Less than two weeks after winning the top prize at New Orleans Entrepreneur Week, the red-hot startup founded by a pair of Freeman School students did it again. RentCheck, the rental inspection app developed by Marco Nelson (MBA ’19) and Lydia Winkler (MBA/JD ’19) to streamline the security deposit process, was the grand prize winner at the 19th annual Tulane Business Model Competition, which took place at the Freeman School on April 8. The company took home a cash prize of $35,000 for winning this year’s competition.
The RentCheck app guides tenants and landlords through a detailed inspection of rental properties and allows them to sign off on timestamped photos documenting the condition of virtually everything in the space. In the event of a dispute over the security deposit, the report and photos serve as an objective record of the property’s condition before and after the lease. Since its launch last April, RentCheck has built a base of more than 600 users — including more than 300 landlords and property managers — in 40 U.S. states and seven countries.
