Director of Product Management, Evolve

Evolve, launched in 2011, came to the game shortly after Airbnb, and because Evolve is a hospitality company and not a marketplace, its service is complementary. Many of its properties are in fact listed on the rental marketplace giant. Whereas Airbnb makes vacation rental possible for everyone, Evolve’s aim is to make it easy. This is a difference it has made great pains to stress, perhaps a hangover from the misconceptions it faced from VCs when raising initial funds.

Nevertheless, Evolve counts over 25,000 homeowners with over 10M guests as service customers. With home rentals becoming increasingly popular, and relatively permissive Airbnb policies highlighting the benefits of quality control, Evolve’s 5-star focus has aided it in securing substantial funding in 2022 from Durable Capital Partners.