How two software engineers turned a waterborne illness into a five branches hostel empire.
Actionable Takeaways:
If you only have a few minutes to spare, here’s what founders, operators can learn from Younic Home and its journey.
Solve a visceral, scalable problem: Start from deep personal pain (Sharmin's illness) addressing a massive, demonstrable market gap (Dhaka's bachelor housing crisis).
Validate ruthlessly, start lean: Younic’s initial flat proved demand instantly. Early profits fueled conviction and incremental scaling.
Embrace the grind and own the details: Founders did everything from design to sourcing to marketing and HR, gaining irreplaceable operational knowledge and cost control. Getting into the mud allows you to learn your business better, build resilience and make better decisions.
Resilience is non-negotiable: Landlord betrayals, COVID devastation, funding deserts, team Younic faced existential threats repeatedly. Their determination to never quit, even pawning wedding gold, was fundamental.
Persistence powers funding: The founders faced years of rejection. Their external funding breakthrough pitch combined hard data, proven traction, and an alumni connection. Securing capital often requires relentless pursuit and aligning with believers who understand your vision. It often takes much much longer than one expects.
Professionalize to scale: Transitioning from founder-led chaos to departmental structure (HR, Marketing, Ops) with 80 employees was essential for managing growth post-investment.
Value proposition is king: Radical affordability (350 taka/day), all-inclusive convenience, unique comfort (staircase beds), and security (especially for women) form an unbeatable combination in its market.
Personal pain points often reveal massive market opportunities: Sharmin's jaundice from contaminated water exposed a systemic problem affecting millions of bachelors in Dhaka. As Paul Graham of Y Combinator wrote years back, for winning startup ideas look into your own problem.
Emerging market accommodation represents massive untapped value: Only 9% of Dhaka's annual internal migrants find suitable housing, creating an enormous addressable market.
Simple pricing simplifies customer decisions: Bundling accommodation, food, WiFi, and security into single packages reduces friction and makes it easy for customers to understand and come to a decision.
Dhaka swallows ambition. Every year, nearly 500,000 Bangladeshis, mostly students, job seekers, hopeful professionals, and regular people, pour into the sprawling capital from all across the country, seeking education, opportunities, healthcare, and a myriad of other needs. Yet, for a staggering 91% of them, the city offers a brutal welcome: a desperate scramble for safe, affordable housing, leaving many in substandard living conditions. Finding safe, affordable, and well-managed accommodation is a significant challenge for these people.
For women and bachelors, the challenge is particularly acute. Bachelors face overcrowded “messes,” unsafe living conditions, and limited access to basic amenities like clean water and reliable security. Women, in particular, struggle with safe accommodation options.
While hostel culture is common in many countries, it hasn't traditionally taken root in Bangladesh in a modern, scalable way. Existing accommodation options like traditional "messes" or hostels often present issues of insecurity, high cost, or poor hygiene. Many of these shared flats are notorious for poor hygiene and unsafe water, and are often the only option.
It was in one such flat, towards the end of her software engineering degree at Daffodil University, that Sharmin Sultana’s life took a terrifying turn. A severe bout of jaundice, a waterborne disease rampant in Dhaka's substandard accommodations, struck her down.
Doctors confirmed what many intuitively knew: inadequate water and washroom hygiene was the culprit, a scourge affecting a significant number of newcomers falling ill in the city.
Lying sick, a seed was planted. What if there was a better way? What if a hostel could exist that guaranteed clean water, proper sanitation, and a dignified living environment? This visceral, painful personal experience became the founding thesis of Younic Home, a Dhaka-based hostel/accommodation provider that aims “to redefine urban accommodation by combining affordability with a deep sense of care and community.”
In 2015, armed with nothing but conviction and a 56,000 taka loan from family (barely enough to rent a single flat and pay two months' advance), Younic Home was born. Within just seven days, their rooms were fully booked. By the end of the first month, they repaid 40,000 taka to their families and netted an 11,000 taka profit. The validation was immediate and powerful.
Starting with a single flat in 2015, Younic Home has since grown to five branches, serving approximately 20,000 customers yearly.
Younic Home provides a solution with all-inclusive hostel packages starting at 349 taka, offering food, laundry, WiFi, and 24-hour security. Their focus on safety, accessibility, and affordability sets them apart, making them a vital solution for Dhaka’s transient population.
The entrepreneurial spark often comes from frustration, and Sharmin's story is no exception. The seeds of Younic Home were sown in 2015 when Sharmin, a final-year software engineering student at Daffodil University, faced a personal health crisis. Living in a shared flat in Dhaka, she contracted jaundice due to contaminated water, a common issue for newcomers unaccustomed to the city’s water quality.
Hospitalized at Popular Hospital, Sharmin was bedridden for three months, unable to attend classes or manage daily tasks. The experience was a wake-up call, highlighting the dire living conditions many students endure in Dhaka. “I got jaundice because the water wasn’t cleaned properly, and our domestic helper wasn’t regular,” Sharmin recalls. “It was a waterborne disease that could have been prevented with better facilities.”
During her recovery, Sharmin’s mother visited Dhaka and offered a practical suggestion: rent a flat, install a water filter, and share it with other students. This would ensure Sharmin’s own comfort while providing a solution for others facing similar challenges.
Inspired, Sharmin shared the idea with Ridwanullah Yousuf, her classmate and future husband. "When I recovered and returned to Dhaka, that's when it first came to my mind that we would build a hostel where there would be at least a water facility, at least people would not get this jaundice due to the lack of safe, pure water." The duo, already close collaborators on academic projects, saw potential in turning this personal solution into a broader opportunity. They agreed to try out the idea to address this gap with modern, secure, and affordable hostels as they continue their studies.
Thus the idea for a better housing solution wasn't born from a market analysis, but from a harsh personal experience.
"We were IT people, so we knew how to research and optimize," Ridwan recalls. Their technical training would prove invaluable in approaching what many saw as a traditional real estate play with the rigor of a tech startup.
Initially, the objective was modest: to rent a flat, provide essential facilities like filtered water and a comfortable environment, and perhaps run it alongside their jobs.
With 56,000 taka borrowed from their families, a sum that represented both faith and financial strain, Sharmin and Ridwan rented a flat, paying two months’ advance. The basics were non-negotiable: water filtration, shared accommodation, and the kind of management that came from understanding the pain points firsthand. They equipped it with basic amenities, including a water filter, and offered it as shared accommodation for students.
The market validation was immediate and decisive.
Within seven days, the flat was fully occupied. The first month generated 11,000 taka in profit, allowing them to return 40,000 taka to their families while investing the remainder in furniture and improvements. “We returned 40,000 taka to our family and used the rest to buy furniture,” Sharmin explains. The success validated their hypothesis: a significant demand for clean, affordable, and well-managed housing in Dhaka.
It was the kind of early traction that signals product-market fit, even if they didn't yet have the vocabulary to describe it that way. Their early success fueled ambition, leading them to rent additional flats, scaling to three by 2018.
What followed was a masterclass in controlled growth under constraint.
In 2016, Sharmin and Ridwan married, strengthening their partnership both personally and professionally. By then, they had graduated from Daffodil University, completed their master’s degrees, and joined the university as lecturers. They also worked as software test engineers at Daffodil Software Limited and later as trainers for the government’s Skills for Employment Investment Program (SEIP). Sharmin led professional freelancing courses, while Ridwan trained in web design and development. Later Ridwan joined a bank and Sharmin continued teaching part-time while both continued working on Younic on the side.
The early days were a hands-on learning experience. They personally handled everything from putting up "To-Let" signs bought from Nilkhet, to buying furniture from places like Karwan Bazar, and sourcing electrical supplies from local shops. This direct involvement allowed them to build relationships with vendors, understand market prices, and gain a deeper understanding of their business.
The business, initially a side hustle, demanded increasing attention. “We were giving 46 hours a week to our jobs and only 20-22 hours to the business, but the income from one branch was more than our combined salaries,” Sharmin recalls. This realization prompted them to prioritize Younic Home.
By 2016, they had expanded to a full building. The same year they faced the first major setback when a landlord abruptly terminated their lease due to a dispute, highlighting the vulnerability of operating without formal agreements. "We learned the hard way to always have written contracts," Ridwan notes. The lesson was expensive but essential: in a relationship-driven market, legal protections matter more than goodwill.
Undeterred, they secured another building with a 10-lakh-taka advance in 2018, despite having only 1 lakh taka in savings—a 10:1 leverage ratio that would make most CFOs nervous. The timing was particularly challenging: Sharmin was pregnant, with her baby due in two months, and her master’s final exams were approaching. “It was a lot of struggle,” she admits. “But we were determined to build something like dormitories abroad.”
Their vision was to create modern, safe accommodations for bachelors, students, and short-term visitors, inspired by international standards. This wasn't just about providing beds; it was about reimagining what affordable accommodation could look like in a rapidly urbanizing economy.
The following years, the company saw excellent growth, growing into four full-building branches.
But the challenges persisted.
Finding landlords willing to rent entire buildings for their model (e.g., female-only sections) was an ongoing battle, compounded by the widespread perception of hostels as inherently dirty and disruptive. Their teaching credentials became an unlikely shield, lending them credibility in skeptical landlords' eyes.
Finances remained a constant tightrope walk. Despite promising early profits, external funding was a mirage. Banks and venture capitals uniformly dismissed them; hostels "did not fall into any criterion, category, or anything that could be funded." They survived on personal savings, family loans (father-in-law, uncle, aunt – their "first investors"), and short-term, interest-free help from supportive Daffodil lecturers.
The business model was inherently capital-heavy; setting up a single branch today requires nearly one crore taka upfront for decoration and A-to-Z facilities, demanding lump-sum investment, not gradual spending.
Then came 2020. COVID-19 lockdowns decimated Younic Home. Three of their four leased buildings were vacated. Savings evaporated. Losses mounted to approximately 17 lakh taka. Sharmin even pawned her wedding gold to keep the business afloat, a decision that weighed heavily emotionally. “I told the landlord I’d redeem it in two months, but it took longer, and he sold it,” she shares. The stress was crushing. Sharmin, contemplating temporary closure, faced Ridwan’s unwavering resolve: "We will not close. We will use every last taka of our savings to recover."
Their survival tactic was pragmatic: negotiating a 50% rent reduction on one building and offering residents minimal rent (2000 taka), enabling about 60 people to stay throughout the pandemic. This act of shared hardship built loyalty and provided a crucial income trickle. Post-lockdown, they were fully booked within a month, beginning the slow climb out of debt.
For two years (2020-2022), the funding desert persisted. Then their persistence paid off. By 2022, Younic Home was gaining traction, and a pivotal moment came when Sharmin sent an email to Mr. Sabur Khan, Chairman of Daffodil Group and Bangladesh Venture Capital. “I wrote that we’d been running this for seven years, had a revenue stream, and there was a huge market gap for quality, safe, and affordable accommodation for millions of bachelors in Dhaka,” she says. The email highlighted the lack of quality hostels near universities in Ashulia and their proven track record.
Mr. Khan saw beyond the numbers. He recognized their proven execution, they were already operating a nine-story building, and their deep understanding as former hostel residents. Being Daffodil alumni sealed the deal.
Within a week, the investment materialized. This funding, coupled with technical support, marked a turning point. Bangladesh Venture Capital followed with two more investments in the company.
The impact was seismic. In December 2022, a partnership with Daffodil University brought 140-145 students to their Ashulia branch, quadrupling their resident base in one month. Their monthly turnover in 2023 equaled their entire 2022 revenue.
This influx marked the end of the bootstrap era for the company.
By 2023, Younic Home had five branches—two in Ashulia (one for boys, one for girls), two in Uttara, and one in Dhanmondi—serving 1,000 residents. Simultaneously, they confronted the operational limits of founder-led everything. The 2023 growth demanded professionalization. They established dedicated teams for Marketing, HR, Accounts, Operations, and Legal Compliance. Employee count ballooned from 6-8 staff in 2022 to around 80. This structure liberated the founders to focus on strategy and expansion.
This growth prompted Sharmin to leave her part-time teaching job at Independent University in mid-2022 to focus on Younic Home full-time.
Ridwan followed in February 2023, resigning from his bank job after a 55-minute meeting with Mr. Khan, who encouraged them to pursue their entrepreneurial vision. “He said, ‘Work for yourselves; you’ll go far,’” Sharmin recalls. “The next day, Ridwan resigned.”
The transition to full-time entrepreneurship, though risky with a young family, was driven by the business’s profitability and their confidence in its potential. “We saw the growth was fast, and if both of us committed fully, it would boom,” Ridwan explains.
Younic Home's operational DNA was forged in the fires of necessity and personal experience. Foregoing expensive interior designers who prioritized spaciousness over affordability, Sharmin and Ridwan became self-taught designers. They personally sketched layouts, meticulously maximizing bed capacity per square foot to ensure financial viability.
They spent weekends scouring markets, Nilkhet for making "To-Let" signs, Karwan Bazar for furniture, New Market for curtains, local electrical shops for fixtures, building vendor relationships and mastering market prices. This hands-on sourcing slashed costs.
Their relentless research into global dormitories resulted in a unique bedding system with staircases instead of ladders. Driven by the realization that ladders were uncomfortable and inaccessible (especially for older visitors or those unwell), this design became a hallmark of comfort, significantly boosting customer satisfaction and retention.
They personally designed everything, from room layouts in their Uttara branch to the "touch of love" in the furnishings, believing if they found it comfortable and efficient, their customers would too. This founder-led design ethos ensured spaces were optimized for tenants living, not abstract aesthetics.
Marketing was equally scrappy and strategic. Early days involved personally putting up banners printed in Nilkhet. Their tech background enabled a strong online presence, Sharmin managed social media, Ridwan built the website and booking systems (now a sophisticated ERP).
Crucially, they pursued institutional collaborations doggedly: Bhuiyan Academy, Daffodil Nursing Institute, Ten Minute School, IELTS centers, universities (Eastern, City), and corporates (Jobway International, SME Foundation). While some partnerships took time, a year for Eastern/City University to send students, the strategy secured a steady resident pipeline. Post-investment, a dedicated marketing team now proactively courts these institutions.
Younic Home operates as a service-based business providing comprehensive accommodation solutions for a diverse group of people, including students, job holders, job seekers, travelers, and those attending short-term programs or exams.
The core offering is an all-inclusive package with more than 25 facilities. These include accommodation, food (three meals/day), laundry, WiFi, security, cleaning, bedding systems (bed, mattress, sheets, pillows, covers), furniture (table, chair, wardrobe), lighting, fans, and AC. Beyond basic needs, the company also provides amenities like prayer rooms, reading rooms, gym facilities in all branches, and rooftop recreation areas with swings, Ludo, and Carrom.
Both Male and Female branches have 24-hour residential supervisors, and all branches use fingerprint access and register books for security.
Younic Home's offering is structured around three tiers that demonstrate sophisticated understanding of market segmentation:
Cozy Package (349 taka): Shared rooms accommodating up to six people, including food, laundry, WiFi, and 24-hour security. This entry-level option addresses the price-sensitive segment while maintaining quality standards.
Premium Package (Variable pricing): Enhanced comfort with additional space and amenities for customers willing to pay for upgraded experiences.
Luxury Package (Up to 2,000 taka): Single rooms with king-size beds, attached bathrooms, AC, TV, and refrigerators—approaching hotel-quality accommodation at hostel pricing.
What sets Younic Home apart is the comprehensiveness of their offering.
Today, Younic Home operates five branches (Ashulia Male/Female, Uttara Male/Female, Dhanmondi) with a 1,000-person capacity. Seventy percent of spaces are for long-term residents (>3 months), thirty percent for short-term travelers (minimum stay: 1 day).
The explosive growth for the company stems from a powerful differentiator: radical affordability coupled with superior quality and security.
Younic Home rents entire buildings, converting them into hostels with all-inclusive packages. Building rent is the primary expense, followed by staff salaries, utilities, and maintenance.
Revenue comes from accommodation fees, admission fees for long-term residents, and on-site pantry sales.
Operating under Younic Limited, the company diversifies into real estate (Younic Housing), guest house management (Azul BD), and software development (Autopilot AI Solution), enhancing financial stability.
The path to five branches wasn't linear. The challenges Younic Home faced offer insights into the realities of building a business in a difficult vertical:
Landlord management: Convincing landlords to rent full buildings for hostels was difficult due to negative perceptions. Additionally, early reliance on verbal agreements led to unexpected losses when landlords changed terms or terminated leases. The solution was systematic: formal contracts, legal protections, and building relationships based on mutual benefit rather than goodwill alone.
Capital-heavy business: Opening a new branch requires an upfront investment of almost one crore taka for decoration and full setup, unlike businesses that can gradually inject capital. This made securing initial funding very challenging.
Fundraising challenges: The hostel business didn't fit traditional investment criteria, leading to rejections from many venture capital firms and banks. Their breakthrough came from a direct, bold pitch highlighting their existing revenue and market gap.
Employee recruitment: In the early days, attracting talent was hard as people preferred "corporate jobs". However, as the company grew and gained reputation, this issue subsided.
DIY approach: Initially, the founders personally handled everything from marketing (online ads, printing "To-Let" signs at Nilkhet) to procurement (furniture from Karwan Bazar, electrical supplies, curtains from New Market) and interior design. This hands-on approach allowed them to build vendor relationships, understand market prices, and control costs, crucial for a capital-intensive business.
Strategic risk-taking: The founders systematically assessed risks before leaving their secure university jobs. Their ability to "grab opportunities immediately" also played a key role in their rapid growth.
While there is a large informal market, the formal hostel market in Bangladesh remains nascent. Super Home—a Chinese operator running 12 branches is one of the significant players in the space.
Younic's competitive advantage lies not just in pricing but in its systematic approach to quality and safety. The company’s focus on the customer experience, combined with deep local market understanding, positions it favorably against international operators who may struggle with cultural nuances and local relationship management.
Younic Home's growth post-2022 has been characterized by continuous expansion. As soon as funding was secured and one building filled up, they immediately sought out the next, even taking on buildings that seemed challenging to others.
This proactive approach is guided by a clear plan to open 35 branches within Dhaka, which the company estimates will serve only 1% of the total bachelor market.
Beyond organic growth, a significant part of its strategy involves strategic collaborations. The company actively partners with universities (Daffodil University, Eastern University, City University), colleges (Daffodil College of Nursing), training institutes (Ten Minute School, IELTS in Bengali, Bhuiyan Academy, IST, BSDI, DIIT), and corporations (Jobway International, SM Foundation) that have students or trainees needing accommodation.
Younic Home's ambitions extend far beyond its current five branches. Its roadmap demonstrates the kind of systematic thinking that scaling requires:
Short-Term (2026-2028): Secure funding for 35 Dhaka branches, targeting 1% of the bachelor market.
Medium-Term (2029-2031): Expand to two branches per district throughout Bangladesh, effectively creating a national network of standardized accommodation.
Long-Term (Post-2031): Enter international markets including Canada and the USA, addressing high accommodation costs for students in developed economies.
New Revenue Streams: The addition of training programs leveraging facilities in each branch represents a particularly interesting development. By offering skill development alongside accommodation, the company aims to create a more comprehensive solution to urban migration challenges while diversifying revenue streams.
Younic Home’s journey from a jaundice-induced epiphany to a five-branch hostel network is a story of grit, innovation, and social impact. Sharmin and Ridwan’s transition from part-time hustlers to full-time entrepreneurs reflects their ability to turn personal challenges into scalable solutions.
As Sharmin and Ridwan look toward 35 branches and international expansion, they're building more than a hostel chain—they're creating a new category of urban living that transforms how we think about accommodation, community, and opportunity in rapidly growing cities.
Younic Home's journey from a personal problem and a small family investment to a rapidly scaling business highlights several key factors for success in underserved, capital-intensive markets.
The founders' technical background, while seemingly unrelated, provided a disciplined, problem-solving mindset and the ability to build necessary digital infrastructure like Younic’s website and ERP system. The personal experience of founders as residents gave them deep insight into customer needs and operational requirements, enabling them to design a superior product. Crucially, their resilience during setbacks like landlord issues and the COVID-19 lockdown, coupled with a relentless pursuit of funding and growth opportunities, allowed them to survive and eventually thrive.
The story of Younic offers valuable lessons on identifying real problems, leveraging personal insights, navigating operational complexities, and securing the resources needed to build successful business.
