Step into our dynamic Entrepreneurial Summer Internship (ESI) Program, where ten remarkable student teams are granted a transformative summer job opportunity. During the season, they will have the opportunity to unleash their entrepreneurial spirit, crafting businesses from scratch, and accessing top-tier mentors, educational workshops, and a generous stipend. Meet our entrepreneurs and discover what inspires them and fuels their journey.
Meet Abdul Saleh and Josue Vitale, Co-Founders of Leazy
What does your company do?
Leazy is a centralized and user-friendly co-leasing platform designed to help students spend less time searching for roommates and properties and more time connecting with quality prospects and finalizing arrangements. Our approach provides students with a curated selection of potential co-tenants who help reduce leasing costs and foster meaningful social connections, addressing the prevalent issue of loneliness among young adults. Our goal for students is to live with ease—financially, mentally, and physically.
What drew you to entrepreneurship?
Abdul: As an engineering student, I have always had entrepreneurship in my mind. Almost every year I would think about a business idea but would never get the chance to dedicate quality and consistent time to doing so. This year alone, I gathered with a few friends and thought of a pet monitoring system, but schedules conflicted and never progressed.
However, I immediately found myself back on the drawing board with a similar set of friends, and from that point, I took it as a sign that this year was the year for me to go head first into what I have been longing to do.
Josue: Entrepreneurship has always been a part of my life and identity, deeply rooted in my family's history and experiences. My entrepreneurial journey began when I witnessed my parents' resilience and creativity when they moved to Canada. My mother started a house-cleaning business out of necessity, which I helped with from a young age. This early exposure to the entrepreneurial spirit showed me the power of perseverance and hard work to overcome challenges and thrive in Canada.
My father's entrepreneurial story is equally inspiring. He started his first business at 14, a testament to his
resourcefulness and grit. Their stories and sacrifices have profoundly shaped my understanding of entrepreneurship as a means to provide for one's family and contribute to the community. Growing up, I initially channeled my passion into soccer, where I learned discipline, teamwork, and perseverance. However, I soon realized that achieving my life's mission required more than a career in sports. This realization led me to explore new paths, eventually guiding me to Western's business program.
Witnessing the challenges of finding compatible roommates at Western ignited my entrepreneurial spark this experience culminated in the creation of Leazy. Starting a company to address this pressing need has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.
My journey into entrepreneurship is a blend of family influence, personal experiences, and a drive to solve real-world problems. The desire to innovate and create solutions that improve lives keeps me motivated and committed.
Elaborate on your business venture. What problem are you solving, and what is your unique approach?
The leasing process for students is highly fragmented. Due to rising housing costs, most students seek a place to rent and roommates to share expenses. They use listing platforms to find properties and social media to search for roommates and advertise co-leasing opportunities to meet these needs. This approach often overwhelms them, sifting through hundreds of listings and forums with countless users. They compete for attention, especially on roommate-matching platforms with broad user bases. The number of options can be daunting, leading to hasty decisions without proper quality assessments and risking undesirable living environments.
Leazy tackles this problem by centralizing the process and tailoring it specifically for students. Instead of spending hours searching, students receive curated, manageable lists of potential roommates and properties. We use relevant and impactful data gathered through research and consumer surveys to predict the likelihood of strong social bonds and favourable living behaviours among students. This simplifies the co-leasing process and fosters social interactions, helping alleviate the loneliness many students experience, even in large university settings.
Impact:
Leazy is committed to simplifying the search process of finding housing and roommates by reducing stress and loneliness and allowing students to focus more on their studies and enjoy university life. Our innovative platform is designed to make your student housing search easier, more efficient, and more enjoyable, offering a host of benefits that enhance your university experience.
What are you hoping to accomplish over the summer at ESI?
We aim to achieve much, with our primary goal being to launch an MVP by August. However, we aspire to embark on our first genuine venture into entrepreneurship. There is a wealth of knowledge to acquire, and we are eager to apply it all to retain and build upon our entrepreneurial journeys. ESI offers a unique opportunity to accelerate our business and enhance our knowledge and experience early in our careers.
If your business had a theme song, what would it be?
Ordinary People (ft. JP Cooper)
Who is your biggest entrepreneurial inspiration?
Abdul: I don't have any entrepreneurial inspiration, per se. Still, when I think about being an entrepreneur and what I aspire to achieve, I think of Sir Fredrick Banting and his contribution to a product that helped people and was made affordable. The way I see it is how can you solve a problem if the solution is not highly accessible?
Josue: My current biggest entrepreneurial inspiration is Peter Thiel. Thiel is a co-founder of PayPal and Palantir and an early investor in Facebook and LinkedIn. He is known for his innovative approach to startups. I am reading his book Zero to One, which offers insights into building groundbreaking Startups.
Some Key Takeaways that I've gotten include:
- Vertical Progress: Focusing on creating something new rather than copying existing solutions.
- Monopoly Theory: Aiming to dominate our niche with unique offerings.
- Secrets and Innovation: Find and exploit undiscovered truths.
- Contrarian Thinking: Question widely accepted beliefs and seek hidden opportunities.
- The Power Law: Recognize that a few investments will yield the most returns.