--- title: How This Rental Property Manager Created a Multimillion-Dollar Business description: John Bialk came up with the idea for a noise detection device while negotiating noise complaints between tenants. authors: - name: Daniel Bortz url: https://money.com/author/daniel-bortz/ at_money_since: 2014 articles: 60 covers: - Business - Career Advice - Housing - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Taxes - Technology social: - https://twitter.com/DanielBortz - https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-bortz/ former_staff: true published: '2015-08-12T19:34:11.000Z' modified: '2015-08-12T19:34:11.000Z' section: Business tags: - money magazine word_count: 483 canonical: https://money.com/rental-property-manager-business/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![150609_PAC_john bialk](https://img.money.com/2015/06/150609_pac_john-bialk.jpg) Six years of working at a nonprofit offering rental housing to low-income families taught John Bialk just how precious quiet can be. He frequently fielded noise complaints from tenants—from late-night parties to loud TVs. And these issues often led to nasty feuds between neighbors. "I'd see cars keyed, tires flattened, physical threats," says the Neshkoro, Wis., resident. "As a property manager, you sit at your desk waiting for bad things to happen." In the meantime, he came up with a solution: a noise-monitoring system that works on a wireless network to alert landlords to problems. In hopes of finding a partner with technical expertise to help create the product, Bialk attended a local startup conference in 2012; there he met computer programmer Jonathan Narwold. Soon after, the duo were accepted into a three-month business accelerator, which included a $20,000 investment and help making a prototype. Afterward they raised $300,000 from affiliated investors to take the device, Quietyme, to market. In January 2013, Bialk left his job to focus on Quietyme. "My wife wasn't thrilled I was starting a business so late in my career," says Bialk. "But I believed in this product." And with their three kids grown, their living costs were modest, allowing him to take a chance. Bialk and Narwold hit the ground running. Via cold calls, they built a solid customer base of landlords and hotel managers. And along the way, they found another market: hospitals. Seeing a chance to expand and having proved they could build the technology, Bialk and Narwold were able to raise $980,000 more last summer, allowing them to hire 19 people and bring R&D in-house. In 2014 revenues hit $300,000. The business isn't yet in the black, but it could be by next summer, says Bialk, who has already found his new path personally profitable: "I left property management to solve a problem, and that's what we're doing. It's a good feeling to have when I go to sleep at night." **By the Numbers** **6 Months** How long he went without a salary: To supplement his half of the accelerator grant, Bialk cashed in a $40,000 401(k)—his whole nest egg—to cover his and his wife's living expenses. "We needed to scale the business and couldn't if we were taking money out," he says. **$60,000** What he will earn in 2015: After the first six months, Bialk and Narwold each began taking a $40,000 annual salary. Following the second round of funding, they both upped their pay. Bialk is now making as much as he did prior to starting the company. **40%** Equity in the business Bialk retains: A 10% stake in the company went to Narwold, 20% went to the accelerator, and another 30% was given to investors. While Bialk sacrificed all of his retirement savings for startup costs, he says his shares in Quietyme are now worth $4.2 million based on a recent valuation. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/rental-property-manager-business/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Business", "item": "https://money.com/business/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Small Business", "item": "https://money.com/small-business/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "How This Rental Property Manager Created a Multimillion-Dollar Business" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/rental-property-manager-business/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/rental-property-manager-business/", "name": "How This Rental Property Manager Created a Multimillion-Dollar Business", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2015-08-12T19:34:11.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/rental-property-manager-business/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/rental-property-manager-business/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2015-08-12T19:34:11.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "How This Rental Property Manager Created a Multimillion-Dollar Business", "articleSection": "Business", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2015/06/150609_pac_john-bialk.jpg", "width": 4521, "height": 3042, "caption": "150609_PAC_john bialk" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Daniel Bortz", "url": "https://money.com/author/daniel-bortz/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/daniel-bortz/#author", "image": "https://img.money.com/2014/05/Daniel-Bortz.png?w=226&h=247&crop=1", "sameAs": [ "https://twitter.com/DanielBortz", "https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-bortz/" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2015-08-12T19:34:11.000Z", "description": "John Bialk came up with the idea for a noise detection device while negotiating noise complaints between tenants.", "abstract": "John Bialk came up with the idea for a noise detection device while negotiating noise complaints between tenants.", "@id": "https://money.com/rental-property-manager-business/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2015-08-12T19:34:11.000Z", "wordCount": 483, "keywords": [ "money magazine" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Business", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Small business", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_business" ] } ] } ] } ```