Toby Thomas-Smith

Founded as EasyRent in 2018 while at uni in NZ + working at Airbnb. Burned the boats on profitable Sydney biz to bet everything on NYC. Pitched Samantha Wong @ Blackbird (had been rejected 40K USD 6mo prior) → got first VC term sheet → 3 days later had multiple top-tier US fund term sheets → doubled raise from M to M. Founder mentor: Mahesh Muralidhar (Phase One Ventures). Public posts paint someone who shares the founder grind openly — likely warm to peer founders.