'Shark Tank, Landlord edition...' Bengaluru startup owner shares story of traumatic interview for renting flat

By Vinaykumar Patil  |  First Published Jul 18, 2023, 1:28 PM IST

Neeraj Menta, a startup owner in Bengaluru, shared his amusing experience of being interviewed by a landlord for a rental house. The landlord asked for extensive details, including LinkedIn profiles and business information, before rejecting them. Despite the ordeal, Neeraj eventually secured the flat.


Some weird and unusual moments bring a smile to the faces of Bengaluru residents. One such incident has been reported by a Startup owner Neeraj Menta where he was interviewed for a rental house from his landlord.

It is a hassle to find flats on rent in Bengaluru as the tenants invite millions of questions from the landlords. The landlords go further as much by trying to dig up every single detail about the tenant. Often prospective tenants fail, even if they are highly qualified.

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Neeraj Menta recently tweeted his woes of finding a flat in Bengaluru, which has gone viral. He shared that it was more gruelling than preparing his startup pitch.

He tweeted that his experience looking at a flat at HSR Layout has been more tiresome than his seed round pitch. One landlord wanted his and his wife’s Linkedin profile, his startup details and investment habits, yet did not offer him a flat. The landlord asked about his family background, size and even wanted to know his business model and investors. The landlord had run a background check of the company through Crunchbase.

It seems that the landlord became hesitant when Neeraj mentioned that his wife would be paying for the flat’s rent. The owner went and checked the wife’s Linkedin and found out that her latest role was not updated in her profile. Later, he rejected them saying he will only rent out for high-pedigree folks. 

It seems the interview went further and the owner shared some sound points for running his business and ensuring good unit economics. Neeraj was surprised at how long the failed interview went.

His wife thought Neeraj was pitching for a fundraiser to which Neeraj responded, "It went well, fingers crossed". It is funny enough that an Interview was conducted for renting out a flat. Imagine, if he was being interviewed for buying the house! - a netizen reacted. 

Neeraj’s tweets have been flooded with positive and negative reactions and some of them are funny to make you die of laughter. 

One user Raj (@Thegreat_Gandhi) reacted “Shark Tank, Landlord edition” and the netizens couldn’t agree more. It is not surprising if Silicon City comes up with a bizarre idea of setting up a startup to handle Landlord Interviews as well!

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At the end of the interview, it seems that the landlord asked him to wait a day or two for which he had other tenants waiting for the flat. To which another user asked Neeraj, “Finally could you get the flat?”

Neeraj responded, “Yes, we did!”

 

My tenant interview was longer and more grueling than my Seed round pitch. I recently started househunting in Bangalore and one owner wanted to interview me before saying yes. A 🧵 of all the questions

— Neeraj Menta (@neerajmnt)
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