Teen tech founder connects house flippers and contractors.
At an age when most teenage boys are focused on sports and hanging out with friends after school, Ari Milrud was looking to break into business. As a freshman at Riverwood International Charter School in Sandy Springs, Milrud started wholesaling real estate, drawn to what he saw as a low barrier to entry in an industry that fascinated him. But when he attempted his first fix-and-flip house project in early 2025, his junior year, he ran into a problem.
“Walking a property with a contractor for the first time, I felt extremely uncomfortable,” he says. “They could tell I didn’t know much about construction.”
That experience sparked a realization: If he felt out of his depth, others likely did, too. Milrud came up short when looking for an easy-to-use platform to replace the patchwork approach to finding service pros, including Google searches, word-of-mouth referrals and guesswork, with something more transparent and efficient. So he decided to build it.
“I thought to myself, ‘I’m about to be a senior, and I’m never going to have this lowest level of responsibility again, so I might as well take the time to make this,’” he says.
Milrud teamed up with Louis Singer, a fellow high schooler a grade below him with technical experience and a track record of building digital platforms. The two began developing Hive, a website that connects house flippers and property investors with reliable contractors, allowing users to post renovation projects, compare bids and manage workflows in one place.
In fall 2025, the team earned second place in the Startup Exchange Genesis, a competitive, five-week program at Georgia Institute of Technology that helps students build, launch and grow startup ideas. The experience helped validate the Hive concept, and momentum followed quickly. By December, they had launched.
For now, Hive is free to use as it builds traction in the Atlanta market. The long-term plan is to generate revenue by taking a percentage of project costs and charging vendors a subscription fee for unlimited bidding. While finishing his senior year, Milrud focused on what he calls “boots-onthe- ground” expansion: cold-calling contractors, attending real estate conferences and talking directly to potential users. After conversations with venture capitalists, he’s opted to hold off on raising funds for marketing until the company develops a stronger organic growth engine. T
hat strategy is already taking shape through a partnership with Portfoliq, another tech startup that does capital planning for investors with rental portfolios of 50 to 200 properties. By integrating with Portfoliq, rentals in need of renovation can automatically flow into Hive, creating a smoother experience for investors with a built-in pipeline of work for contractors to bid on.
Milrud credits his willingness to “start before feeling ready” as a defining mindset. “Putting yourself in unfamiliar environments is where you learn the fastest,” he says.
This summer, Milrud is spending time in San Francisco connecting with startup accelerators before relocating to Austin. Starting spring semester 2027, he will study economics at The University of Texas at Austin while continuing to build Hive.
For now, though, he’s focused on opening doors, one conversation at a time. “Each person is a doorway to a whole new world of opportunities,” he says. “You just have to be willing to walk up and knock.”
hive.site
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