Family Dinner Recap: Laurence Jankelow

On Wednesday, October 9th, The Garage welcomed Laurence Jankelow, Founder of Avail, for this week’s Family Dinner. Avail assisted over 1.5 million do-it-yourself landlords in managing their properties, offering tools to screen tenants, managing maintenance requests, and more. Additionally, Laurence served as VP of Rentals at Realtor.com and built his real estate investment portfolio on the side. Despite a sleepless night courtesy of his newborn, Laurence brought a wealth of knowledge and candid insights to Residents at The Garage, shedding light into the realities of entrepreneurship.

In his introduction, Laurence shared his unconventional career journey, starting with a finance degree from the University of Illinois, five years of consulting in Chicago, and eventually a stint at Goldman Sachs before diving into the startup world. “I’ve been a finance person my whole life until we started this startup,” he recalled, underscoring his pivot from corporate life to founding Avail.

Laurence shared invaluable advice for student founders and entrepreneurs, focusing on practical strategies and realities of startup life. A few of the most important points of the night were:

• Focus on MVA (Minimum Viable Audience), not MVP: “Only start working on your product once you have an audience in mind,” Laurence emphasized. The key is building a product that resonates with a focused group of users rather than trying to cater to everyone from the start.
• "Don’t give up… but fail quickly": Laurence stressed the importance of resilience while cautioning against sticking with ideas that don’t work. “It’s easy to give up and quit, but you just can’t. It’s those moments where you push through that determine success. At the same time, don’t keep doing things that don’t work.”
• Take your time before hiring: Laurence shared that larger teams often mean things move slower, not faster. “Work with what you’ve got,” he advised, encouraging founders to avoid rushing into expanding their teams.
• Raise the least amount of money possible at first: Access to too much capital can make you lazy, Laurence warned. “Having too much money makes it easier to take the easy way out rather than building the product or service that truly solves problems.”
• A verbal “yes” usually means nothing: Laurence reminded everyone that in business, verbal agreements don’t always equate to results. “I don’t need everyone to say yes. I just need to solve their biggest problems.”
• Manage anxiety and stress: Laurence acknowledged the pressures of running a startup, especially when going full-time. “Handling stress is tough. Having a co-founder is really important for this reason. They hold you accountable, help you divide responsibilities, and support you.”

During the dinner, Laurence also touched on several emerging trends impacting the startup landscape and founders themselves:

• Valuations are down: Founders should be cautious about overvaluing their startups in a market where capital is harder to secure.
• AI caution: While AI is booming, Laurence advised founders to be wary of overpromising its capabilities, particularly in industries where it hasn’t been fully tested.
• SaaS fatigue: Both consumers and investors are experiencing fatigue with traditional SaaS (Software as a Service) products, but this opens opportunities for innovative pricing and new methods of customer acquisition.
• Experience is the edge: As entry-level tech roles become more scarce, Laurence emphasized the importance of working on projects that build real-world experience—especially at The Garage.

Laurence’s talk was a refreshing mix of practical advice, personal anecdotes, and hard-learned lessons from years in the startup world. Because of their insightful questions to Laurance, Residents left the dinner with a greater understanding of the importance of resilience, patience, and adaptability in their entrepreneurial journeys. As always, the evening fostered a sense of community, with everyone eagerly looking forward to future Family Dinners and more insights from successful founders.