Tech innovators Amit Patel and Naman Desai had already helped friends and families find places to live for years, so it only felt natural to marry that experience with their collective backgrounds in startups to launch a new business.

Just like that, Quo was born. It’s an on-demand service that helps prospective renters identify apartments by pairing people with local concierges who in turn help those users with everything from scheduling viewing appointments, cleaners and movers to acquiring insurance. Launched in Cleveland in March 2015 and soon after expanded to New York City and Chicago, the year-old business has drawn at least 50,000 apartment seekers. The founding duo has raised more than $350,000 for their business and working toward a $1 million goal. Crain’s spoke with Amit and Namaan about their first year, what they’ve learned along the way and how innovation has played a role in their early success. Why did you want to start the company here as opposed to anywhere else?Amit: I’m a Clevelander, born and raised. I love this place. This is definitely one of the best cities to start a company given ability to quickly test and validate your concept, stay lean and create awareness to a tight community. Aren’t there similar services to Quo already? How do you separate yourselves? Amit: Nobody offers an end-to-end apartment search concierge experience, and our carefully tailored, concierge interaction differentiates us from the search sites. Our concierges are dedicated to making sure renters land the best apartment for their needs. And they aren’t beholden to other motivations, which is frequently the case with others in this industry. Let’s be candid. How has the first year gone for Quo? Where do you want to improve? Amit: The first year was a great success. We validated our model and demonstrated a market fit. We were fortunate to see solid traction, steady growth, and public relations that met or exceeded almost all of our growth targets. Now we want to improve the member experience through a more robust technology platform that creates interactions that are easy, timely, and goal oriented. Naman: We are also building out tools and assistance for our concierges so that they’re equipped with domain knowledge to make them even more proficient in serving members. Finding a new home is a big decision and having a knowledgeable assistant on your side is a tremendous help.As you’ve made traction with the startup, what strategies have worked and which, perhaps, haven’t? Naman: We’ve spent a lot of time testing different channels and measuring how they work. Our digital ad strategy has become more efficient, and we’ve also been able to devise a corporate partnership strategy that keeps us in front of potential renters without being obtrusive. Because renting in New York City, Cleveland and Chicago is cyclical — it ramps up over the summer — we tested out taking summertime reservations during the winter months. That was a huge success and something we’ll continue to emphasize. We tested out a few guerilla marketing techniques, such as posting witty ads on Craigslist, which is still the go-to destination for many apartment hunters, but that proved to not be an effective method of acquiring users. Both of you have worked with past startups, some of which went well and some that didn’t pan out. What’s something you’ve learned from those past experiences you apply to Quo?Amit: I went through the LaunchHouse accelerator with another startup and I learned a great deal from the program. They pressed hard on the customer development approach from Steve Blank (who launched the lean startup movement), which is what we’ve applied to Quo. I was also able to meet and network with the local investor community. Unfortunately, Tagora didn’t pan out since I wasn’t able to secure the right talent and funding. I’ve learned that continuous network and warm intros to investors are key in order to keep growing the business. Naman: I went through Techstars NYC with ClassPass. It was a great experience and conditioned my mind in a number of ways. For example, always keeping an eye on how people are using your product. You might think they’ll love X but if you see them using Y more, that’s worth digging into. It’s important to be passionate about your idea but also open to different ways of addressing the problem you’re trying to solve. We frequently take a step back to make sure we haven’t missed something.So both of you are still involved with that granular work, too, taking calls and talking to customers? Amit: We really enjoy being concierges as we get to learn ways to improve the process for our team and enhancing the member experience. It’s a way for us to understand what can we innovate in the process and build underlying technology to make our business more efficient to scale while improving the experience. Naman: I can’t imagine being creating a technology-assisted solution for this process without having spent significant time as a concierge, and frequently perusing our concierge interactions. It’s important to be connected to both the process, and hiccups that slow it down, as well as the renter’s mindset. Finding an apartment is an emotional process and you can’t separate that from the experience.Where does Quo go from here? What can we expect next from you two? Amit: We are in the process of building out an app that will add to the speed and efficiency of our service, but in a very natural way. Using technology to facilitate the rental process in real time will allow us to provide a higher level of service to even more renters. Speed and quality are two metrics we focus on, and the app is built around those pillars. We want to scale the business and continue our growth into other highly transient markets such as San Francisco; Los Angeles; Washington, D.C.; Austin and more.