Businesswoman’s advice for success after funding from crypto investor 

• Sydney entrepreneur’s startup crashed last year
• Her biggest investor went all-in on crypto
• Business is still reeling from FTX bankruptcy

A young businesswoman has warned any Australian who creates a start-up to do background checks on their investors, after she suffered a staggering blow when her main backer blew a six figure sum on cryptocurrency. 

Sydney woman Eleanor Meireles, 38, watched her thriving business Dwell Nicely – touted as an ‘Airbnb for renters’ – collapse late last year, after her principal backer lost big when crypto exchange FTX went bankrupt.

Ms Meireles had poured her $175,000 life savings into the venture and was hoping the investor would be able to help her business grow. 

But it all came crashing down when the investor texted her, admitting they had been been smashed by the collapse of FTX – which was once the world’s third largest crypto exchange.

The simple text said: ‘I had six figures capital in it’.  

The turmoil came just months before the Silicon Valley Bank, a techie favourite in the US, similarly collapsed without warning, sending thousands more down the same perilous path.

With her app now dormant, Ms Merieles is now warning others of the importance of researching any potential business partners’ portfolios and to keep in mind how their personal decisions can impact you.

Ms Miereles had founded Dwell Nicely back in 2019 and grew the business into a popular marketplace that would match landlords and tenants based on their preferences and needs.

The idea, which she describes as ‘like Tinder’, matched landlords and tenants by swiping just like on the popular dating app, ‘utilising ratings like AirBnB but for long term rentals in Australia’.

‘We had an investor who was going to to help us expand to the UK and beyond, but his funds were tied up in the FTX crash so when that happened we lost our investor,’ Ms Merieles told Daily Mail Australia.

‘There has been no recovery, we’ve had to close,’ Ms Merieles said this week, four months after the crash. 

Looking back, she admits that though she’s ‘probably not the person to be giving tips,’ there is one that she cannot stress enough.

‘Definitely find investors with varied portfolios rather than having all their assets in one spot.’

Since the US$32b crash of FTX, Ms Merieles has been offering anecdotal advice to prospective tenants on either social media, and in Dwell Nicely’s two Facebook groups catering to Australia and the UK.

‘We hope to revive the business one day, we still really believe in what we were trying to do,’ Ms Merieles said.

‘We’re open to opportunities from investors and have had a few people reach out to us since it becoming public we would close down. ‘

‘If the right investor comes along, Dwell could be helping renters again some day soon.’