We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Katie Shahan a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Katie, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s kick things off with talking about how you serve the underserved, because in our view this is one of the most important things the small business community does for society – by serving those who the giant corporations ignore, small business helps create a more inclusive and just world for all of us.

Closing the wealth gap for minorities is a big concern and something that cities, counties, states and the federal governments are trying to resolve. How? Studies show that people who own homes have on average a $200,000 greater net worth than people who rent. Historically, minorities have been forbidden to participate in homeownership through housing covenant restrictions, Communities across the U.S. required home deeds to include clauses that explicitly denied buyers based on race, ethnicity or religion.

If someone owns a home, they are not only building their own wealth, but also wealth for future generations. But owning a home isn’t easy. There is a knowledge and experience that kids gain from watching their parents own a home. Imagine not having any resources and how scary that can be when trying to break the cycle and do something new. If you have a question, you can’t ask a parent, uncle or even a friend how to get the ring out of the sink you accidentally dropped it in. You have no reference to what chores need to be done seasonally to prevent big ticket issues like cleaning your gutters to prevent erosion and ice dams.

That’s where Yarlow comes in. Yarlow is a free app for homeowners to give them the guidance and pertinent information to build wealth with homeowning. Unlock other apps on the marketplace, Yarlow does not have a paywall that can be a barrier to important information for lower income owners, Similarly, Yarlow also customizes home maintenance suggestions based on location of the user and what home features they have. For example, if you live in FL, we will not tell you how to winterize your roof or lawn sprinklers. Only the information homeowners need to not be overwhelmed, but prevent big ticket expenses from happening.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My name is Katie Shahan. I bought a house in 2015 in MN from a seller who was big into doing DIY, he just was not good at it. Unfortunately, on the second day of owning my new house, my neighbor came over and told me I had to dig up the beautiful flowerbed just below the picture window at the front of the house. I said, “What?!?” Sure enough, the previous owner put wet soil up against the plywood siding of the house with no water barrier. My inspector didn’t catch it, nor did my realtor. I dig up the garden bed and there is pink insulation all over the place and the whole front of the house is rotted out. It cost me about $25,000 to repair all of the issues the previous homeowner had caused due to ignorance. What if I was a first generation homeowner? Where would I start? Do I make an insurance claim? Who do I call when before I just called my landlord?

This is why I am passionate about educating homeowners to prevent this types of cringe moments. How can we be smarter and safer homeowners and allow first-time and first-generation homeowners to thrive? I started a podcast called the Home Cringe Show where we bring home service pros on to discuss things homeowners can do to solve minor problems and what questions to ask vendors when a problem does arise.

Yarlow is dedicated to creating fun and educational content to help homeowners and close the racial disparity gap in homeownership.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Initially, Yarlow was started as a way to just keep track of documents for your home to increase transparency when buying and selling homes. I have purchased several homes over the years, and none of them ever came with any documentation. What color paint is in the living room? Who previously serviced the sprinkler system? How old are the windows? Yarlow was a way to provide this transparency and let home sellers show off the work they have put into their homes and allow home buyers to understand what they were buying,

After trying to go to market and bring this to new homeowners, they all liked the idea of Yarlow but didn’t understand why they needed the app if they weren’t going to sell their home soon. That’s when we pivoted to become more of an educational app. Users responded positively and we started getting user downloads. The more features we added and content that went to homeowning “secrets,” the better the user response. Now, Yarlow is being used in 38 states after one year of pivoting.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

The home industry is notoriously a male space. Being taken seriously as a female has been a challenge from the beginning. But knowledge is easily accessible. Ask questions and people are more than willing to share what they know. I compile that information and present it in my own way. My strategy of keeping videos short and to the topic is helping me to grow my social media following which is slightly different than most other videos that have lengthy explanations.

It’s not just getting consumers to trust in me and the Yarlow app. The investor world is also dominated by men. Convincing investors that I am the person that can take Yarlow to the next level is critical. Presenting the materials as an authority not only on tech and business management, but on home maintenance has been a challenge. But I am currently raising $1m seed round and more than half of my investors are men. I am taking this as a good sign that I am presenting myself and Yarlow as a sound investment.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.Yarlow.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yarlowapp/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/YarlowApp/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kate-shahan/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@yarlowapp

Image Credits

Yarlow 2024