The deal between two students was nobody's problem. So we made it ours.

Avouch exists because subletting in college is built on trust and nothing else. Students find each other in Facebook groups and group texts, hand over months of rent and a set of keys, and write none of it down. Most of the time it works out. When it doesn't, there is no agreement, no record, and no one to turn to.

Our founder learned this twice. Once at Indiana, handing off an apartment through the building's official takeover process, where the paperwork went fine and the arrangement with the person taking over did not: payments late, one of them accidentally sent twice, the whole deal living in a text thread. Once in Madison, on the other side of it, when a $200 a month credit on the lease was never mentioned and cost him $1,400. Both times the building did its job. Both times the deal between the two students was nobody's.

Avouch is that missing piece. In about five minutes, two people who have already agreed to sublet get a real, e-signed sublease agreement, timestamped photos of the place, and, where it is available, rent collected from the payer automatically each month. Not a listings site, not another marketplace. Just the close, done right.