Kiki’s co-founder and CEO, Toby Thomas-Smith describes the beginning of unlocking a new way of living, the mistakes, the deliberate design decisions, growing up with Dyslexia and so much more

Wild Hearts

Unlocking a new way of living with Toby Thomas-Smith, Co-Founder of Kiki

Kiki is on a mission to revolutionise the way we live and connect. By leveraging the power of existing social ties, their unique peer-to-peer subletting platform enables users greater flexibility to travel, helping unlock new lifestyles, friendships and savings.

✅Growing a “cult-like” community around the ethos of subletting

✅Lessons from early mistakes launching in New Zealand

✅Launching in New York: Kiki’s global vision

Episode Highlights from Toby:

“If we can pull this off, we're gonna change how a billion people live, and unchain a billion people from their rent.”

“Stop trying to boil the whole ocean. Find one rock pool. Boil the hell out of that rock pool… Build an ocean of rock pools… That’s why we ended up pivoting from the whole of Sydney, just to Bondi.”

[In the app] “Every single thing you see is intentional. For example… the first thing we push is the name of the person whose place it is. Person. This is not fucking Bondi bubble pad. This is Jenny's home, you know, Jenny's actual home… it's about people, it's about the connection.”

“We've literally had people run up to me in the street, cry in my arms, because they got to see their grandma for the last time before she passed away. Because they were able to go back and see her because they didn’t have to pay rent while they were gone.”

“New York is literally in crisis, it couldn't be worse to be honest. You know, people are paying 2. 5 times more rent on average than people in Sydney.”