Ten years ago, ZangaBee was just getting started. We were a young startup with big ambitions, learning every day, experimenting, and figuring out how to create real value for our customers. Looking back, those early years were full of excitement, uncertainty, and countless lessons that shaped who we are today.
As we celebrate our 10th anniversary, we want to use this milestone to shine a spotlight on 10 startups that remind us of our own journey. Companies with fresh ideas, strong execution, and the potential to make a real impact. Throughout this anniversary series, we’re introducing one startup at a time that we believe is worth keeping an eye on.
Our second startup is COHO.
Rethinking shared living
COHO describes itself as something like Airbnb for shared houses, while also providing software designed specifically to manage them.
The company is tackling a housing model that is both increasingly important and often misunderstood: shared living.
Managing shared houses can be complex. There are more tenants, shorter stays, more relationships to manage, and additional regulations to navigate. At the same time, shared living has traditionally been viewed primarily as an affordable housing option. Something people choose because they have to, rather than because they want to.
COHO believes that can change.
Humans are social creatures, and when shared living is done well, it can offer something that goes beyond simply having a roof over your head. It can create community, connection, and a genuinely enjoyable way of living.
COHO provides the technology to help make that possible, while also helping property owners manage shared houses more effectively.
From personal experience to a business idea
COHO’s story started with a personal experience.
After leaving university, its founder found himself feeling disconnected and looking for something more social. He eventually moved into a shared house and had an experience that was very different from the stereotype.
There were movie nights, poker nights, and even a house dodgeball team that made it all the way to 13th in the UK.
But he also realised that this kind of experience was unusual. Many shared houses were poorly managed, with tenants spending most of their time in their own rooms.
A conversation with his landlord revealed something interesting. The landlord had developed his own systems for managing the property, giving him more time to focus on creating a better experience for the people living there.
That sparked an idea: technology could help create a win win situation for both residents and property owners.
Rather than immediately jumping into the property management industry, the founder spent the next six years building and exiting two other startups while developing his skills in business and product development. Eventually, he was ready to tackle the problem he had identified years earlier.
A turning point
For COHO, a major milestone came in 2025 with the third edition of The HMO Summit & Awards, which had grown into one of the biggest events in the HMO space.
At the event, COHO launched its State of Shared Living survey, gathering responses from more than 6,200 tenants.
The results highlighted a significant shift: more people are beginning to view shared living as a lifestyle choice rather than simply a last resort.
Around the same time, COHO had become the largest software platform for shared living.
But perhaps the most meaningful recognition came in a much simpler form: a message from a landlord thanking the team and saying that COHO had helped change the reputation and management approach of shared living.
For a startup, that’s a pretty powerful measure of impact.
Learning to walk before running
Like many startups, COHO has also experienced the challenges that come with trying to grow quickly.
One of the biggest lessons was learning to balance ambition with financial reality. The company hired too many people too early because it believed it was ready to scale before it had fully learned to walk.
That experience changed the way COHO approaches growth.
The lesson wasn’t to become less ambitious. Instead, it was to become more deliberate. Today, any investment is made with a clear understanding of why it is needed and what it will achieve.
What’s next?
COHO believes the perception of shared living is changing, and that there is still a huge opportunity ahead.
The company hopes that, over the coming years, shared living will increasingly become something people actively seek out because they want an enjoyable and exciting living experience, rather than something they choose simply because it is affordable.
And that’s perhaps the idea at the heart of COHO:
We’ve got shared living backwards.
For decades, living alone has been treated as the aspiration, while sharing has been seen as the compromise. At the same time, we’re facing a housing shortage, an affordability crisis, and a loneliness epidemic.
COHO doesn’t believe everyone should live in a shared house. Instead, it wants to help create shared homes that people actively choose because they’re great places to live.
That’s an ambition we can get behind.
We wish the entire COHO team every success and look forward to following their journey.
Know a startup that deserves a place in our anniversary series? We’d love to hear about it. Send a DM to Henk on LinkedIn, and who knows, they might be one of the next startups we put in the spotlight.
