About Us

Letter From the Founders:

HousingPanda is founded on the idea that a trusted platform for medium-term housing will support the dreams of millions of students and early career professionals world-wide as they move to new cities around the world to follow their dreams. As professional careers become more fluid, and people become more mobile, HousingPanda is providing medium-term housing solutions to support our increasingly global village of dreamers and doers. 

Founders Tom and John experienced firsthand how difficult it was to get housing for summer internships. After seeing friends fall for housing scams in NYC, they decided to create HousingPanda to make the world a friendlier place for students and interns to pursue their dreams worldwide. 

Glowing testimonials from our clients makes all our efforts worthwhile. We truly prioritize the experience of our users. We are continuing to improve HousingPanda.com with new and innovative features that will make the subletting process far easier. 

Tom DeRose’s first rental in NYC was a scam that cost 2 months of rent, planting the seeds for what would eventually become HousingPanda. After founding HousingPanda in college and seeing the need for a trusted intermediary between hosts and guests, he started working full-time on HousingPanda. He spends his free time reading classics, or skiing. 

John Rhodes’ first internship in NYC involved dodging housing scammers and living in make-shift shared warehouse space in Brooklyn. After graduate school in Europe, he built and sold his first company in California and has since been working in real estate development and early stage proptech ventures in Austin, Texas. His other pursuits include film production and aviation.