In this Founder Institute livestream, Community Manager Dustin Betts interviews Nassim Bahloul, founder of Hivenue, a Montreal‑based co‑living marketplace. Nassim shares his personal newcomer experience in Montreal, which revealed a gap in affordable, flexible housing for international students, immigrants, and young workers. He explains Hivenue’s core offering: a platform that lets users book fully furnished private rooms in shared apartments, with AI‑driven matching of roommates and, eventually, neighborhoods based on lifestyle keywords. The conversation covers the specific challenges newcomers face—lack of local references, difficulty booking from abroad, and trust issues for hosts— and how Hivenue’s verification system (document checks that are destroyed after validation) addresses these. Nassim describes the current state of the matching algorithm (keyword‑based profiles, future machine‑learning training) and the questionnaire design for both guests and hosts. He highlights market context: Montreal’s relative affordability, rising rents, and the appeal of co‑living, noting that Hivenue already has ~3,000 users and partnerships with local associations and government bodies, with plans to expand to two more Canadian cities by fall. The interview also touches on broader trends: urban population growth, sustainability benefits of shared living, and the role of AI in fostering meaningful community connections. Nassim offers advice to early‑stage founders—start executing on a real problem without waiting for perfect ideas or teams. The session ends with a brief outlook on hiring, upcoming partnerships, and expansion plans.
Chapters
livestream. My name is Dustin Betts, I'm Community Manager at Founder Institute, and I'm here today with Nassim Baloul, founder of Hivenue, which is a Montreal portfolio company at Founder Institute providing a co-living arrangement for stays of a month, a year, or even longer. Nassim Baloul, thanks so much for joining us today.
Thanks, Dustin, for having me today. It's a real pleasure. Thanks.
Yeah, yeah. So before we dive into your company Hivenue, uh, the first question I always like to ask is just please tell us a little bit about yourself first, or your startup story. You know, what were the experiences of yours, professional or personal, that led you to founding this platform for co-living?
So first, hello to everyone. My name is Nassim. I'm originally from France, born and raised. I arrived in Montreal like 14 years ago as a newcomer. I did my studies at the University of Montreal, then I worked as a graphic designer and then as a software designer or UX designer. You can say. So when I arrived in Montreal, I didn't know anyone. I had no job, I had no reference, no friends, nothing. So I hopped from a hostel to another. I had to stay in different hostels during like 3 months, something like that. I did some couchsurfing at some people's place, people I met. And from my own experience, I've realized that there was like a gap to facilitate the arrival of newcomers. And this is when I had the motivation to, and the idea to help newcomers. So when we say newcomers, we can say international students, exchange students, immigrants, or young workers.
Yeah.
So it was the beginning of the, uh, the idea, if you can say.
Perfect. Yeah, I love, uh, yeah, startup story that's like rooted in a very personal experience, and that was definitely it for you, which I didn't know until right now. So yeah, very cool. So I know a little bit, so I'm somewhat familiar with Hivenue as an FI portfolio company that, you know, you can book private, fully furnished rooms with like shared apartment spaces. Please give us your version of the short pitch for those totally unfamiliar. You know, what is Hivenue?
So basically at Hivenue, we are developing an apartment sharing platform helping newcomers rent furnished and flexible rooms with like-minded roommates based on the AI matching algorithm that we are building. And the main problem we are solving is the difficulty of booking and securing a shared living space from abroad for a mid to long-term period.
Perfect. Yeah, yeah, that definitely makes a lot of sense. And we're going to kind of dive into all the details, but I think, um, upfront, you know, the challenges, I guess, you know, especially for those who are unfamiliar with co-living— you might have heard of co-working but not co-living— talk to us, yeah, a little bit more about those different types of users you mentioned and the challenges that they face, particularly, yeah, in the housing market or in in terms of like building that community where they live?
So 80, almost 80% of our users are newcomers or people from abroad, and either like international students, like I said, or young workers. And for them, basically, there is no easy way, uh, for them there is no easy way to book a co-living space from abroad, um, or an apartment sharing. They have no way to, to know their next roommates. And their future host is never sure to get his rent on time as they have no reference, they have no job, so it's pretty difficult for them to be trusted by a host. So yeah, it's mainly the, if I can say, difficulties was that the, uh, this kind of users have right now.
Yeah, there's some element of the vetting process I guess I never really thought about with having no employment history in the place that you're moving to as well for, for I guess to show to a landlord. So that's a new aspect I hadn't, hadn't really thought about at all. So, so why Hivener? Tell us more about the co-living sort of marketplace model in Montreal, the different neighborhoods that you're in. Yeah, just give us a little bit more, I guess, detail about where.
So this is why, yeah, this is why we are currently developing this co-living platform for newcomers in order to offer and rent flexible furnished rooms with roommates where you can book a place in advance. You can match other roommates' profiles based on interests. Lifestyles thanks to AI technology, and for the host to receive automated monthly payments. So basically, we are pretty everywhere in Montreal. We are not focused on a specific neighborhood, we are just open in Montreal. But in the future, what we would like to do also, it's to make people match also with the right neighborhood, or basically based on your personality and lifestyle you can fit with a specific neighborhood. And why Montreal? I guess Montreal was always one of the cheapest cities to live in in Canada, uh, if you compare to other cities like Toronto or Vancouver or even Calgary. It was one of the cheapest cities, but since a few years, rents are becoming more expensive. And it's why even in Montreal, young newcomers always choose share living as a first choice when they arrive in Montreal.
Yeah, that makes sense. And as well as like the community building, because like you said, when you move somewhere, you don't, you don't know anybody. I actually have done co-living before in the past, so I'm like familiar with it, and I always had, yeah, pretty good experiences. I guess I'm like, I get along with a lot of different kinds of people. But yeah, I personally found like that community building aspects like really, really convenient. I mean, there's not many easier ways to like make friends than being forced to sort of live and share space together. So yeah, at least that's been my personal experience. Talk to us a little bit more. I think it's interesting how you highlighted both the matching of personalities, you know, through your algorithm, but also the matching of neighborhoods. I mean, just talk to us, I guess, a little bit more about how you've conceptualized that framework of like finding matches, or if there's other, you know, key features of Hivenue on the platform that you want to highlight, as well as just the matching algorithm that you kind of have planned?
Of course. So like you said, the main feature would be the matching platform, which is AI-based. It will make fit people together, but not only. Also, we make fit the people with the right neighborhood, and it basically works with a set of keywords and a set of like how we will train the algorithm in the future, right? So it will evolve in the future. Right now it will be pretty basic, so it will be based on some keyword related to the personality, to the lifestyle, to the style of apartment you can like, etc. And our model will be trained over the time and will be strengthened. Right? In terms of other features that we have, we also have the verification system. So all documents are verified on our platform. So depending on the status of the guests, so it can be, it can be a person can be in Montreal for, for studies, unemployment, etc. So based on that, we'll verify the documents. And on the host side also, we are verifying the residency documents the ID documentation as well. And at the end, all these documents, once the person is verified, are destroyed. So we don't keep anything. We make sure that everything is destroyed at the end. So once the person is verified.
Nice. Yeah, I like that emphasis on, yeah, the verification as well as the privacy aspect. So yeah, that's really important. I wonder, this is just a random follow-up question, like how you're training the algorithm, like What is the questionnaire like that a prospective, you know, co-liver fills out? I guess, is it how many questions is it or how long does it take to kind of assess like, you know, their basic assessment that you're doing now for looking at the matching?
So for the host, it depends. So a host can be another roommate, right? But it can be also a landlord. So depending on the status that you will have to choose, the questions will change. And they are not necessarily questions, they are also keywords that you have to add to your profile in order to have the most accurate profile. And on the guest side, it will be also a profile that you will have to fill after you sign up. And after that, we're trying to match everything together. And even on the search side, when you will have to search for, for or place, you'll be able like to pick some filters based on the interest, the hobbies, etc. So it depends on the status. It's not necessarily a question, but it's more keywords that you have to choose to fill your profile. But in some cases, especially for the landlords, in this case we'll make sure that the landlord will fill a quiz have some questions to respond to. But yeah, this is how it will work approximately. It's more complicated than that, but yeah, it's just the big picture.
Yeah, perfect, perfect. And yeah, I want to kind of like— I always ask founders to make a prediction. I think this is especially interesting because, as I mentioned, yeah, I've done co-living before, so I'm curious for your prediction, you know, how do you think technology was ultimately going to change how people achieve more meaningful communities or the ways that they find housing over the next 5 to 10 years? Any sort of feeling on where this trend is going or how you think about this as a founder of a co-living platform?
So in terms of trends, of course, we can see that cities will double in capacity in 20 to 30 years, right? So as a human, we will tend to live more in communities. And shared living won't be just a trend, right? It will be necessary, I think. So we'll have to rethink how we design our future cities or future neighborhoods. So co-living provides like practical solution for growing population and overcrowded cities. And at the same time, I guess co-living encourages sustainable living through communal sharing. So whenever everyone is sharing the same lighting, the same heating, the same cooling, the same coffee pots. We use less, a lot less, right? And from a technology perspective, I guess artificial intelligence will evolve more efficiently, so it will help also to connect people more efficiently. So we will have like more like fits in the roommate room when we have to fit with someone. Um, and just to close this, uh, this bracket, maybe since COVID people have are valuing human connection more than ever, right? So young people, they want a way to reconnect and find a way to save money. And while older people, they are looking for companions because maybe feeling lonely, right? So nice things can be taken in consideration this way.
Yeah, those are a lot of different kind of facets of prediction, but I particularly like the one that you emphasize, the sustainability, because I really hadn't thought about that. But you know, it's just like like if you live in a mansion all by yourself, you know, you waste a lot of resources. But you even mentioned like the sharing of, you know, kitchen utensils and things like that, and that does have a huge impact definitely on people's carbon footprint. Yeah, very interesting. So what advice would you offer, you know, I know that you're on your own startup journey right now, but rewinding back to where you were, you know, a couple years ago, very early stage, or just aspiring entrepreneurs who are just thinking about getting started, What's kind of one piece of advice that you would impart on that very early stage entrepreneur?
As an entrepreneur, I will give as a main advice like to just start to do something, to not wait to have the best idea to start or the best team, right? Things are coming along with execution, and I think everybody— I think a lot of people know that, but things are coming along with execution and when you are starting to try to fix a problem first, right? So everything starts with a problem, and so start to execute as soon as possible, I guess, would be the best advice, if I can say.
I think that's great advice because you say like a lot of people know it, and maybe a lot of founders at your stage and later might know it, but I think for those early stage people, that is really important advice to just get started because people hesitate a lot, wanting to have something more developed before they really get started in that customer, in diving into the nitty-gritty of the problems. That's great advice. Yeah. Um, final question I have for you is just, you know, where is Hyvenu, you know, headed next? Is there any news or updates you want to share with the Founder Institute community, or any asks that you want to make for the audience who might be watching this video live or the recorded version in the future?
So yeah, right now we are growing our database. We have almost 3,000 users in Montreal. We have exciting partnerships coming along with association and other government institutions, and we are planning to open 2 additional cities by this summer or beginning of fall. So I think there are exciting news, and we are constantly trying to hire new people. So it's, uh, yeah, yeah.
Very exciting. Yeah, I didn't know that you had that many users already on the platform, but yeah, the plans for the future sound very exciting too.
Yeah, thank you very much.
Cool. Well, this has been super interesting, especially for me. As I said, I'm interested in co-living, but thinking about the tech, the nexus— I didn't use a platform like yours when I lived. I sort of just took a dive into a house. So, um, this has been, yeah, really interesting thinking about the nexus, I guess, of the technology that you're applying in the platform and your algorithm and how that interfaces with co-living and where it's headed in the future. And yeah, at Founder Institute, we're definitely looking forward to keeping up with Hivenu and where you're headed next.
Thank you, we'll keep in touch. And thank you again for having me today.
Absolutely. Yeah, thanks so much for joining us, Nassim. Thanks. Take care.
