AppFolio's founders had sold a company to Citrix before. Klaus Schauser co-founded Expertcity, the maker of GoToMyPC, Then he turned to a plain, overlooked market: the people who manage apartments and rental houses. AppFolio built cloud software for managers with 20 to 3,000 units. It counted the U.S. market at $5 billion or more. When the Goleta company went public in June 2015, most of its customers were still moving off spreadsheets and old desktop programs.

From GoToMyPC to Rent Checks

Schauser and Jon Walker co-founded AppFolio in 2006, near Santa Barbara. Their bet was that vertical software, built for one trade, could beat general tools. AppFolio Property Manager handled leasing, maintenance, accounting and online rent payments in one place, and worked on a phone as well as a desktop. The company also sold MyCase, practice management software for small law firms, using the same playbook in a second industry.

A Steady Climber

AppFolio priced its offering at $12 a share in June 2015 and listed on Nasdaq as APPF. It kept adding customers and services, such as tenant screening and payments, which grew revenue per unit managed. Over the following years the stock rose many times over its offer price. AppFolio still trades on Nasdaq and is still based in the Santa Barbara area.

Cover: Ontario Apartment Building, Chicago, Illinois, Isometric, Treat & Foltz. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for an apartment building drawn in plan (property managed from above).