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Marcus Rader – CEO and Founder of Hostaway
In this episode, Marcus Rader, co-founder of Hostaway, joins Avery to share his journey from Finland to Canada, the lessons he learned from startups, and how he built one of the leading Property Management Software (PMS) providers for vacation rentals. Marcus discusses the evolution of the Airbnb space and how failing an IQ test pushed him to create a successful company in the vacation rental industry.
Avery: Hey guys, welcome back to the short-term show. Today, I was actually very surprised. Our guest showed up in an Iron Maiden shirt! I think this is the first person we’ve ever had on the show who is more metal than me—or at least that I’ll admit. Anyway, his name is Marcus Rader, and he’s from Hostaway, which a lot of you are going to be familiar with. I’m really excited to get this interview started. We may throw in some metal talk, sorry to those of you who are not fans, but when I meet my metal brethren…
Marcus: In the real estate world, it makes me happy. So, how’s it going, Avery? Things are going great!
Avery: So many exciting things going on at Hostaway, and it’s a sunny day today, like it’s been for the last six weeks. The sun is shining, and things are overall really good. Thank you so much for having me here.
Marcus: Thanks for coming on. So, let’s start at the beginning. Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got into the vacation rental space.
Avery: Yes, so I have lived in a lot of different places, but pretty early on, when I was at university, I studied business. I realized I wanted to be in something technology-related, and so I’ve been in a bunch of different technology companies. And the one uniting factor there was always the word startup. That was always what I really enjoyed—the idea of having a company that might fail, but when you look at a hundred other companies that tried the same thing and failed, someone succeeds in making it successful. When they do, because it’s technology, it can be leveraged, and you can become the biggest company in the world. One day, I found that incredibly fascinating and loved the type of people who are drawn to those kinds of jobs.
Marcus: Those kinds of jobs are very different from most. You wouldn’t see most of those people walking down the street, right?
Avery: Exactly. Back in 2015, my wife and I were living in Finland, and she got offered a job in Canada. We thought, “That’s exciting because we travel a lot, but we’ve never been to Canada.” So, we moved, and it turned out to be really cool because Canada is close to Florida, which is also really cool. But coming in as newly landed immigrants, it’s hard. Moving within Europe is like moving from one state to another—you keep some familiarity. Moving to a new continent is a completely different game.
Marcus: I bet! So how did that transition work out?
Avery: I failed my one and only job interview because there was an IQ test—and all the measurements were in Imperial, and I didn’t know what they were! So, I failed the IQ test, and that’s when I thought, “Maybe I should use the knowledge I’ve gathered about startups, especially failing ones, to build my own company.” And that’s what I did. Pretty soon, I found myself fascinated by real estate, just like you.
Marcus: Interesting! How did you make the leap into Airbnb and the vacation rental world?
Avery: I found out there was a massive opportunity in the Airbnb space. It’s way bigger and more professional than I realized. That’s what we started building on. Coming into a completely new industry was interesting, but I’ve done that at every company where I’ve worked. In the past, I’ve leveraged assets of a company to go into a new market or new industry. Over the last seven years, we’ve become one of the leading PMS providers for vacation rentals worldwide.
Marcus: That’s incredible! Failing an IQ test led to one of the biggest success stories in vacation rental technology. Let’s talk about Hostaway. I think most people listening will be familiar with what a PMS is, but for those who aren’t, a PMS is Property Management Software. Hostaway helps connect all of your different listings and booking sites into one dashboard and automates a lot of processes.