Tufts student startup ‘Squibber’ helps students find affordable housing, avoid scams

MEDFORD, Mass. — Tufts Sophomore Jonathan Manta knows he’s not guaranteed housing on campus when he heads into his Junior year.

In the digital age where everyone tries to find their next apartment online, he’s heard horror stories of people replying to posts that are either a dead-end or worse, potential renters getting conned by a fake listing.

“I knew there needed to be a better way — a way that was secure, safe, and most importantly, very easy to use,” said Manta.

He also sees many students trying to sublet their apartments for the summer or while they’re away for a semester abroad and wants to eliminate the hassle for students.

Manta added, “I wanted to find a way that is more student-oriented, only for students having EDU emails, and making it sure that students are front-most in having the best chance of finding affordable housing.”

That’s where Squibber.com was born, a centralized marketplace only for college students.

“I made a really cheap site. I coded at night, like during working over the summer, and launched at Tufts. It went well. And then I’m bringing on another one of my friends that’s going to help me really make a robust site that you look at and you’re going to be like, this is very secure,” said Manta as he described the initial process of starting Squibber.

Since then it has grown.

He said there were more than 1,600 users in the first three months, over 50 listings, and 10 exchanges. The site has also been updated from the initial launch.

In April 2025, the start-up won more than $30,000 dollars in awards through Tufts $100,000 New Ventures Competition. Manta said that will go right back into the website as they are doing a lot of research and development to make it more robust.

To join and search for or list sublets on Squibber users must have an EDU email, uploaded student ID, original lease documents, and landlord permission.

“So we facilitate the monthly transactions. We hold a service deposit for first month’s rent. We have the legally binding insurance agreement that anything that goes wrong is that like in that agreement we have a paper trail so that everything’s very secure on our end,” said Manta. He continued, “We actually don’t operate as a brokerage company, we hold absolutely no inventory. It’s basically a self-service where if you want to use it, you use it and it will be here to support and absolutely guide you through the entire process.”

The service has been helpful for graduate student Hanae Clamaron. She said she was almost scammed replying to an online post.

“The thing that was nice somehow in the scam is that the person chose an address that was supposed to be a tuft building, so they were easily able to tell me that it was a fake address,” said Clamaron.

She added that with Squibber, “I registered on the app and two days after I was visiting in the house and. And yeah, the guy was telling me I could move in the house. So it was so easy.”

Manta wants to work with other schools in big cities that don’t guarantee housing and eventually go nationwide.

“I’m really driven for the cause. I personally felt the experience was just really bad and I knew that there need to be a better way. And I want to just continue to find problems that I feel are worth solving and just to continue to bring as much value to the world as possible,” he said.

If you’re wondering why he named the site Squibber, he said it’s a made up word and one his father bought as a domain name during the dot-com era. Both his Dad and brother tried making websites with Squibber.com. Manta is hoping third time’s a charm.

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