Torii has raised $1.4M in total. We talk with James Rogers, its CEO.
PetaCrunch: How would you describe Torii in a single tweet?
James Rogers: Torii is the easiest way to buy a home. We provide buyers with an agent, attorney, title insurance, and more, all free of charge. The entire transaction is done through our app, where buyers can search, manage showings, make an offer, and track progress every step of the way.
PC: How did it all start and why?
JR: I started Torii after several terrible experiences buying homes. The last time I was buying, my wife and I were looking for a house in the mountains of New Hampshire. I found a house online, and our agent told me he knew nothing about the house or the area, but scheduled a showing for the weekend. We drove two hours to see the house, but then our agent told me his dog had thrown up in his car and he got lost, so he never showed up. We saw the house without him, and decided to buy it. He didn’t help us at all through the closing process, which caused us to miss our closing deadline. When we eventually did close and arrived to move in, the house had no electricity or running water, but our agent was now on vacation and wouldn’t respond to help. He still got paid a full commission for the sale. After this (and multiple other similarly bad experiences), I decided I had to fix what is so clearly a broken process. Not long after, I quit my job as a principal software engineer and sold my home in Boston to fund the beginning of Torii.
PC: What have you achieved so far?
JR: In just our first year of sales in Boston, we’ve surpassed a seven-figure revenue run rate, and are already approaching 1% market share. We’ve helped dozens of people buy homes, with universally glowing reviews, and have hundreds more buyers in-progress now.We’ve assembled a team of 8 that has broad expertise to help buyers every step of the way. Our app automates many of the painful parts of buying. You search for and get matched with properties in a Tinder-style way, powered by multiple proprietary machine learning models that keep improving the more you use it. You can schedule and manage all of your showings, place your offer right through the app, and track the progress of your offer as we take care of all of the hard parts for you. We also participated in and won the highly-competitive LAUNCH Accelerator in San Francisco.
PC: How will you use your recent funding round?
JR: We’ll be using our new funding to grow our presence and headcount in Boston, San Francisco, and remotely, and begin expansion to additional markets.
PC: What do you plan to achieve in the next 2-3 years?
JR: We’re always looking for more ways to make buying a home easier, and our roadmap is focused around that. We’re incredibly excited about our list of projects in the works, many of which involve using machine learning and automation to radically simplify the process, making it easier and more enjoyable, and continuing to improve our efficiency. On the market side, Boston is just the start, and in 2-3 years you can expect to see Torii in many more cities around the country.
