- nestful is a marketplace which helps homeowners over 50 to age in place and reduce social isolation by matching them with compatible long-term lodgers.
- nestful are part of Bethnal Green Ventures S20 portfolio of Tech for Good backed businesses.
About nestful
nestful co-founder, Suzanne Noble: “I first became aware of the pleasures of sharing a home with someone my age (I’m 60) when I offered a room in my flat to a friend of a friend, needing a place to live. Having been an Airbnb host for over four years, I had grown tired of changing sheets and cleaning the bathroom, and when the opportunity to have someone live with me permanently came along, I decided to go for it.
When I realised I wasn’t alone in being an older flat sharer after six months spent researching the market, I created Silver Sharers, rebranded in February 2021 to nestful. I joined up with my co-founder Steve Glasper who, with over 20+ years spent working in proptech, realised the value of the service.
We received investment from Bethnal Green Ventures in 2020, enabling us to rebuild our platform that allows those seeking affordable accommodation to be matched with older homeowners (typically aged 60+) with rooms to spare. We remove the requirement for searching and browsing properties that don’t fit our customer’s specifications. A fun lifestyle questionnaire enables both homeowner and renter to understand each other’s attitudes towards cleanliness, diet and other preferences.”
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COVID-19 Challenges
COVID-19 created a challenge for the business as many of our homeowners identified as vulnerable and were, understandably, not keen on having strangers move in with them. Steve Glasper, nestful’s co-founder, and Suzanne are seasoned entrepreneurs and, as a result, are used to dealing with the unexpected, although nothing could have really prepared anyone for a pandemic!
As we emerge from lockdown, nestful are witnessing more interest in their service. Winning the first Impact Shaker’s Award for Housing has helped validate the requirement for what nestful do as well as the successful matches they’ve made, but there’s still a long way to go before home-sharing of this type becomes mainstream. The biggest challenge for the firm is finding more homeowners with spare rooms. The data suggests that there’s plenty of stock out there; it’s a question of finding it.
