Theo K. Browne: Meet the Real Estate Tech Founder: Maia Bittner from Pinch

Monday, April 23, 2018

Meet the Real Estate Tech Founder: Maia Bittner from Pinch

In our latest real estate tech entrepreneur interview, we’re speaking with Maia Bittner, co-founder of Pinch.

Without further ado…

What do you do?

I’m the cofounder at Pinch, and I work with my cofounder Michael Ducker to run our business and partnerships strategy. He’s more technical than I am, so he leads the product and engineering sides of the company, and I focus more on sales and relationships. I’m really passionate about the zero to one stage of a company: getting things off the ground, finding product-market fit, and convincing people saner than me to help me out and come work with me!

What problem does your product/service solve?

Our product builds credit scores for millennials. Millennials are pioneering a new lifestyle that is based more around renting and less around using credit to make big purchases like housing and cars. Most credit reports rely on those purchases to build the credit score that’s used to qualify you for loans, employment, apartments, and car insurance. Pinch reports apartment rental payments to the credit bureaus so that our customers can still bulk up their credit report in a way that works with their lifestyle.

What are you most excited about right now?

Seeing the impact! We only launched on January 1, and to be honest, we weren’t sure how big of an impact our service would have. Since then, I’ve loved seeing how stoked tenants are about Pinch – the reviews are coming in on the app stores, social media, and email. We’re building a product that makes a meaningful difference in the lives of average Americans.

What’s next for you?

I believe that renting is a lifestyle that’s here to stay. I really want to report other rental payments too: things like renting furniture, cars, electronics, etc. Frankly, it’s more innovation than apartment rentals, so it’ll take longer to develop. I’m working closely with the credit bureaus to design what that would look like, and they’re excited about accessing more data on customers that they know so little about.

What’s a cause you’re passionate about and why?

Well, it’s not far from my company, but I really care about women in tech. I volunteer as a mentor for several women, organize a networking event www.seriesxx.com, donate to SheEO, advise/invest in startups with female founders, and have pioneered novel forms of hiring that are more equitable. So I spend a fair bit of time, money, and energy supporting women and then evangelizing that work I’m doing.

Thanks to Maia for sharing her story. If you’d like to connect, find her on LinkedIn here.

Meet The RE Tech Entrepreneur We’re constantly looking for great real estate tech entrepreneurs to feature. If that’s you, please read this post — then drop me a line (drew @ geekestatelabs dot com).