# Jonathan Kite

> Jonathan Kite is the Charlotte-raised co-founder and CEO of Rent Ready, a technology-enabled services company built around one unglamorous but costly problem: preparing vacated apartments for new residents. After six years at Microsoft, Kite joined childhood friend Will Brugh and multifamily operator Ryan McMillan to replace dry-erase boards, phone calls, and fragmented vendor schedules with an integrated turn platform and vetted service network. His operating style is unusually consistent across work and hobbies: establish a baseline, document the variables, iterate, and keep improving.

- **Role:** Co-Founder & CEO at Rent Ready
- **Organizations:** Rent Ready, Microsoft, Citizen Schools, Freedom School Partners
- **Education:** University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- **Known for:** Co-founded Rent Ready and developed an integrated software-and-services model for multifamily apartment turns., Led Rent Ready through a $10 million Series A financing in 2021., Helped Rent Ready achieve Inc. 5000 recognition in 2019 and 2021.

## Career timeline

- **2004-2008** — Attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and participated in student government.
- **2008-2014** — Worked at Microsoft in account services, consulting, and program management roles, including work near emerging cloud technologies that became Microsoft Azure.
- **2011** — Premier Pivot, an internal Microsoft service catalog project Kite helped create, was selected among the top 30 innovations in Microsoft's Be What's Next contest.
- **2014** — Co-founded Rent Ready in Charlotte with Ryan McMillan and Will Brugh.
- **2019** — Rent Ready ranked No. 1,317 on the Inc. 5000.
- **2021** — Rent Ready raised a $10 million Series A led by Grotech Ventures and launched its customer-facing automated turn-board platform later that year.
- **2021** — Rent Ready ranked No. 3,370 on the Inc. 5000.
- **2023** — Kite said the business had grown fivefold since the customer app launched in September 2021 and had expanded across additional Southeastern markets.
- **2026** — Continued as Rent Ready's co-founder and CEO as the company framed its product around a five-day unit-turn goal.

## Achievements

- Co-founded Rent Ready and developed an integrated software-and-services model for multifamily apartment turns.
- Led Rent Ready through a $10 million Series A financing in 2021.
- Helped Rent Ready achieve Inc. 5000 recognition in 2019 and 2021.
- Helped launch a Microsoft cloud-based service that Rent Ready says scaled to more than $1 billion in revenue in under 18 months.
- Built Rent Ready's early operational logic through roughly two years of manual scheduling and customer work before developing the full customer-facing technology.
- Oversaw expansion into multiple Southeastern apartment markets and fivefold business growth following the 2021 app launch, as reported in 2023.

## Latest updates

- **2026-05** — Appeared on The Multifamily Hangout for a 54-minute conversation about Rent Ready, technology, and apartment operations.

## Links

- Website: https://www.rentready.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathankite/
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/RentReadyApartments/

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/jonathan-kite
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-09-27