Flatbook

Leaving town for a well-deserved vacation is an attractive option for many people. But all too often, the need to pay the rent can put the kibosh on vacation plans. Is it possible to take that vacation and not have to worry about paying the rent? Could you leave the city stress-free knowing that financial responsibility has been taken care of, leaving you with more money for that special trip? Enter Flatbook, a Montreal start-up that seeks to answer those questions. The genesis for the project came as co-founder Francis Davidson wanted to go back to Gatineau during his summer break while he was studying in Montreal.

“I wanted to leave for the summer, but I didn’t want to have to pay rent on an empty apartment. As I looked for someone to sublet it, I realized that a number of other students were mostly facing the same dilemma; summer is the right time to take a break or simply move back in with mom and dad for a few months, but having to pay rent makes people have to just stay put,” he explains. “During my second summer in Montreal, I was able to help six other people find subletters, and I realized there could be an interesting market for that service. So I partnered up with Lucas Tellan, and Flatbook was born.”