was not just about automating tasks, but about enhancing the quality of life for homeowners.

By providing strategic community planning and proactive management, they aimed to create turnkey communities where residents could thrive. It was a vision of utopia, where technology served the people, not the other way around.

VII. The Proof of the Pudding

The acid test of any grand vision is its execution. Assembly HOA’s success was not just theoretical; it was tangible, measurable. Over 20 communities in Greater Los Angeles and the SF Bay Area had already embraced the future, reaping the benefits of transparent, efficient, and proactive management.

These communities stood as testaments to the power of innovation, shining examples of what was possible when vision and technology converged. Homeowners, once mired in confusion and frustration, now enjoyed peace of mind, knowing that their communities were in capable hands.

VIII. The Road Ahead

The journey of Assembly HOA was far from over. The road ahead was long and fraught with challenges. The entrenched interests of traditional HOA management were not going to roll over without a fight. But Shreyas and Allen were undeterred. They had the vision, the technology, and the will to see their revolution through to the end.

As they expanded their reach, bringing their brand of tech-enabled management to more communities, the ripple effects would be felt across the industry. The old guard would be forced to adapt or perish, and the beneficiaries would be the homeowners, the unsung heroes of this saga.

In the end, the story of Assembly HOA was a quintessentially American tale, a story of rebellion, innovation, and relentless pursuit of a better future. It was a story that Hunter S. Thompson himself would have appreciated, a tale of two madmen challenging the status quo and daring to dream of a world where technology served the people.

So here’s to Shreyas and Allen, the architects of a new dawn in HOA management. May their revolution be swift and their success enduring. And may we all find the courage to embrace the future, to shatter the chains of the past, and to build a world where transparency, efficiency, and humanity reign supreme.

---

Shameless Pitch Opps.ai

You can also use Opps.ai to find data on your ideal client profile. You can use this data in cold email outreach using our Opps Plus features and then in a tool like Waalaxy or Drippify. Most records have both the ICP prospect’s business email and LinkedIn URL

Use code WolfCast1kFree for a free month of our PRO plan that includes 1,000 free records to find data on your Ideal Client or Ideal Investor. We use this data in cold outreach emails and LinkedIn campaigns.