Tell HN: My startup is making money and I don't know what to do

If you've been through the college system in the US, chances are you know how difficult it is to find a house to rent. Many landlords will simply hang up the phone the second you tell them that you're a college student. University Niche is a database of rental properties that are open to renting to college students, with information curated specifically toward helping students find the best places to live.

We launched April 2014, and are now at three universities. We've seen a lot of success (~40% w/w growth, 100%+ m/m growth).

For many students, this is their first time living on their own, so we wanted to sell ad space to small businesses that would help students with their move (storage, furniture, etc.) and then to small businesses that would help them once they're situated (grocery stores, gyms, etc.). I coded up a basic self-serve advertising platform, and my cofounders and I went and found a local moving company. Walked in the office, talked with the owner for about 15 minutes. Sale.

Went to a mattress store. Sale.

Small restaurant, same thing.

We've walked in to six random businesses, and only one said no.

So we're pretty excited it works, but we have bigger plans than this. We have projections and budgets to expand to 150 schools nationwide.

We know how we're gonna do it and we know how much it will cost, but we are all at a loss for how to take that next step.

We have a validated product and now a validated revenue model. We've got traction. But we don't have the funds to take this thing to the next level, and we don't know how to meet the people who can help.

Anyone have any advice or been in a similar situation?

[0]http://universityniche.com

We're all new to this game. We went to a few "pitch nights" back in March when all we had was an idea and a barely functional MVP, but they're all really theatrical and honestly we'd rather just sit down and talk with someone. We just don't have a clue about how to find those people.

We're planning to expand to 150 campuses and bring on some people to man the phones/maintain our property listings, as well as hire campus reps/brand ambassadors at 20 key schools from that set of 150. Our 1y budget for all of this is And yeah, we're based in LA, but we're all new to this and don't exactly have any connections with anyone in this industry, so we'll definitely start researching some groups and, I suppose, calling until someone wants to talk to us.

Thanks for the advice!

Track record goes a long way. You've proven to be effective in a very small 'niche'. You may want to consider taking seed (if needed) from F&Fs and then prove it in another city. You may find that expansion step to be useful. It will also help answer the question of expansion for potential institutional investors.