Opening Moving Doors

From adviser to technical co-founder

After Foody, I advised many startups. Staycaee, which later rebranded to Moving Doors, was of particular interest because it brought furnished-living operations and software into the same product.

My role began as advisory work. Advice let me contribute, but it kept me at a distance from the decisions and consequences that made the company interesting. I wanted equity and a real stake in the outcome, so I took on a more active role as technical co-founder.

That commitment came with a different responsibility. I was no longer only helping the team see technical options; I was accountable for turning those choices into a product and an operating system that could support the company.

Experience is a tool, not a template

Starting again after Foody created a tempting shortcut. I had seen a marketplace grow, built operating systems and worked through an acquisition. But experience transfers as questions, not answers. Housing has different constraints, slower inventory and a physical experience that no interface can rescue if the underlying operation is weak.

Experience did help me know where to look: transaction completion, operational exceptions, customer trust and the boundary between software and human service.

Software cannot compensate for reality

A technology-enabled property company still has keys, maintenance, cleaning, neighbourhoods and homes that people must actually live in. The physical operation is not an implementation detail. It is the product.

This changes how software should be designed. The goal is not to place an app between every person and every task. It is to remove avoidable coordination, preserve a clear record and help the team respond before a small issue becomes a bad stay.

The best automation is often quiet. Customers notice that the experience works, not that a workflow ran.

Founding again

A second founding journey is less innocent. You can see more ways the company might fail. That can improve judgement, but it can also make experimentation too cautious.

The balance is to use scar tissue for risk detection without allowing it to become a veto. Some lessons are principles. Others were adaptations to one company at one moment. Knowing which is which remains part of the work.