HEYANNA
Back when I was a student, I lived in a co-living flat that felt like home in every sense of the word. Sure, the flat itself was great, but it was the people—the laughs, the shared meals, the late-night chats—that made it special. That experience stuck with me. Later, when I saw how many people struggled to find flatmates who truly clicked, I thought: What if finding the right flatmates could be as easy and fun as finding a date?
That’s how HEYANNA was born. Together with my co-founder, Timo, we set out to flip the traditional flat-hunting process on its head. Instead of focusing just on the flat, we wanted to focus on the people—because let’s face it, a stunning apartment doesn’t mean much if you can’t stand your flatmates.

What Is HEYANNA?
HEYANNA is a matchmaking app for co-living. Think dating app, but for finding your dream flatmates and flat. You swipe, match, chat, and even schedule flat visits—all within the app. The magic happens behind the scenes with our intelligent matching algorithm, which doesn’t just look at practical things like whether you’re an early bird or a night owl, but also vibe attributes like shared interests and lifestyle preferences.
The goal? To create the perfect Coliving Crew. We wanted to take the stress out of flat-hunting and turn it into something transparent, playful, and, dare I say, enjoyable.

A Big Milestone
One of the proudest moments in our journey was partnering with HousingAnywhere, the Dutch housing platform. It was a game-changer for us. Suddenly, we had access to more listings across all the major cities in Germany, and our users had way more options. It felt like proof that we were onto something.
Designing the Experience
From day one, we poured our hearts into creating an app that was as fun to use as it was functional. The design had to be clean and inviting—something people actually wanted to spend time on. We obsessed over the details, from the way the app looked to how smoothly it worked, because we knew that finding a flat (and flatmates) can already be stressful. The app needed to feel like a breath of fresh air.

Lessons Learned
Starting HEYANNA was my first real dive into building a company. It taught me everything from designing a user experience to negotiating partnerships to understanding what it takes to bring a vision to life. I also learned that the most successful products aren’t just solving practical problems—they’re improving people’s lives in a meaningful way.
HEYANNA was about more than finding a place to live. It was about creating a community. About helping people find flatmates who feel like family and turning shared living into a shared experience worth having. That’s something I’ll always be proud of.
If you’ve ever struggled with finding the right people to live with, you’ll get why we built HEYANNA. It’s all about making co-living better, one match at a time.