Younic Dwelling: Constructing a Scalable Answer for Inexpensive, Secure Hostel in Bangladesh

How two software program engineers turned a waterborne sickness right into a 5 branches hostel empire.

Actionable Takeaways: 

When you solely have a couple of minutes to spare, right here’s what founders, operators can study from Younic Dwelling and its journey. 

Clear up a visceral, scalable drawback: Begin from deep private ache (Sharmin’s sickness) addressing an enormous, demonstrable market hole (Dhaka’s bachelor housing disaster). 

Validate ruthlessly, begin lean: Younic’s preliminary flat proved demand immediately. Early earnings fueled conviction and incremental scaling.

Embrace the grind and personal the small print: Founders did every part from design to sourcing to advertising and HR, gaining irreplaceable operational data and value management. Moving into the mud lets you study your enterprise higher, construct resilience and make higher selections.

Resilience is non-negotiable: Landlord betrayals, COVID devastation, funding deserts, group Younic confronted existential threats repeatedly. Their dedication to by no means stop, even pawning wedding ceremony gold, was elementary.

Persistence powers funding: The founders confronted years of rejection. Their exterior funding breakthrough pitch mixed onerous knowledge, confirmed traction, and an alumni connection. Securing capital usually requires relentless pursuit and aligning with believers who perceive your imaginative and prescient. It usually takes a lot for much longer than one expects. 

Professionalize to scale: Transitioning from founder-led chaos to departmental construction (HR, Advertising and marketing, Ops) with 80 workers was important for managing development post-investment.

Worth proposition is king: Radical affordability (350 taka/day), all-inclusive comfort, distinctive consolation (staircase beds), and safety (particularly for girls) type an unbeatable mixture in its market.

Private ache factors usually reveal huge market alternatives: Sharmin’s jaundice from contaminated water uncovered a systemic drawback affecting thousands and thousands of bachelors in Dhaka. As Paul Graham of Y Combinator wrote years again, for successful startup concepts look into your personal drawback. 

Rising market lodging represents huge untapped worth: Solely 9% of Dhaka’s annual inside migrants discover appropriate housing, creating an infinite addressable market.

Easy pricing simplifies buyer selections: Bundling lodging, meals, WiFi, and safety into single packages reduces friction and makes it straightforward for purchasers to grasp and decide.  

Dhaka swallows ambition. Yearly, practically 500,000 Bangladeshis, principally college students, job seekers, hopeful professionals, and common folks, pour into the sprawling capital from all throughout the nation, in search of training, alternatives, healthcare, and a myriad of different wants. But, for a staggering 91% of them, the town provides a brutal welcome: a determined scramble for secure, inexpensive housing, leaving many in substandard residing situations. Discovering secure, inexpensive, and well-managed lodging is a major problem for these folks.  

For ladies and bachelors, the problem is especially acute. Bachelors face overcrowded “messes,” unsafe residing situations, and restricted entry to primary facilities like clear water and dependable safety. Girls, specifically, battle with secure lodging choices. 

Whereas hostel tradition is widespread in lots of nations, it hasn’t historically taken root in Bangladesh in a contemporary, scalable method. Present lodging choices like conventional “messes” or hostels usually current problems with insecurity, excessive price, or poor hygiene. Many of those shared flats are infamous for poor hygiene and unsafe water, and are sometimes the one possibility. 

It was in a single such flat, in the direction of the tip of her software program engineering diploma at Daffodil College, that Sharmin Sultana’s life took a terrifying flip. A extreme bout of jaundice, a waterborne illness rampant in Dhaka’s substandard lodging, struck her down. 

Docs confirmed what many intuitively knew: insufficient water and washroom hygiene was the wrongdoer, a scourge affecting a major variety of newcomers falling unwell within the metropolis. 

Mendacity sick, a seed was planted. What if there was a greater method? What if a hostel may exist that assured clear water, correct sanitation, and a dignified residing surroundings? This visceral, painful private expertise turned the founding thesis of Younic Dwelling, a Dhaka-based hostel/lodging supplier that goals “to redefine city lodging by combining affordability with a deep sense of care and group.”

In 2015, armed with nothing however conviction and a 56,000 taka mortgage from household (barely sufficient to lease a single flat and pay two months’ advance), Younic Dwelling was born. Inside simply seven days, their rooms have been absolutely booked. By the tip of the primary month, they repaid 40,000 taka to their households and netted an 11,000 taka revenue. The validation was speedy and highly effective. 

Beginning with a single flat in 2015, Younic Dwelling has since grown to 5 branches, serving roughly 20,000 clients yearly.

Younic Dwelling supplies an answer with all-inclusive hostel packages beginning at 349 taka, providing meals, laundry, WiFi, and 24-hour safety. Their deal with security, accessibility, and affordability units them aside, making them an important answer for Dhaka’s transient inhabitants.

Origin Story

The entrepreneurial spark usually comes from frustration, and Sharmin’s story is not any exception. The seeds of Younic Dwelling have been sown in 2015 when Sharmin, a final-year software program engineering pupil at Daffodil College, confronted a private well being disaster. Residing in a shared flat in Dhaka, she contracted jaundice on account of contaminated water, a typical situation for newcomers unaccustomed to the town’s water high quality. 

Hospitalized at Widespread Hospital, Sharmin was bedridden for 3 months, unable to attend lessons or handle each day duties. The expertise was a wake-up name, highlighting the dire residing situations many college students endure in Dhaka. “I received jaundice as a result of the water wasn’t cleaned correctly, and our home helper wasn’t common,” Sharmin remembers. “It was a waterborne illness that would have been prevented with higher services.”

Throughout her restoration, Sharmin’s mom visited Dhaka and supplied a sensible suggestion: lease a flat, set up a water filter, and share it with different college students. This might guarantee Sharmin’s personal consolation whereas offering an answer for others going through comparable challenges. 

Impressed, Sharmin shared the concept with Ridwanullah Yousuf, her classmate and future husband. “After I recovered and returned to Dhaka, that is when it first got here to my thoughts that we’d construct a hostel the place there can be a minimum of a water facility, a minimum of folks wouldn’t get this jaundice as a result of lack of secure, pure water.” The duo, already shut collaborators on educational initiatives, noticed potential in turning this private answer right into a broader alternative. They agreed to check out the concept to deal with this hole with fashionable, safe, and inexpensive hostels as they proceed their research. 

Thus the concept for a greater housing answer wasn’t born from a market evaluation, however from a harsh private expertise. 

“We have been IT folks, so we knew how one can analysis and optimize,” Ridwan remembers. Their technical coaching would show invaluable in approaching what many noticed as a conventional actual property play with the rigor of a tech startup.

Initially, the target was modest: to lease a flat, present important services like filtered water and a cushty surroundings, and maybe run it alongside their jobs.

With 56,000 taka borrowed from their households, a sum that represented each religion and monetary pressure, Sharmin and Ridwan rented a flat, paying two months’ advance. The fundamentals have been non-negotiable: water filtration, shared lodging, and the sort of administration that got here from understanding the ache factors firsthand. They outfitted it with primary facilities, together with a water filter, and supplied it as shared lodging for college students. 

The market validation was speedy and decisive. 

Inside seven days, the flat was absolutely occupied. The primary month generated 11,000 taka in revenue, permitting them to return 40,000 taka to their households whereas investing the rest in furnishings and enhancements. “We returned 40,000 taka to our household and used the remaining to purchase furnishings,” Sharmin explains. The success validated their speculation: a major demand for clear, inexpensive, and well-managed housing in Dhaka.

It was the sort of early traction that alerts product-market match, even when they did not but have the vocabulary to explain it that method. Their early success fueled ambition, main them to lease further flats, scaling to 3 by 2018.

Evolution: From Aspect Hustle to Full-Time Dedication

What adopted was a masterclass in managed development below constraint. 

In 2016, Sharmin and Ridwan married, strengthening their partnership each personally and professionally. By then, they’d graduated from Daffodil College, accomplished their grasp’s levels, and joined the college as lecturers. Additionally they labored as software program check engineers at Daffodil Software program Restricted and later as trainers for the federal government’s Expertise for Employment Funding Program (SEIP). Sharmin led skilled freelancing programs, whereas Ridwan skilled in internet design and improvement. Later Ridwan joined a financial institution and Sharmin continued instructing part-time whereas each continued engaged on Younic on the facet. 

The early days have been a hands-on studying expertise. They personally dealt with every part from placing up “To-Let” indicators purchased from Nilkhet, to purchasing furnishings from locations like Karwan Bazar, and sourcing electrical provides from native outlets. This direct involvement allowed them to construct relationships with distributors, perceive market costs, and acquire a deeper understanding of their enterprise. 

The enterprise, initially a facet hustle, demanded growing consideration. “We have been giving 46 hours per week to our jobs and solely 20-22 hours to the enterprise, however the revenue from one department was greater than our mixed salaries,” Sharmin remembers. This realization prompted them to prioritize Younic Dwelling. 

By 2016, they’d expanded to a full constructing. The identical yr they confronted the primary main setback when a landlord abruptly terminated their lease on account of a dispute, highlighting the vulnerability of working with out formal agreements. “We realized the onerous approach to at all times have written contracts,” Ridwan notes. The lesson was costly however important: in a relationship-driven market, authorized protections matter greater than goodwill.

Undeterred, they secured one other constructing with a 10-lakh-taka advance in 2018, regardless of having only one lakh taka in financial savings—a ten:1 leverage ratio that will make most CFOs nervous. The timing was significantly difficult:  Sharmin was pregnant, along with her child due in two months, and her grasp’s closing exams have been approaching. “It was lots of battle,” she admits. “However we have been decided to construct one thing like dormitories overseas.” 

Their imaginative and prescient was to create fashionable, secure lodging for bachelors, college students, and short-term guests, impressed by worldwide requirements. This wasn’t nearly offering beds; it was about reimagining what inexpensive lodging may appear to be in a quickly urbanizing financial system.

The next years, the corporate noticed glorious development, rising into 4 full-building branches.

However the challenges persevered. 

Discovering landlords prepared to lease total buildings for his or her mannequin (e.g., female-only sections) was an ongoing battle, compounded by the widespread notion of hostels as inherently soiled and disruptive. Their instructing credentials turned an unlikely protect, lending them credibility in skeptical landlords’ eyes.

Funds remained a relentless tightrope stroll. Regardless of promising early earnings, exterior funding was a mirage. Banks and enterprise capitals uniformly dismissed them; hostels “didn’t fall into any criterion, class, or something that could possibly be funded.” They survived on private financial savings, household loans (father-in-law, uncle, aunt – their “first buyers”), and short-term, interest-free assist from supportive Daffodil lecturers. 

The enterprise mannequin was inherently capital-heavy; organising a single department at present requires practically one crore taka upfront for adornment and A-to-Z services, demanding lump-sum funding, not gradual spending.

Then got here 2020. COVID-19 lockdowns decimated Younic Dwelling. Three of their 4 leased buildings have been vacated. Financial savings evaporated. Losses mounted to roughly 17 lakh taka. Sharmin even pawned her wedding ceremony gold to maintain the enterprise afloat, a choice that weighed closely emotionally. “I instructed the owner I’d redeem it in two months, however it took longer, and he offered it,” she shares. The stress was crushing. Sharmin, considering momentary closure, confronted Ridwan’s unwavering resolve: “We is not going to shut. We are going to use each final taka of our financial savings to recuperate.” 

Their survival tactic was pragmatic: negotiating a 50% lease discount on one constructing and providing residents minimal lease (2000 taka), enabling about 60 folks to remain all through the pandemic. This act of shared hardship constructed loyalty and supplied an important revenue trickle. Submit-lockdown, they have been absolutely booked inside a month, starting the sluggish climb out of debt.

The Inflection Level: Perception, Funding, and Professionalization

For 2 years (2020-2022), the funding desert persevered. Then their persistence paid off. By 2022, Younic Dwelling was gaining traction, and a pivotal second got here when Sharmin despatched an e mail to Mr. Sabur Khan, Chairman of Daffodil Group and Bangladesh Enterprise Capital. “I wrote that we’d been operating this for seven years, had a income stream, and there was an enormous market hole for high quality, secure, and inexpensive lodging for thousands and thousands of bachelors in Dhaka,” she says. The e-mail highlighted the shortage of high quality hostels close to universities in Ashulia and their confirmed monitor report. 

Mr. Khan noticed past the numbers. He acknowledged their confirmed execution, they have been already working a nine-story constructing, and their deep understanding as former hostel residents. Being Daffodil alumni sealed the deal. 

Inside per week, the funding materialized. This funding, coupled with technical help, marked a turning level. Bangladesh Enterprise Capital adopted with two extra investments within the firm. 

The influence was seismic. In December 2022, a partnership with Daffodil College introduced 140-145 college students to their Ashulia department, quadrupling their resident base in a single month. Their month-to-month turnover in 2023 equaled their total 2022 income.

This inflow marked the tip of the bootstrap period for the corporate. 

By 2023, Younic Dwelling had 5 branches—two in Ashulia (one for boys, one for ladies), two in Uttara, and one in Dhanmondi—serving 1,000 residents. Concurrently, they confronted the operational limits of founder-led every part. The 2023 development demanded professionalization. They established devoted groups for Advertising and marketing, HR, Accounts, Operations, and Authorized Compliance. Worker rely ballooned from 6-8 employees in 2022 to round 80. This construction liberated the founders to deal with technique and enlargement. 

This development prompted Sharmin to go away her part-time instructing job at Unbiased College in mid-2022 to deal with Younic Dwelling full-time. 

Ridwan adopted in February 2023, resigning from his financial institution job after a 55-minute assembly with Mr. Khan, who inspired them to pursue their entrepreneurial imaginative and prescient. “He mentioned, ‘Work for yourselves; you’ll go far,’” Sharmin remembers. “The following day, Ridwan resigned.”

The transition to full-time entrepreneurship, although dangerous with a younger household, was pushed by the enterprise’s profitability and their confidence in its potential. “We noticed the expansion was quick, and if each of us dedicated absolutely, it might growth,” Ridwan explains.

Operational Mastery

Younic Dwelling’s operational DNA was cast within the fires of necessity and private expertise. Foregoing costly inside designers who prioritized spaciousness over affordability, Sharmin and Ridwan turned self-taught designers. They personally sketched layouts, meticulously maximizing mattress capability per sq. foot to make sure monetary viability. 

They spent weekends scouring markets, Nilkhet for making “To-Let” indicators, Karwan Bazar for furnishings, New Marketplace for curtains, native electrical outlets for fixtures, constructing vendor relationships and mastering market costs. This hands-on sourcing slashed prices.

Their relentless analysis into world dormitories resulted in a novel bedding system with staircases as an alternative of ladders. Pushed by the belief that ladders have been uncomfortable and inaccessible (particularly for older guests or these unwell), this design turned a trademark of consolation, considerably boosting buyer satisfaction and retention. 

They personally designed every part, from room layouts of their Uttara department to the “contact of affection” within the furnishings, believing in the event that they discovered it comfy and environment friendly, their clients would too. This founder-led design ethos ensured areas have been optimized for tenants residing, not summary aesthetics.

Advertising and marketing was equally scrappy and strategic. Early days concerned personally placing up banners printed in Nilkhet. Their tech background enabled a powerful on-line presence, Sharmin managed social media, Ridwan constructed the web site and reserving techniques (now a classy ERP). 

Crucially, they pursued institutional collaborations doggedly: Bhuiyan Academy, Daffodil Nursing Institute, Ten Minute Faculty, IELTS facilities, universities (Jap, Metropolis), and corporates (Jobway Worldwide, SME Basis). Whereas some partnerships took time, a yr for Jap/Metropolis College to ship college students, the technique secured a gentle resident pipeline. Submit-investment, a devoted advertising group now proactively courts these establishments.

The Yonic Mannequin: Merchandise and Providers

Younic Dwelling operates as a service-based enterprise offering complete lodging options for a various group of individuals, together with college students, job holders, job seekers, vacationers, and people attending short-term packages or exams.

The core providing is an all-inclusive bundle with greater than 25 services. These embrace lodging, meals (three meals/day), laundry, WiFi, safety, cleansing, bedding techniques (mattress, mattress, sheets, pillows, covers), furnishings (desk, chair, wardrobe), lighting, followers, and AC. Past primary wants, the corporate additionally supplies facilities like prayer rooms, studying rooms, fitness center services in all branches, and rooftop recreation areas with swings, Ludo, and Carrom. 

Each Male and Feminine branches have 24-hour residential supervisors, and all branches use fingerprint entry and register books for safety.

Younic Dwelling’s providing is structured round three tiers that show subtle understanding of market segmentation:

Cozy Package deal (349 taka): Shared rooms accommodating as much as six folks, together with meals, laundry, WiFi, and 24-hour safety. This entry-level possibility addresses the price-sensitive section whereas sustaining high quality requirements.

Premium Package deal (Variable pricing): Enhanced consolation with further area and facilities for purchasers prepared to pay for upgraded experiences.

Luxurious Package deal (As much as 2,000 taka): Single rooms with king-size beds, connected bogs, AC, TV, and fridges—approaching hotel-quality lodging at hostel pricing.

What units Younic Dwelling aside is the comprehensiveness of their providing. 

Right now, Younic Dwelling operates 5 branches (Ashulia Male/Feminine, Uttara Male/Feminine, Dhanmondi) with a 1,000-person capability. Seventy p.c of areas are for long-term residents (>3 months), thirty p.c for short-term vacationers (minimal keep: 1 day). 

The explosive development for the corporate stems from a robust differentiator: radical affordability coupled with superior high quality and safety. 

Younic Dwelling rents total buildings, changing them into hostels with all-inclusive packages. Constructing lease is the first expense, adopted by employees salaries, utilities, and upkeep. 

Income comes from lodging charges, admission charges for long-term residents, and on-site pantry gross sales. 

Working below Younic Restricted, the corporate diversifies into actual property (Younic Housing), visitor home administration (Azul BD), and software program improvement (Autopilot AI Answer), enhancing monetary stability.

Challenges and Classes Realized

The trail to 5 branches wasn’t linear. The challenges Younic Dwelling confronted provide insights into the realities of constructing a enterprise in a troublesome vertical:

Landlord administration: Convincing landlords to lease full buildings for hostels was troublesome on account of adverse perceptions. Moreover, early reliance on verbal agreements led to surprising losses when landlords modified phrases or terminated leases. The answer was systematic: formal contracts, authorized protections, and constructing relationships primarily based on mutual profit slightly than goodwill alone.

Capital-heavy enterprise: Opening a brand new department requires an upfront funding of virtually one crore taka for adornment and full setup, not like companies that may progressively inject capital. This made securing preliminary funding very difficult.

Fundraising challenges: The hostel enterprise did not match conventional funding standards, resulting in rejections from many enterprise capital corporations and banks. Their breakthrough got here from a direct, daring pitch highlighting their current income and market hole. 

Worker recruitment: Within the early days, attracting expertise was onerous as folks most popular “company jobs”. Nevertheless, as the corporate grew and gained status, this situation subsided. 

DIY method: Initially, the founders personally dealt with every part from advertising (on-line advertisements, printing “To-Let” indicators at Nilkhet) to procurement (furnishings from Karwan Bazar, electrical provides, curtains from New Market) and inside design. This hands-on method allowed them to construct vendor relationships, perceive market costs, and management prices, essential for a capital-intensive enterprise. 

Strategic risk-taking: The founders systematically assessed dangers earlier than leaving their safe college jobs. Their skill to “seize alternatives instantly” additionally performed a key position of their speedy development. 

Aggressive Panorama

Whereas there’s a massive casual market, the formal hostel market in Bangladesh stays nascent. Tremendous Dwelling—a Chinese language operator operating 12 branches is without doubt one of the important gamers within the area.

Younic’s aggressive benefit lies not simply in pricing however in its systematic method to high quality and security. The corporate’s deal with the shopper expertise, mixed with deep native market understanding, positions it favorably in opposition to worldwide operators who could battle with cultural nuances and native relationship administration.

Future Plans

Younic Dwelling’s development post-2022 has been characterised by steady enlargement. As quickly as funding was secured and one constructing crammed up, they instantly sought out the subsequent, even taking over buildings that appeared difficult to others. 

This proactive method is guided by a transparent plan to open 35 branches inside Dhaka, which the corporate estimates will serve only one% of the entire bachelor market. 

Past natural development, a major a part of its technique includes strategic collaborations. The corporate actively companions with universities (Daffodil College, Jap College, Metropolis College), faculties (Daffodil School of Nursing), coaching institutes (Ten Minute Faculty, IELTS in Bengali, Bhuiyan Academy, IST, BSDI, DIIT), and companies (Jobway Worldwide, SM Basis) which have college students or trainees needing lodging. 

Younic Dwelling’s ambitions lengthen far past its present 5 branches. Its roadmap demonstrates the sort of systematic considering that scaling requires:

Brief-Time period (2026-2028): Safe funding for 35 Dhaka branches, focusing on 1% of the bachelor market. 

Medium-Time period (2029-2031): Increase to 2 branches per district all through Bangladesh, successfully making a nationwide community of standardized lodging.

Lengthy-Time period (Submit-2031): Enter worldwide markets together with Canada and the USA, addressing excessive lodging prices for college students in developed economies.

New Income Streams: The addition of coaching packages leveraging services in every department represents a very attention-grabbing improvement. By providing ability improvement alongside lodging, the corporate goals to create a extra complete answer to city migration challenges whereas diversifying income streams.

Conclusion

Younic Dwelling’s journey from a jaundice-induced epiphany to a five-branch hostel community is a narrative of grit, innovation, and social influence. Sharmin and Ridwan’s transition from part-time hustlers to full-time entrepreneurs displays their skill to show private challenges into scalable options. 

As Sharmin and Ridwan look towards 35 branches and worldwide enlargement, they’re constructing greater than a hostel chain—they’re creating a brand new class of city residing that transforms how we take into consideration lodging, group, and alternative in quickly rising cities.

Younic Dwelling’s journey from a private drawback and a small household funding to a quickly scaling enterprise highlights a number of key elements for achievement in underserved, capital-intensive markets. 

The founders’ technical background, whereas seemingly unrelated, supplied a disciplined, problem-solving mindset and the power to construct obligatory digital infrastructure like Younic’s web site and ERP system. The private expertise of founders as residents gave them deep perception into buyer wants and operational necessities, enabling them to design a superior product. Crucially, their resilience throughout setbacks like landlord points and the COVID-19 lockdown, coupled with a relentless pursuit of funding and development alternatives, allowed them to outlive and finally thrive. 

The story of Younic provides invaluable classes on figuring out actual issues, leveraging private insights, navigating operational complexities, and securing the assets wanted to construct profitable enterprise.