 I love it! That was good! Wow! I'm sweating. I can't do it! This is School of Hustle, the show where we find advice and inspiration from people who are making their own way. I'm Shannon, the VP of social here at GoDaddy, and I absolutely live and breathe the hustle of business. Today I have Keola George, the founder of the neighborhood friendly app, Haber. Welcome to the show. Thank you, Shannon. Thanks for having me. I really appreciate being here today. It's wonderful. Well, I also appreciate gifts. I feel like you brought me something. I hate to jump right into presents, but I see it's sitting there and I'm kind of excited. I'm so excited to present you with this. This is our Haber How You Live in t-shirt. It is our byline because that is what we want to know for everyone, how you live in. So this is for you and I hope that you can, you know, in addition to downloading the app and, you know, becoming a part of our community that you rep us. I love this. Thank you. Tell us a little bit, first of all, just what Haber is. So Haber is actually a combination of two words, hey and neighbor. And it is an app for rating and reviewing residential properties. So kind of like how, like now if you wanted to go to a restaurant you've never been to before, you'd be able to go on Yelp and see what it's like, what the food is like, what the service is like. So my idea came up through a conversation with a friend over half a bottle of wine. Sometimes that's what it takes. That is what it takes. But it was basically like this conversation about, you know, how do you like living here? How do you like living in this building? I have no idea. I just visited you. But if I was interested in moving in, I really don't have much insight outside of what the broker has told me. So Haber is a way for people to get that insight, that information that they wouldn't normally get from people who live in the property themselves. Yeah, that's interesting because we do that when we go book a hotel or we book a restaurant. But when you're moving into an apartment, for example, how do you know? You don't. Right? You get the best foot forward. But what's really going on in that building and in that neighborhood, right? Yeah, you have no idea. You don't know if you can get parking. You're just taking everything at face value because you like your space. You like the space that you saw. But you don't know what it's like. You know, what is it like at midnight? What is it like when you're going to walk from the train station to blocks over? Like, these are things that you need to know. That's where you're going to be the most vulnerable at home. So you should know these things. You found a space where there was a need. How did you go about building a team and making this an actual reality? So a lot of it has been my own undertaking. You know, when I didn't have developers to begin with, that tech is not my background. But I ended up tweeting just, you know, are there developers out there that are available for freelance? And I ended up getting maybe like around 11, 12 applicants and I interviewed them. And we were able to, you know, solidify a deal with a development team that I've been working with for a few years now. That is fantastic. And how are you distributing the app? Because tech is just so crowded and there's so many apps out there. There are. Right now, like, because the team is very small, I have like a lot of my friends help me with things anywhere from legal to marketing to graphic design. Like I've basically just been enlisting friends. What are you going to do? What are you going to do without your friends, right? So getting it out there has been a lot of, you know, word of mouth. Same. I need my friends to tell people that it's out there until we're able to, you know, secure our seed funding. And then we are able to, you know, have a marketing strategy in place. I love that. And I want to spend some time really digging into your entrepreneurial story. But first, I am a big fan of an icebreaker, a solid icebreaker or a party game that can kind of give me a chance to get to know you a little bit. I know everybody out here is excited to get to know you today and learn from you. But let's start with a game we call Hustle Time. Jonathan, can I have you bring in the cards? So what we're going to do in this game is we're going to set a timer for 60 seconds and ask you questions that are designed to be, like, answered with the first thing that comes to mind. So the longer you think about a question, the less amount of cards you'll get through. And I know you're competitive. I'm very competitive. That's what I'm like. Exactly. You are the reader board. You are the leader board. You want to be, like, up there, right? Well, what's it like? How many do I need? Like, where am I headed? I feel like we've seen 16, 20, that kind of, you want to really go for it. Business. Let's make sure that you shuffle and feel that the cards are fair. This is the real test. Boom. Okay, you're happy with that? Jonathan, can we have 60 seconds on the timer? Ready, go. Sour candy, your sweet. Sour. Grape flavor, yay or nay? Nay. Song that is currently stuck in your head. Oh, can't stop to feel it. Dream dinner guest. Oprah. One word you wish you could take away from the English language? Uh, holla. What is your favorite word? Fictional place you'd like to visit? Uh, Hogwarts. Early bird or night owl? Early bird. Last person you texted? Nicole. Which would you rather add to your life, time or value? Value. Binge watch or watch weekly? Binge watch. Coffee or tea? Coffee. First record you bought with your own money? Uh, Cisco. Would you rather fly or talk to animals? Uh, fly. Go to cocktail? Uh, margarita. Snapchat. Has a long life or is a lost cause? Lost. Okay. Number one, guilty pleasure? Uh, wine. If you could have a superpower, what would it be? Uh, see through walls. I love it. Good. I love it. That was good. 18. So good. So good. Well, nicely done. That was fun. Thank you. Now let's get into the entrepreneurial piece of your business. And I know that people as well as myself would love to learn. What is the best advice that you have gotten along the way? Uh, the best advice that I can say that I've gotten along the way is probably to not take no for an answer. Um, mostly because my no, someone else's no is not my no. So just because it doesn't work for someone else doesn't necessarily mean that that's going to be my experience. So the no's are for other people. They're not for me. If I, if there's something that I need to go after in life, then I need to go after it. And it's no one else's, if that's no one else's challenge, but my own. Right. That's great. What about on the flip side, the worst advice that you've gotten along the way? You know what? My worst advice that I've ever gotten is to quit while I was ahead. Because there's no way to know exactly what some, there's, you know, especially in business, it's a roller coaster. So just because you're ahead right now doesn't mean that you can't get further. Just because you had to set back like today is going to be great. And then tomorrow is not so great. Maybe it'll be a few months where it's not that great. And then I just because I was ahead a few months ago doesn't mean that I can't put in more in Excel past where I was, you know, at that point. What does success look like for you? For me, success, I think I will know that I'm successful when I can walk into a room and people know who I am before I've gotten there. Like I don't have to introduce myself anymore. That's when I'll know that I've made it. Has there ever been a moment in your career where you felt like walking away? Oh yeah. About six months ago, funny enough. I, at that point, I was already, the app had been live and I had already established the business for two years. And I felt like I couldn't put in more energy into it. Like I felt drained. I felt like it wasn't getting anywhere. And I sat down at dinner with one of my girlfriends. And it was the day after I filled out the letter of disillusion. And she said, I told her, I was like, well, tomorrow is probably the day I'm going to just give it in. And she said, she was like, what are the odds that you haven't actually put in the amount of work that you actually could have? And I was like, ooh, how dare you be right? So I promised her that I would give it another year and actually hustle. And it's been six months and it's been an incredible return on the amount of things that I've put in. That's amazing. What is one thing that you still need to learn? I, in the past six months, I've been working on asking for help. So that's one of my biggest things. Like I'm really big on taking care of myself, doing things on my own because then I can, I guess I was saying to myself that I don't need other people to be successful, but that's not true. You need people, you need a team. You need people to help you to attain goals, like real goals. So my biggest thing that I've been working on and that I'm looking forward to improving is asking for help, knowing when I, that's not my strong suit. Get someone in there that can do that role. Right. It's important to know what you don't know and not be afraid to ask. Yeah. It doesn't make you weak. No. It makes you smart actually. And with that, what is something that you want people to learn from you? I want, I would love for people to learn from me that you have actually no idea what you're capable of because like I said, this, the neighbor was never, it was never in my, you know, goals. It was never a thing prior to three years ago. And, but once it spoke to me and it, you know, a lot of times in life, things speak to you and, but you don't really answer. And if you can learn anything from me is that sometimes when, you know, life speaks to you, you, your responsibility is to answer it, to match the call. So that's what I would like anybody to just listen, open up. I like that. That's fantastic. What's next for you? Ah, so my next goal for the app itself is I'm pitching investors. We're, you know, I'm getting, getting in front of investors and letting them know about the product, getting more property managers and brokers to understand the app, you know, this functionality and how it benefits them as well as, you know, the people that rent and the people that live in the property. It's a, it's a community. So my goal, what's next for me in the next six months, because now I'm working at six months, six month increment, is to get, to get more people familiar with the app. And, you know, I'm putting it into the universe, seed funded in the next six months. That's amazing. I love that. So what can people do today to help? Because I imagine people are really interested in this. There is an Indiegogo for Haber that, so we're raising funds to get through this next level of development. And hopefully we'll have a new product out to you guys. It was for the end of the year. That would be great. Thank you. Your visit today was certainly celebrated by everyone in our tribe on social. And I appreciate you sharing your visit in advance too because we had a lot of questions come in. I have enthusiasm. We, yes. And I love it. People are really interested in you and what you're doing. And that's just so fantastic. We have a few questions from our tribe. Okay. So, Smoonzilla asked a question. What's been one of your most impactful learning lessons since starting Haber? The most impactful thing that I learned was to trust myself and to not, you know, this, everything is not going to be the end of the world. Like I can make, as long as I check off these boxes today, then I can make it through tomorrow. And so learning myself was the biggest challenge. And that's been the biggest impact on me. That's awesome. This one's from Nicole. What is your long-term vision for Haber? Oh, I actually, this, I don't think about this all the time. My long-term vision is that Haber is going to be pretty much, it's going to become a verb. Like no one is going to be moving into new places without getting that information. So it's going to be, yeah, I found a place, but when I went on Haber, there, you know, it didn't have great reviews. Or when I Habered it. When I Habered it, it wasn't, yeah, it just wasn't, it didn't live up to what, you know, they were selling. Or on the flip side, gosh, I didn't think I really liked it or it was for me. But then when I went into Haber, I learned it was and I've never been happier in my life. I've never been happier. It's totally worth it. That's right. You're impacting people's lives. That's the goal. And to your point earlier, you know, it's your place of where you live, right? It's really important. Didn't, yeah. I mean, if you care about like two hours at a restaurant and you know, 50 bucks or 100 bucks, whatever your dining budget is, where you spend time in your home, the hours are immeasurable and the money that you put into that is immeasurable compared. So. And you're asleep. You're like really vulnerable. You should probably be super comfortable where you are. Absolutely. Well, this has been such a fantastic conversation. We've had so much fun talking to you and I love what you're doing. Thank you. But you're welcome. And I know that you are competitive as we saw with Hustle Time and you, you know, just getting through like 18 questions. I have one more challenge for you. This is around giving some advice to one of our newer GoDaddy employees named Noodle. Noodle is a 10-year-old pug. Oh my God. Where are you going, bud? He'll do it. There you go. So Noodle is such a lovable neighbor. Oh, he's such a lovable neighbor. But Noodle barks a lot. Noodle can get loud. What advice do you have for folks who are a lovable neighbor but tend to be rowdy? I mean, they certainly wouldn't want to have bad reviews on Haber, right? What advice do you have for somebody who's like Noodle? Noodle, we're going to have to have a conversation about your tendencies. Can we at least like have like a time, like after 10 p.m., no barking, that's like Zen time. Can we work a deal? Or maybe we give you like a specific time in the middle of the day for you to hang out. Something like that. 10 p.m. is kind of that sweet spot. Yeah. Don't run the vacuum, Noodle. Exactly. Don't bark. Yeah. Don't decide to hang a picture. No. Of your owner. Oh, God. Although that is around the time where I want to vacuum. I know. Well, thank you everybody for watching. If you loved School of Hustle, follow us across social. We have these coming every week with more fabulous entrepreneurs. Lessons and fun to be had. Thank you so much.