the “semi-sterile suburban places” weren’t compatible with his self-described young hipster lifestyle. “It dawned on me at that early age that there isn’t one best place for everybody,” he says of his inspiration for his company. “We could crunch data that could find objective truth to find the best place for you.”
Schiller says he was more interested in finding which other cities resembled his native Portland, ME. So he built algorithms that quantified the similarity of his hometown to other spots across the U.S., and found good matches in cities like Portland, OR, Seattle, and Denver and Boulder, CO— “these cool, hip places that have a little bit of a redneck undercurrent” (his words, not mine). He used the equations to build the search, data synthesis, and neighborhood matching elements that now power his company’s site.
Location, which has Mapquest.com co-founder Barry Glick as its chairman, is also hoping that its detailed neighborhood scouting reports will attract commercial customers looking for the next location to set up shop. The data the engine provides could help consumer businesses determine which potential properties are located in the best areas for their target customers. Or, for companies looking to house a warehouse or distribution center, for example, placing their facilities in areas with lower crime rates could score a lower interest rate on business loans, Schiller says. And that means, if all goes well with NeighborhoodScoutReports, not just homebuyers but also expanding businesses will be getting better deals on real estate.
