Interview: Jorey Ramer, Founder, SUPER

Super seems like such a no-brainer and yet nothing like it was available. What was your inspiration for launching the service?

After my last business was acquired, I moved to the Bay Area to get my next company started. At the time, I didn’t know what business or with whom. But my wife said that if we were going to make the cross-country move, we should settle down in a house. I agreed.

At the time, I had been a long-time renter; I had never owned a home before. I’d probably rented longer than most people who buy a home for the first time. If you have a good landlord – which I usually did – then renting is great. You pay the same amount month-over-month, and someone else is on the hook to manage the property.

Yet when you become a homeowner, all of a sudden you’re on the hook for something that you have no experience with. Homeownership takes too much time. Finding trustworthy, available, reasonably-priced, quality service is difficult or impossible, especially when it’s most needed. Homeownership takes too much money, because residential owners lack commercial buying power. And homeownership is too unpredictable: more than two thirds of all homeowners have breakdowns annually.

I wanted to have a premium rental-like experience, but still retain my home and home equity. That was the inspiration for Super.