Vecindario
Winter 2022InactiveWe make it easier for real estate to sell properties and mortgages.
Pressure-test this opportunity
Turn this teardown into a decision-ready prompt for ChatGPT, Claude, or your agent.
We make it easier for real estate to sell properties and mortgages.
Turn this teardown into a decision-ready prompt for ChatGPT, Claude, or your agent.
If you only have a few minutes to spare, here’s what investors, operators, and founders should know about Vecindario (W22).
Vecindario tried to turn the fragmented purchase of a new home in Latin America into one guided transaction. The Medellín company began with lead generation for developers, added sales execution and mortgage support, and later built software for the same industry. Felipe Restrepo and Camilo Ruiz founded it in 2019 after more than a decade running Habla Creativo, their real-estate marketing agency. Vecindario joined Y Combinator's Winter 2022 batch.[1]
The model produced remarkable gross volume. By July 2023, Vecindario said it had sold more than 4,500 homes and processed over COP 1 trillion in transactions. Restrepo later put the peak at more than 260 apartments per month, 17 cities, weekly growth above 3%, and more than 170 people who worked on the company.[2][3]
That volume concealed a weak cash position. Vecindario expanded into mortgages, new cities, subscriptions, memberships, insurance, rentals, and eventually SaaS. When Colombia's housing market contracted, more than 15% of its partner projects failed, according to Restrepo. Unpaid invoices stretched past 24 months. Vecindario carried the sales operation while its developer customers controlled when, or whether, it got paid.
The company closed in early 2025. High interest rates and a housing slump were the trigger; overexpansion and customer concentration made them fatal. The final SaaS product had sales in seven countries, but it reached the market after the team had spent its cash and exhausted its ability to pivot.[3]
Restrepo and Ruiz were childhood friends before they were co-founders. Restrepo studied business at Universidad EAFIT and started small ventures while still in school. Ruiz trained as a graphic designer and later completed a master's degree in user-experience and interface design. The pair built Habla Creativo, a digital agency that came to specialize in Colombia's largest homebuilders.[2][4]
Agency work exposed the gap that became Vecindario. Developers could attract prospective buyers online, but qualification, advice, unit selection, mortgage preparation, and closing still passed through separate people and systems. Buyers faced a large financial decision with little guidance. Developers lost leads between marketing and the sales room.
Vecindario first sold qualified leads. It then took on more of the transaction, moving from marketing into the sale of new homes. A 2022 description laid out the flow: a buyer opened an account, completed a financial diagnostic, and was assigned a consultant for free remote or in-person advice. The developer received a qualified customer and used Vecindario's technology and sales team to close.[4]
The pandemic accelerated the shift online. Univision reported that Vecindario grew from two people to 50 while helping Colombians, including people living in the United States, buy homes online. The company linked diaspora demand with new-home inventory back in Colombia.[5]
YC gave the company a larger frame. Its batch page described a unified online experience for selling property and approving mortgages, with a claim that the process was six times faster. Restrepo and Ruiz wanted the software to connect buyer behavior with the commercial work of developers around the world.[1][2]
Read the complete post-mortem, the rebuild playbook, and the exact reasons Vecindario is still worth studying now.