Nearly three months after receiving the Nonprofit Technology Leadership Award at Lumity’s Annual Dinner, Metropolitan Tenants Organization (MTO) met with the TLA judges to brainstorm some next steps. Four representative from Accenture as well as the original judges from CNA, Aon and American Medical Association met over lunch at Accenture to see how MTO and their app Squared Away were doing today.
Not surprisingly, the app has grown in popularity, but it is still only serving a very small fraction of the renting population in Chicago (is about 55% of the three million residents in the city). This great web app offers a seamless communication between tenant and landlord. It offers a way to document, report, and track problems in an apartment or house. The app helps a renter through the moving in, reporting issues and moving out phases; this is definitely an app for all tenants in Chicago.
The problem still remains: how do people find out about the app? And how can MTO continue to improve the app to offer features like a rating system for landlords or apartment complexes? Is it possible and practical to integrate the application’s login with Facebook to enhance the user experience? Can they get advertisers on the app and who would they be?
After a lively discussion, a breakdown of the biggest concerns and some promising ideas, the group went on their way. But not before planning to meet again in a few months and stay up-to-date on MTO’s progress.
Earlier this week, MTO announced that Squared Away reached 1,000 users! You can read more about the app and this great accomplishment here.