If you have paid time left on an individual Granola plan, we'll match it with a Wispr Flow subscription that includes Notetaker and dictation, and add bonus time, up to 12 months total. Sign in or create a Wispr account and submit proof of your plan to check eligibility.

Try Notetaker Free

Once a month, millions of Americans make their largest payment and receive nothing in return except permission to remain where they already live.

Bilt saw an opportunity in that.

The company began with a simple idea: if people earn rewards for buying coffee, booking flights, and ordering dinner, why should their rent or mortgage generate nothing?

That proposition helped Bilt enter customers’ lives through an unavoidable monthly expense.

But rent was never the final destination.

It was the front door.

Bilt is now building a broader membership platform around housing, neighborhood spending, dining, fitness, travel, entertainment, and experiences. Its evolution offers founders a useful lesson in how a focused initial benefit can become the foundation for a much larger brand.

Bilt is a loyalty and payments platform centered on housing.

Members can earn rewards on eligible rent and mortgage payments without paying the transaction fees typically associated with using a credit card for housing. They can also earn through everyday purchases and Bilt’s network of more than 50,000 restaurants, fitness studios, pharmacies, retailers, and other neighborhood businesses.

Points can be transferred to airline and hotel partners or redeemed toward travel, Lyft rides, future housing payments, student loans, statement credits, and even a home down payment.

For renters at participating properties, Bilt can also report on-time payments to the major credit bureaus at no cost.

The proposition is broader than “earn points on rent.”

Bilt is connecting the home to the spending, businesses, and experiences surrounding it. CEO Ankur Jain has described the company as a “membership program for where you live.”

Bilt could not build a meaningful housing platform by marketing only to consumers. Landlords and property managers controlled much of the payment infrastructure and access to residents.

That meant Bilt needed two strong value propositions.

For renters, it offered rewards, convenience, neighborhood benefits, and the ability to build credit through payments they were already making.

For property operators, Bilt positioned its platform as a way to encourage on-time payments, increase resident satisfaction, improve lease renewals, lower leasing costs, and create additional revenue opportunities.

Bilt was not simply asking landlords to provide a perk. It was showing them how a better resident experience could support the performance of their properties.

That pitch helped the company secure partnerships with 15 of the country’s 20 largest property owners and reach more than two million rental units shortly after launching in 2021. Greystar later began introducing Bilt across approximately 900 communities. During 2025, Bilt reported that participating properties grew 57% and in-network units increased 50%.

This is an important founder lesson:

If someone else controls access to your customer, that gatekeeper needs a compelling reason to help you grow.

Bilt makes money through several connected parts of its ecosystem.

It participates in interchange revenue when members use Bilt cards for everyday purchases. Its premium cards carry annual fees. The company also generates revenue through relationships with property operators, payment and loyalty services, and the commerce created through its neighborhood merchant network.

The pieces reinforce one another:

More properties give Bilt access to more members.

More members attract more restaurants, retailers, and fitness partners.

More partners give members more reasons to use Bilt beyond rent.

More usage creates additional revenue and makes Bilt more valuable to property operators. By July 2025, Bilt had raised $250 million at a valuation of $10.75 billion.

The larger lesson is not simply to build a marketplace.

It’s to create a system in which every new participant improves the value proposition for the others.

Financial products are difficult to turn into emotionally resonant brands.

Points sit inside an app. Payment processing happens quietly. Rent is not exactly known for producing fond memories.

Bilt’s dining programs, fitness benefits, Rent Day promotions, merchandise, pop-ups, celebrity partnerships, and live events make the value of membership more tangible.

A special dinner or fitness class does more than create buzz. It gives members a reason to open the app between housing payments, use neighborhood partners, redeem points, share the experience, and invite others into the ecosystem.

The experiences also help Bilt become associated with what members enjoy doing, not merely what they are obligated to pay.

Bilt CMO Zoe Oz has said live experiences have been ten times more effective than other forms of marketing the company previously used, despite being difficult to scale and measure.

Bilt is turning an invisible financial benefit into something customers can see, feel, and retell.

Bilt’s strategy offers four practical lessons.

Look for something customers already do frequently but receive little value, recognition, or satisfaction from doing.

You may not need to create a new habit. You may need to improve an old one.

If your business relies on distributors, employers, landlords, merchants, or other intermediaries, explain how each one benefits.

Customer enthusiasm alone may not unlock distribution.

Bilt moved from rent into the neighborhood because dining, fitness, travel, and local commerce naturally surround where people live.

The best extensions follow the customer, not the company org chart.

A functional benefit can earn adoption. Experiences, rituals, and stories can make that benefit memorable.

But the order matters. Bilt earned attention through utility before reaching for lifestyle relevance.

Bilt didn’t make rent exciting. Some goals are unreasonable.

However, it did make rent useful.

Then it built outward from that usefulness, giving landlords a reason to participate, merchants a reason to join, and members a reason to return between payments.

That’s the real playbook:

Start with the unavoidable.

Make it more valuable.

Then earn your way into everything around it.

Best,

Edwin