How HouseME Rose Loud And Fast In SA And Fell Quietly In Slow-Mo

Like most stories of founders and the lightbulb moment that eventually resulted in a business, the seeds of the startup that Ben Shaw and Kyle Bradley went on to build were laid after a first-hand encounter with a problem.

It was 2015 and the duo were holed up in a garage, and by that time, they had encountered the inefficiencies of the South African rental market themselves. Surely, there had to be a better way, they thought.

Then boom! They figured what seemed like a better way. Actually, what they conceived was a better route to renting property: HouseME, they called it. It was to be a gamechanger, and it looked like one for a while. That was until things took an unexpected turn and the house came crashing down.