Christian Ries is no stranger to building at the intersection of property and technology. His latest startup, fresh out of Atlanta Ventures Studio, is designed specifically for the “busy technology-savvy homeowner.”
Zeto launched in Atlanta as a home management company that uses text messaging to get homeowners connected to the services they need around the house.
Each homeowner is given a “Home Manager” who in turn deals with the scheduling and managing of maintenance and other work that needs to be done.
A user might text about a growing number of household tasks — like calling a plumber, getting a new HVAC unit, or ordering firewood — and that home manager will handle working directly with a trusted vendor.
Opting for text message communication came from a better understanding of how households think about getting through a growing “to do” list. Zeto was born from the lessons Ries learned as the founder of property management startup Jonny On It, which he closed during the pandemic.
He told Hypepotamus that the Zeto team spent significant time during the customer discovery phase, learning how families and homeowners “interact with their homes.”
Atlanta’s booming housing marketing makes it a prime location to launch such a venture, says Ries. It is also a unique place to grow a startup dedicated to what the future of IoT looks like within a home.
“It’s the marriage of people and technology in the home service industry. The advances to the industrial internet have accelerated the capacity to deploy, automate, orchestrate and secure all different types of technology behind the scenes allowing us to put people first. There’s a level of efficiency and transparency that today’s consumers demand, and we believe there’s an opportunity to meet that demand,” added Ries.
Zeto has been building within the Atlanta Ventures Studio alongside Intown Golf Club and Greenzie.
Other scaling startups in Atlanta Ventures’ portfolio include Hazlnut, Grayscale, Offbeat Media Group, Infinite Giving, Voxie, and Reframe.
