Some of you may know I manage a real estate technology community, Geek Estate, which has a community on Horizon (the unlock code is “geekestate2015”) to help tech savvy professionals from the real estate industry find (& help) other community members in travel situations.

I’m incredibly happy to say I have a real world success story from Geek Estate to share.

Bryan Copley from Everyhome was hosted by Melissa Kwan from Spacio.

I’ve known Bryan since sometime last year when my friend Ash (another Seattle founder) introduced us, and have spoken with him multiple times over beers at WeWork in South Lake Union. He’s a great guy, incredibly smart, passionate, and I’ve long been a fan of what he’s been working on at Everyhome (formerly Rebls).

Melissa and I first spoke a couple months ago about Spacio. I was impressed with her smarts, product strategy, and the design of Spacio’s website. Completely randomly, I realized she is roommates with a travel tech founder (Gillian) who I’d come across numerous times on Product Hunt (we both often comment on the same types of travel startups). Small world. Since we’ve spoken, Spacio has partnered with RealSatisfied (a really smart partnership for both sides).

A few words from Bryan about the overall experience…

I connected to Melissa, another tech entrepreneur from NYC, via the Horizon app a couple weeks prior to a planned 5 day NYC business trip. Having not been to NYC in 20 years, I was excited to visit but didn’t know anyone in the city. Melissa changed all of that. She was a fun and vibrant host, educating me about Gramercy and the city in general, and introducing me to her roommates as well as several other people, several of whom became friends and business colleagues. Knowing that Melissa was vetted through someone I trusted gave me confidence I’d have a better trip. That’s exactly what happened.

To cap off the goodness – Kiva, a charity I’ve personally been very passionate about since 2007 and thus the beneficiary non profit for our Travel by Giving efforts – received a donation as part of the transaction.

Members meeting each other in real life, and spending meaningful time together - that’s how strong communities are built. You learn more about someone staying in their home than you would over the course of 10 coffee meetings, every time. I’m willing to bet Bryan and Melissa’s friendship lasts a long, long time and will benefit both immensely both personally and professionally in the years ahead.