Meghan Martinez of Chandler is developing a keyless, digital lock to combat the inefficiencies and dangers of Realtors showing strangers vacant homes.
Her Keasy company is one of nine full-time ventures and 25 companies chosen for the evening program last week in Seed Spot’s newest 14-week program.
Martinez is looking forward to Seed Spot’s mentors, resources and alumni to help her develop the app and get the lock to market by the fall.
Realtors will be able to install the Keasy Lock on the door, pre-approve tenants and issue an electronic key to potential buyers.
The buyer can then enter the home by downloading the app, pressing a button and holding their phone up to the lock to unlock the door.
They’ll have a limited time to walk through the house, and when they close the door, their one-time electronic key will no longer work, Martinez said.
“Nobody thinks of working as a Realtor as being a dangerous job, but it is,” said Martinez, citing 69 Realtor murders nationally in 2010 and hundreds of assaults. “I found a need in my own daily routine and had a problem myself, so the idea was born.”
Seed Spot is a Phoenix-based nonprofit incubator that works with social entrepreneurs and provides resources, curriculum, mentors, financial modeling, pitch development and capital opportunities for chosen entrepreneurs.
Seed Spot co-founder Courtney Klein said this fourth venture class will be with the incubator for a “rigorous” 14-week program. Most of the companies are in the concept, prototype or pilot stage.
“We have more mentors and community supporters than ever before,” Klein said in an email. “We are working hard to help these entrepreneurs maximize their impact in the world.”
Demo day, where the founders will pitch their companies in front of a live audience, will be Dec. 9 at the Herberger Theater in Phoenix.
Here’s a description of the other full-time ventures chosen for the program:
- Feel Free LLC connects users within built spaces in an effort to bring people together, inspire community collaboration and initiate sustainable relationships.
- Zeidtech is a technology for animal control agencies and humane societies to provide innovative and effective constituent and animal management services.
- My Beeble is an online platform for students to buy and sell books to each other, providing cost savings to students and greater access to educational materials.
- Paws to Read is a nonprofit that certifies animal owners to take their pets into libraries and classrooms to allow kids to read to the animals. Studies have shown this increases student confidence in reading.
- Acqhired.com is the first team job board where teams of engineers, developers, consultants and many more career fields are hired, or “acqhired,” as a group or team rather than solely as individuals.
- Dream Box works in partnership with foster care systems and orphanages to provide basic items to children in need.
- Seed Spot’s High School Program is a week-long summer program that teaches entrepreneurship to high school students and supports them in starting their own business. Seed Spot held its first high school program this past summerand has plans to take it nationwide.
- Trade My Shoe is a nonprofit online service that allows leg amputees and people with disabilities to trade their shoes with each other around the world. This is a high school venture program that graduated from Seed Spot’s high school program.
