# AskVinny

Aiolum story: https://aiolum.com/story/askvinny/ · added 2026-11-07 · updated 2026-11-07

**In short.** AskVinny (AI teammate for rental property operators that answers renters and tenants, books viewings and logs repairs, United Kingdom): US$1M a year in revenue, June 2025. Evidence grade C: the founder's own figures, not verified by anyone else. Team: 2 co-founders at the start in April 2024; an average of 2 employees in the year to April 2025 (filed accounts); 9 people on LinkedIn in June 2025 (Latka). Launched April 2024; still running, revenue growing.

AI teammate for rental property operators that answers renters and tenants, books viewings and logs repairs · United Kingdom · AI-native · team of 2 to 10 · still running, revenue growing · group: Real estate and architecture visuals

- Outcome: US$1M a year in revenue, June 2025 (evidence grade of the headline number: C; headline in US dollars: 1000000)
- Launch: April 2024; months from launch to the outcome: 14
- Team: 2 co-founders at the start in April 2024; an average of 2 employees in the year to April 2025 (filed accounts); 9 people on LinkedIn in June 2025 (Latka)
- Outside funding: Antler pre-seed in 2024 (Latka records US$196.8K in two pre-seed rounds, June and September 2024), then follow-on money from UK property-tech angels and venture firms (Antler, October 2024); a new shareholders agreement dated 23 June 2025 at Companies House
- Main factor: Domain experience
- Meters, 1 to 4: evidence strength 1, copyable pattern 2, capital needed 2
- Tags: AI-native, Small team, Funded, Running, B2B, Property management

Links:

- Visit askvinny.com: https://www.askvinny.com/

**The product.** A web platform with AI agents for companies that rent out homes. It answers renters and tenants on WhatsApp, SMS, email, web chat and the phone in under 10 seconds, qualifies enquiries, books viewings, runs referencing and digital signing, logs and routes repair requests, chases rent and prompts renewals. It reads and writes the operator's existing property and customer systems, follows the operator's rules and hands hard cases to a person. Plans are sold by the number of tasks a month, with prices given after a demo.

**Why it worked.** Johnny Siu had led tenancy services at Goodlord, a UK rental software company, and saw property teams spend their days on the same messages. Antler's partner wrote in October 2024 that 87% of tasks in the industry are repetitive and low-skill. Tenants already wrote on WhatsApp, so an AI that answers there, inside the operator's own policies, saves staff time without asking the operator to change systems.

Evidence grades: A = disclosed by a public company, a filing or a payment processor, or verified by one; B = two or more independent reports agree, or a journalist confirmed it; C = a founder claim that no one else verified; D = reported, not verified: one founder claim or a third-party estimate with no second source; E = no revenue figure found, so the headline is a non-money fact and the other facts carry their own grades; calc = computed on this page from graded facts.

## Summary

AskVinny, now sold under the name Vinny, is software for companies that rent out homes. The company calls it an AI teammate: a program built on large language models that reads incoming messages and acts on them as a member of staff would. It answers people who ask about a flat on WhatsApp, email, the website or the phone, books viewings, logs repair requests and chases rent. Its buyers are build-to-rent operators (companies that build blocks of flats only to rent them out), student housing, co-living operators and letting agents in the UK, Europe and Australia. It works inside the operator's property management system (PMS), the database where tenancies, rents and repairs are recorded.

Johnny Siu and Rory Buchanan, who met as early employees of the energy supplier Bulb, registered the company in London on 5 April 2024 with the early-stage investor Antler. A case study by CodeBase says the first version was a WhatsApp number that helped tenants fix boiler problems, which made money within hours but could not scale, so the founders moved to selling to large property operators. On 3 October 2024 an Antler partner wrote that AskVinny managed more than 1,200 properties and had £13,000 in monthly recurring revenue (MRR, subscription income that repeats every month), about US$17,048 at that day's exchange rate. Latka, a company database, records US$1M a year in revenue in June 2025 and names a founder webinar as its source.

Both money figures come from people around the company, not from a payment processor or a filed profit and loss account, so the grade is C: two dated figures from different sources that point the same way, together with growth from 1,200 to more than 10,000 units under management. The filed accounts show an average of 2 employees in the first year to April 2025, and Latka counted 9 people on LinkedIn in June 2025. The page also shows four earlier companies that tried to make renting simpler with software and failed.

## Pricing

Vinny plans in November 2026, from the company's pricing page (grade C). No prices are published.

| Plan | Per month, billed yearly (US$) | Per month, billed monthly (US$) | Limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard |  |  | 1,000 tasks a month, existing integrations; price after a demo |
| Premium |  |  | 3,000 tasks a month, one custom integration; price after a demo |
| Enterprise |  |  | unlimited tasks and custom integrations, embedded deployment; price after a demo |

The pricing page lists three plans by the number of tasks Vinny handles a month and asks buyers to book a 30-minute call for a recommendation. Standard and Premium include a guided 90-day setup; Enterprise adds a forward-deployed team of engineers and specialists. The sub-processors list names Stripe for subscription billing for self-serve signup, but no self-serve price was found.

## How much revenue does AskVinny make? The numbers, graded

From a WhatsApp line for broken boilers in 2024 to an AI teammate for rental operators, with US$1M a year in revenue reported for June 2025 (grade C)

| Fact | Value | Grade | Note | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue, June 2025 | US$1M a year | C | Latka records it with the source "Founder, June 2025 Webinar". Latka does not say whether it is recurring revenue or revenue over twelve months, and the webinar was not heard for this page. | [2] |
| Monthly recurring revenue, October 2024 | £13,000 (about US$17,048) | C | Antler partner Adam French, 3 October 2024, a few months after Antler invested. | [1] |
| October 2024 figure in US dollars | US$17,048 a month, US$204,578 a year | calc | Calculated: £13,000 times 1.3114 US dollars per pound, the Federal Reserve H.10 rate for 3 October 2024, the date of the Antler post; times 12 for the year. | [1, 13] |
| Growth between the two revenue figures | about 4.9 times in about 8 months | calc | Calculated: US$1,000,000 divided by US$204,578, from October 2024 to June 2025. | [1, 2] |
| Properties managed, October 2024 | more than 1,200, plus signed agreements for 2,500 more units | C | Antler partner. Net promoter score above 80. | [1] |
| Units under management, later | more than 10,000 in the UK and Europe | C | CodeBase case study, undated, read 7 November 2026. It says the founders aim at 20,000 units and a seed round. | [3] |
| Growth in units | about 8.3 times | calc | Calculated: 10,000 divided by 1,200. | [1, 3] |
| New customers a month | from 1 to 4 within a year | C | CodeBase case study, after the first sales hire. | [3] |
| Company | Vinny Technology Limited, number 15618113, incorporated 5 April 2024 | B | Registered office at Antler's space on Leman Street, London. The terms of service name the same company. | [11, 10] |
| Average employees, year to 30 April 2025 | 2 | B | Total exemption full accounts filed on 5 January 2026. The profit and loss account was not delivered, so no turnover is on file. | [12] |
| People on LinkedIn, June 2025 | 9 | C | Latka, from LinkedIn. | [2] |
| Funding | US$196.8K in two pre-seed rounds: US$150.4K in June 2024 and US$46.4K in September 2024 | C | Latka. Antler's partner wrote in October 2024 that follow-on money came from UK property-tech angels and venture firms, without an amount. | [2, 1] |
| Later share issues | a subscription and shareholders agreement dated 23 June 2025, share allotments on 22 July 2025 and 4 December 2025 | B | Companies House filing history. The filings give the nominal value of the shares, not the money raised. | [12] |
| Prices | not published; plans of 1,000 tasks, 3,000 tasks and unlimited tasks a month | C | Pricing page, November 2026. | [5] |
| Named customers | Urban Bubble (11,000 homes), Heimstaden (160,000 homes) and an unnamed co-living operator | C | Company case studies. The figures are those customers' outcomes, not AskVinny's revenue. | [9] |
| Language models | OpenAI, Anthropic and Google models through OpenRouter, EU-hosted only | C | Sub-processors list, November 2026, with zero data retention. | [6] |
| WhatsApp channel | official WhatsApp Business API through 360dialog, with Meta's embedded signup | C | Twilio is listed as the legacy WhatsApp path and for SMS and voice. | [6] |
| Time from registration to the June 2025 figure | 14 months | calc | Calculated: April 2024 to June 2025. | [11, 2] |

How to read this table: a grade A value is the Federal Reserve's exchange rate. A grade B value comes from the UK company register (Companies House). A grade C value is a statement by the company, its investor, a support programme or a third-party database. A "calc" value was computed on this page from the rows above it.

## When did AskVinny launch, and how did it grow? Timeline

From company registration in April 2024 to more than 10,000 units under management. Each entry carries its grade.

- **About 2017** (grade C [1]): Johnny Siu and Rory Buchanan meet as early employees of Bulb, a UK renewable energy supplier, and work together from then on.
- **5 April 2024** (grade B [11]): Vinny Technology Limited is registered in London, at Antler's office.
- **June 2024** (grade B [12, 2]): First share allotment on 5 June 2024. Latka records a US$150.4K pre-seed round that month.
- **2024** (grade C [3]): The first product is a WhatsApp line that helps tenants fix boiler problems. It makes money within hours, but the founders see it cannot scale and move to selling to property operators.
- **3 October 2024** (grade C [1]): Antler's partner reports more than 1,200 properties, agreements for 2,500 more units, £13,000 in monthly recurring revenue and follow-on investment.
- **30 April 2025** (grade B [12]): First financial year ends with an average of 2 employees.
- **June 2025** (grade C [2]): Latka records US$1M a year in revenue from a founder webinar, and 9 people on LinkedIn.
- **23 June 2025** (grade B [12]): A subscription and shareholders agreement is filed, followed by share allotments in July and December 2025.
- **Undated, read November 2026** (grade C [3]): CodeBase reports more than 10,000 units, growth from 1 to 4 new customers a month after hiring a business development representative, and a plan for a seed round.
- **November 2026** (grade C [4, 6, 8]): The site sells Vinny to build-to-rent, student housing, co-living and letting teams, with voice AI and an open API. Pinecone leaves the sub-processors list on 5 November 2026.

## Why did AskVinny work?

### One job, on the channel tenants already use

The first version did one thing: it helped tenants with a broken boiler on WhatsApp. CodeBase reports that it made money within hours of going live. That showed the demand before the founders built anything broad.

### From single landlords to operators

In 2024 Antler described a tool for landlords that removed agent fees. The founders found that large operators would not pay for a single fix and needed the whole rental cycle, so the product grew into leasing, maintenance, rent and renewals for companies such as Urban Bubble and Heimstaden.

### Inside the existing systems, inside the rules

Vinny reads and writes the operator's property management system, customer database and inbox instead of replacing them. It follows written policies such as never agreeing a rent change, and passes a case to a person with the thread and photos attached. The sale is a saving of staff time, not a migration.

### Sales as a repeatable process

Rory Buchanan told CodeBase that the first important hire was a business development representative for outreach, so that Johnny Siu could spend his time closing deals. New customers went from 1 to 4 a month. The team builds quick prototypes with Cursor during or after sales calls and lets the customer's reaction decide what to build.

## How it was built

These details come from the company's sub-processors list (November 2026), its home page and the CodeBase case study. They are grade C.

- Language models: every request goes through OpenRouter, a gateway that sends it to one of several providers, here only EU-hosted OpenAI, Anthropic and Google models with zero data retention.
- Voice: ElevenLabs runs the voice agents that answer phone calls.
- Messaging: WhatsApp through the official WhatsApp Business API from 360dialog, with Meta's embedded signup to connect each customer's WhatsApp Business account. Twilio carries SMS, voice and an older WhatsApp path, and SendGrid sends email.
- Hosting and data: AWS in Frankfurt (PostgreSQL on RDS and S3 storage), the web app on Vercel, background jobs on Inngest and real-time updates through Pusher.
- Quality and operations: LangWatch traces and evaluates the AI answers, Datadog monitors the app, LaunchDarkly switches features on and off, Auth0 and WorkOS handle login and enterprise single sign-on, and Stripe handles identity checks and subscription billing.
- Document search ran on Pinecone, a vector database, until 5 November 2026, when the list moved it to former sub-processors.
- Signed leases go through DocuSign. The team builds sales prototypes with Cursor, an AI code editor.

Sources: [6, 4, 3]

## Who tried this before AskVinny, and why did they fail?

Four companies in our database of failed startups tried to make renting or property management simpler with software. The values below are from that database and are not independently verified.

The failed startups come from our database of dead startups, retold here in our own words; Its entries are AI-assisted summaries of public sources, so they carry no evidence grade.

### Castle (2016 to 2019; funding US$2.7M; cause: Competition)

- Promise: Property management for landlords, with technology for tenant messages, repair requests and rent collection.
- Why it died: High customer acquisition costs and the difficulty of managing local service providers at scale, against established software such as Buildium and AppFolio.
- Record: 

### Rentobo (2011 to 2014; funding US$200K; cause: Competition)

- Promise: One interface for landlords to list properties, screen tenants and manage applications.
- Why it died: It could not stand out against larger companies such as Zillow and struggled to win users.
- Record: 

### RadPad (2012 to 2017; funding US$13M; cause: Competition)

- Promise: Find an apartment, apply for the lease and pay rent from one phone app.
- Why it died: A costly legal fight with Craigslist over alleged data scraping, and rent-payment fees that did not scale against Zillow.
- Record: 

### Cribspot (2015 to 2018; funding US$8M; cause: Competition)

- Promise: Find and manage off-campus student housing, with leases, payments and landlord messages in one place.
- Why it died: It could not stand out against Zillow and Apartments.com, or enter local markets that ran on personal connections.
- Record: 

## What changed

The four predecessors sold software for renting when each new market needed local people, local listings or paid marketing, and they lost to larger companies such as Zillow, AppFolio and Buildium. Castle came closest to AskVinny's idea: it ran property management with technology and failed on the cost of managing local service providers.

AskVinny differs in two ways. First, it does not replace the operator's systems or staff: it works on top of the property management system and the messaging channels already in use, so the buyer saves time without switching. Second, large language models can read a free-text WhatsApp message about a leak, ask follow-up questions and raise the right job, which earlier companies needed people to do. The risks that remain are the old ones: larger competitors, and a market where every new customer still needs a sales process.

## Can one person copy AskVinny now?

**Verdict: The enterprise product, no. The first step, yes.**

The 2026 product needs integrations with many property systems, security certifications and a sales team, which one person cannot build quickly. The start can be copied: one repetitive job, a broken boiler, handled on the channel tenants already use and charged from the first day, then sold to companies that have the same job thousands of times.

1. Pick one high-volume message type in one industry, such as repair reports, and handle it end to end on WhatsApp through the official WhatsApp Business API.
2. Charge from the first week, and note which customers have the same problem at scale.
3. Sell to operators with thousands of units rather than single landlords, and connect to the system they already use instead of replacing it.
4. Make an early hire a salesperson who books demos, and show prospects a quick prototype built during or after the call.

**What is still open.** Rental markets outside the UK where tenants already message on WhatsApp, holiday-let and serviced-apartment managers, and facilities teams in office buildings and student halls.

## What could go wrong for AskVinny?

- **What is not verified.** The headline of US$1M a year rests on Latka, which gives "Founder, June 2025 Webinar" as its source. The webinar was not found or heard for this page, and Latka does not say whether the figure is recurring revenue. The earlier £13,000 a month is an Antler partner's statement of 3 October 2024. The filed accounts to April 2025 leave out the profit and loss account. A reader could look for the webinar recording, a seed-round announcement or a later founder post with a figure.
- **Competition.** Latka lists EliseAI, Funnel Leasing, Zuma and Respage as competitors and calls AskVinny the smallest of the five by revenue; on this site the nearest stories are Eclectic AI, which answers shop customers on WhatsApp, and Fleety, an AI dispatcher for plumbing companies, and neither sells to landlords.
- **Dependence on model and messaging providers.** The sub-processors list routes all language-model requests through OpenRouter to OpenAI, Anthropic and Google models, phone calls through ElevenLabs, and WhatsApp through 360dialog and Meta. A change in WhatsApp Business rules or prices, or in the EU-hosted models on offer, would reach the main channel directly.
- **A growing team, and who leads it.** The accounts show an average of 2 employees in the year to April 2025; Latka counted 9 people on LinkedIn in June 2025, and the site now has a careers page and a forward-deployed team for Enterprise customers. Antler names Johnny Siu as chief executive and Rory Buchanan as chief technology officer; Latka lists Rory Buchanan as chief executive. Sales come from outreach by a business development representative and founder-led demos (CodeBase).
- **Mystery shopping and voice calls.** The Enterprise plan includes an "Experience Audit" in which "The deployment team pose as prospects and residents at scale across your portfolio" to test the customer's own response times. Vinny's voice AI answers calls, and the pages read for this story do not say whether it tells callers that it is an AI; the home page says the company is compliant with the EU AI Act. Vinny also runs referencing and ID checks on renters, so it processes their personal data under GDPR.
- **From landlords to large operators.** In October 2024 Antler described a product for landlords that removed agent fees. In 2026 the site sells to build-to-rent, student housing, co-living and letting teams, with prices only after a demo. Revenue per customer and churn are not published.

## Sources

1. Antler, 3 October 2024 (Adam French, Partner): Why we invested in AskVinny: The AI property manager scaling portfolios 100x without additional headcount — https://www.antler.co/blog/why-we-invested-in-askvinny-the-ai-property-manager-scaling-portfolios (grade C). Read in full in the pipeline's download of 7 November 2026. An investor's post. Source for the monthly recurring revenue, the properties and units, the net promoter score, the founders' backgrounds and the follow-on investment.
2. Latka company page: AskVinny revenue and funding, updated 7 October 2026 — https://getlatka.com/companies/askvinny.co.uk (grade C). Read in full. A third-party database. Source for the US$1M revenue in June 2025 (cited to a founder webinar), the 9 people on LinkedIn, the two pre-seed rounds and the competitor list.
3. CodeBase (Techscaler), founder case study: Taking Flight: Rory Buchanan's Path to Scaling AskVinny — https://thisiscodebase.com/case-study/rory-buchanan-on-scaling-askvinny (grade C). Read in full; the page shows no date, read 7 November 2026. Source for the WhatsApp start, the move to selling to operators, the 10,000+ units, the customer growth, the sales hire and the use of Cursor.
4. Vinny home page, read 7 November 2026 — https://www.askvinny.com/ (grade C). Read in full. Source for the product, the channels, the policies and escalation, the security claims and DocuSign signing.
5. Vinny pricing page, read 7 November 2026 — https://www.askvinny.com/pricing (grade C). Read in full. Source for the three plans, the task limits, the deployment styles and the Experience Audit.
6. Ask Vinny Sub-Processors List, last updated November 2026 — https://www.askvinny.com/subprocessors (grade C). Read in full. Source for the model routing, the WhatsApp Business API provider, voice, hosting and the retired Pinecone service.
7. Vinny: About us, read 7 November 2026 — https://www.askvinny.com/resources/about-us (grade C). Read in full. The founders' origin story and the name.
8. Vinny: What is Vinny?, read 7 November 2026 — https://www.askvinny.com/what-is-vinny (grade C). Read in full. Source for the sectors, the countries, voice AI and human review.
9. Vinny: Customer stories, read 7 November 2026 — https://www.askvinny.com/customers (grade C). Read in full. Source for the named customers and their home counts.
10. Vinny terms and conditions, read 7 November 2026 — https://www.askvinny.com/terms-and-conditions (grade C). Read the section on the parties and the subscription. Names Vinny Technology Limited, company number 15618113.
11. UK Companies House: VINNY TECHNOLOGY LIMITED (15618113), overview — https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/15618113 (grade B). Read in full. Source for the incorporation date, the registered office and the accounts dates.
12. UK Companies House: VINNY TECHNOLOGY LIMITED, filing history and total exemption full accounts to 30 April 2025 — https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/15618113/filing-history (grade B). Read the filing list and the accounts in the iXBRL format. Source for the average employees, the share allotments and the June 2025 shareholders agreement.
13. Federal Reserve Board, H.10 historical rates: US dollars per pound — https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h10/hist/dat00_uk.htm (grade A). Read the row for 3 October 2024: 1.3114 US dollars per pound.
14. Database of failed startups, local export — /method/#dead (grade C). Local export. AI-written summaries, not independently verified. Source for the failed predecessors.

Contact: aiolum@livyden.com. Run AskVinny? Send corrections or a verified figure to aiolum@livyden.com (subject: Correction: AskVinny).