LONGMONT - While most of today's popular social-networking Web sites let you connect with people anywhere in the world, there's a new one to help you connect with folks right on the street where you live.

Longmont-based startup eNeighbors is building Web sites for communities to get neighbors to know more about each other. "Through connecting people online we hope to create a real sense of community in a neighborhood," said founder Chris Stock.

The company's initial target is the 286,000 homeowners associations across the U.S. where, according to Alexandria, Va.-based Community Associations Institute, some 57 million Americans live.

Homeowners association boards of directors want to stay in contact with residents, but there's no easy way to do that, Stock said. Many have newsletters written by a volunteer, but "that's not an efficient means of communication. We've put it online so the board can push information, and residents can communicate among each other."

For a $1,000 annual subscription the associations get an interactive eNeighbors Web site to post news, classifieds, social events, architectural review forms and an online resident directory. "More than anything you get an effective communication tool," Stock said.

Since the company was founded in March 2005 it has signed with 33 homeowner associations. Most are in the Overland Park, Kan. area because the sales force - which consists of co-founders Phil Freund and Stock's father, Dan Stock - live in that region.

Initially eNeighbors created individual Web sites for each association. In order to grow it needed to come up with a boilerplate technical design to streamline development. The three founders invested $125,000 about a year ago in product development.

According to Stock, all of the associations that have gotten an eNeighbors sales pitch have signed on. "All HOAs have a budget" to spend on communications, he explained.
A realistic sales cycle is two months. "We need to go to the board meeting. They discuss and vote on it. If we're lucky it's two or three months."

eNeighbors is anxious to grow into other high-homeowner association markets, especially Virginia and Colorado. It's seeking $1 million in angel and venture funding "to focus on sales and scaling," Stock said.

The company has also applied for the Knight News Challenge. The challenge, which is sponsored by the Miami-based Knight Foundation, awards as much as $5 million yearly for digital innovations in community news.

Besides the annual subscription, another revenue stream for the company is advertising.
"Once we have this network of HOAs we can have advertisers that can target a hyper-local neighborhood," Stock said. "You'll be able to come to eNeighbors and market to those residents."

Part of the reason the eNeighbors Web sites work is the clear registration process to get residents to use the site.

All residents get an initial letter in the mail telling them about the site and inviting them to sign up online. Two more letters are sent during the new few months. "By the third mailing we have 60 to 80 percent signed up," he said.

The number never seems to rise beyond that level, he said, for three primary reasons: lack of interest in what's going on in the neighborhood; transient households who don't want to be established; and "I didn't even know about it."

The critical element to get people back to the site is the weekly automatic e-newsletter with links to news and events on the Web site.

While there are plenty of online social-networking sites and a few that target specific geographic communities - like Denver's Nayburz - Stock could only name one other that specifically targets homeowner associations - Suwanee, Ga.-based AtHomeNet.

Contact Caron Schwartz Ellis at 303-440-4950 or csellis@bcbr.com.