By John Stericker, Founder — flatmate.com

It’s a bit of a strange feeling, coming full circle.

I was in a relationship for 15 years. We raised a family together, and during that time flatmate.com ticked along in the background. It never went away, but it never got the attention it deserved either. Between a full-time job, family commitments, and the general business of life, whatever time was left over went into keeping the site alive. My partner and I made that call together. Family first, startup second. We bootstrapped where we could, covering hosting costs, bits of marketing, keeping things moving. It wasn’t the focused effort I would have liked to give it, but it was consistent. It was also during that time that I found my technical co-founder, Jayen Ashar, which was a significant step forward for the platform.

Then the relationship ended. I moved out of the family home. I was bought out, which gave me enough to re-enter the property market. The reason I took out a mortgage wasn’t about ticking a societal box. It was because I wanted a decent home for my three boys to come and stay in. A place they’d feel comfortable, a place they’d actually want to visit.

A couple of months after settling in, I was made redundant.

From there I picked up rideshare driving, took on odd jobs, and kept applying in my field. But after a while the reality became hard to ignore. Whether it was my age, automation, the job market shifting, or a combination of all of the above, it wasn’t working out. After about two years I couldn’t keep servicing the mortgage. I had to let it go.

So I sold the house, moved into a rental, and made the decision to give flatmate.com one more proper shot. The kind of shot it never quite got during the family years.

And not long after that, I found myself with a flatmate.

Not because I had to. Not because I particularly planned to. It just made sense financially, and if I’m being honest, it made sense in every other way too. If I’m going to be building a platform for people in share accommodation, I should probably know what it actually feels like to be living it right now, in this market, at this point in time.

So that’s where I’m at.

Over the next 20 weeks I’ll be sharing what share living is actually like in 2025 from the inside. The honest version. No spin.

Because if flatmate.com is going to be genuinely useful to the people using it, the person behind it should understand the experience firsthand.

Watch this space.