The 2024 V. Dale Cozad Lecture on Entrepreneurship featured Ryan Coon, a 2007 Gies graduate in accountancy and finance. In 2015, Coon cofounded Avail, a platform created to improve the rental experience for part-time landlords and their renters. Prior to that he was an investment banking associate at BMO Capital Markets, performing M&A and equity capital markets transactions for financial services firms. In 2020 Avail was acquired by Realtor.com.

Interviewed for the lecture series by Dean Brooke Elliott, Coon shared details of his experience as an entrepreneur and offered students suggestions as they pursue their careers.

Campus Experience Shaped Entrepreneurial Journey

For Coon, entrepreneurship is not something that can be learned in a classroom. He learned when he got to the University of Illinois: “I got the advice pretty early on that entrepreneurship is a mindset and to spend time on campus acquiring skill sets that will help later on.”

This advice stayed with him, and the people he met and skills he gained on campus gave him the courage to take the leap to launch Avail. Avail had its origin when Coon and his cofounder, fellow Gies alum Laurence Jankelow, realized that about half of the nation’s rental housing units were owned by large companies. These institutionally owned properties were professionally managed and had enterprise software to make the operations run smoothly.

The other half of the rental market was made up of small owners – mom-and-pop landlords who had full-time jobs and other responsibilities and for whom rental was more of a side hustle, something they did for extra money. These people did not have ready-made teams to create software for them. “Especially twelve years ago, those people were managing it all using spreadsheets, tons of paper, paper checks, text messages – just duct-taping together a solution for managing their rentals,” said Coon.

That is where Coon and Jankelow saw an opportunity for a new kind of company. With Avail, they could create the software solutions for these smaller landlords. “We really saw this as an opportunity to bring all this together, to help a landlord, the real estate investors, save a lot of time and provide a better experience for the renters that lived in the homes,” Coon said.

In 2020, Avail was acquired by Realtor.com. Coon spent three years following the sale at Realtor.com, but is now on his own, looking for new entrepreneurship opportunities and getting involved with angel investing.

Coon had some advice for the students in the audience. “I wish I had been more thoughtful and patient about what I wanted to do,” he said. “That’s really important. You don’t need to rush – you can stop and think about what do you want to accomplish, what’s your vision? You have a lot of time [in college] and that’s a luxury that I don’t think a lot of people take advantage of. You have an opportunity to experiment.”

Questions from Students

One student asked how you could be sure you were hiring the right people. “This is hard no matter what company you are in,” Coon said. “We were focused on attracting people who were attracted to what we do. Some of their first employees were people who had rental property as a side hustle. Others were people who had been burned in their experiences as a renter.”

Since they knew that they could not compete against the larger tech companies on salary, Coon made all employees part owners of the company. “They all had stock options,” he said. When the company was acquired, Coon said, “everyone benefitted. And that was impactful. So, we couldn't compete on salary, but we were able to very literally spread ownership.”

Another student asked about choosing a good business partner or cofounder. For Coon, this is an essential part of any business. “This is a really hard question because you spend much more time with your partner or cofounder than you would with a spouse. So, that kind of relationship is so important.”

For Coon, some important things to look for in a business partner include finding someone who has complementary skill sets, who shows up on time, and who is an overall nice person – someone you’d want to spend so much time with.

Coon is also encouraged by the growth of the Chicago tech community. “Chicago’s tech ecosystem has evolved a lot over the last ten to fifteen years. Now there are more resources, there’s more capital, more investors, more funding,” he said. “If you have an idea for a good software business, that’s actually valued [in Chicago], and there’s tons of opportunities to do that.”

About Ryan Coon
Ryan Coon is an entrepreneur, advisor, and angel investor. Most recently, Ryan led the Rentals business at Realtor.com after successfully selling his last venture-funded company to Realtor.com in December 2020. Prior to that, Ryan was the CEO of Avail, a platform that improves the rental experience for more than two million DIY landlords and renters. Before cofounding Avail in 2015, Ryan was an investment banking associate at BMO Capital Markets performing M&A and equity capital markets transactions for financial services firms. He earned his bachelor’s degree in accounting and finance with honors from Gies College of Business in 2007.

About the Cozad Lecture Series
The V. Dale Cozad Lecture on Entrepreneurship was founded in 1997 by local businessman Peter Fox as a way to honor his good friend Dale Cozad for his hard work, dedication, and great success as an entrepreneur. Dale Cozad deeply involved in the community and was a strong supporter of Gies College of Business, the University of Illinois, and the Division of Intercollegiate Athletics.