We Built a Background Screening Business in 48 Hours — Here's Every Working Piece

Two days ago, a property manager told me he runs tenant background checks by asking the tenant to forward him their own credit report. I told him that's structurally backwards. He said “so build me something better.” This post is everything that shipped since that conversation.

What's live right now (click any of these)

Every link above is a real page on a real site. Not a mockup. Not a Figma prototype. Not a “coming soon” landing page. The tenant screening form collects real payments through Stripe. The service catalog has 8 real vertical pages with real workflows. The blog posts describe real technical architecture, not marketing vapor.

The end-to-end flow (what actually happens)

1. Landlord goes to /tenant-screening/request. Fills out their info, property address, tenant name and email, picks Standard ($49) or Comprehensive ($99). Submits. Takes 90 seconds.
2. Tenant gets an email with a unique application link. One link per tenant, per screening. The landlord gets a different link to track the status. Neither can see the other's URL.
3. Tenant clicks the link, fills out the application. Personal info, current and prior addresses (last 7 years), employment, income, optional self-disclosure (felony/eviction/bankruptcy), and an FCRA-compliant typed-name authorization with IP capture. Takes about 5 minutes.
4. Tenant pays via Stripe Checkout — $49 or $99 depending on which tier the landlord picked. Card form is embedded and branded. Money lands in Cloud Nimbus's bank account on Monday or Thursday (Stripe weekly payouts).
5. Cloud Nimbus runs the screening. Today this is manual (Checkr is verifying our account for API access). When Checkr unlocks, it's automatic — API call fires on payment confirmation, results come back via webhook, landlord gets notified. Standard results in 24-48 hours. Comprehensive in minutes to hours.
6. Landlord opens their status page. Sees the full tenant application, the screening report with a recommendation, and clicks Approve / Conditional / Decline inline. Decision is recorded with audit trail.

Why this is structurally better than what you're doing

If you're a landlord asking tenants for their own credit report

You're trusting the party being investigated to produce their own evidence. That's the opposite of what an investigation is. The tenant could edit the PDF, screenshot a different person's report, or just send you a report from 6 months ago. You'd never know. Our service pulls the report through a registered CRA (Checkr) — the tenant never touches the report, so there's nothing to fake.

If you're paying for TransUnion SmartMove, RentSpree, or TurboTenant

Those platforms charge $39-$55 per screening and give you their portal, their branding, their flow. You're a tenant of their system. We charge $49-$99, give you the same CRA-grade data (we use the same bureaus they do), but the experience runs on our platform where everything else you need also lives — document generation, e-signature, invoicing, workflow automation, cross-org sync. One platform instead of five.

If you're an employer running background checks through an enterprise provider

First Advantage, Sterling, HireRight — they charge $30-$100+ per check with enterprise minimums, annual contracts, and onboarding that takes weeks. We offer the same core screenings (criminal, credit, employment verification, education verification, drug testing) at $49-$99 with no contract, no minimum, no onboarding delay. Sign up, submit a request, get a report.

The bigger picture: this isn't just a screening company

Tenant screening is one of eight vertical services Cloud Nimbus offers on top of Delivery Hub, a free open-source Salesforce-native platform with 225 Apex classes, 68 Lightning Web Components, 35 custom objects, 7 built-in workflow types, a document generation engine, a native e-signature flow, and a multi-source automation pipeline. The screening service is the first vertical to go paid, but the others are production-ready:

Each one is a real marketing page with a real workflow type backed by real Salesforce Custom Metadata. Install Delivery Hub, pick a workflow, and the stages + persona views are already configured. The platform is free. Cloud Nimbus sells implementation help (starting at $2,500) and vertical services like screening that run on the same platform.

Why we can build this fast

Cloud Nimbus is me (Glen Bradford) and a Claude Code AI development stack. The tenant screening MVP — landing page, landlord form, tenant application, token-gated status pages, admin console, FCRA-compliant authorization, email notifications, Redis storage — shipped in one focused session. The Stripe checkout integration shipped the next day. The service catalog with 8 vertical pages shipped the same day as the screening MVP.

I have background in this space. I spent a year at First Advantage doing operations costing — building time tables on every function and operation in one of the world's largest background screening companies. That was 15 years ago, but the fundamental cost structure of the industry hasn't changed: CRA fees, court runner costs, turnaround SLAs, margin profiles. The data sources are the same, just more API-accessible now. The margin that enterprise screening companies charge over their actual cost is enormous, and a lean operation with modern tooling can capture a chunk of it.

The tech stack (for the curious)

• Platform: Delivery Hub — free, open-source, Salesforce-native. 225 Apex classes, 68 LWCs, 35 custom objects. The workflow engine, document engine, e-sign engine, and automation pipeline all live here.
• Web layer: Next.js on Vercel. cloudnimbusllc.com is a React 19 app with server components, Tailwind CSS, and Vercel auto-deploys on push to master.
• Payments: Stripe Checkout. Embedded card form, branded to Cloud Nimbus. Weekly payouts to TD Bank.
• Screening CRA: Checkr (pending API verification). Criminal, credit, employment, education, drug testing, occupational health. One integration covers everything.
• Storage: Upstash Redis for screening records. In-memory fallback for local dev.
• Email: Resend. Tenant invitations, landlord notifications, payment receipts.
• Auth: WebAuthn passkeys for admin. 64-char hex tokens for tenant/landlord access. Same token pattern as the Delivery Hub e-signature flow.

What's coming next

• Checkr API integration — when their verification completes (any day now), screening execution goes from manual to automatic. Pay → API fires → report returns via webhook → landlord notified. Minutes, not days.
• Adverse action automation — FCRA-compliant pre-adverse action notices, 5-day waiting period, final adverse action notices. All auto-generated when a landlord clicks Decline.
• B2B screening API — other apps can integrate Cloud Nimbus screening into their own workflows via a simple REST API. Pay per call via Stripe metered billing. The screening-as-a-service platform play.
• Public records enrichment — OFAC sanctions, NSOPW sex offender registry, FBI Wanted, PACER federal court records. All free or near-free public APIs that add depth to the CRA report.
• More verticals going paid — lender workflows, consultancy delivery, IT helpdesks. Same pattern as screening: existing Delivery Hub workflow type → productized service → Stripe checkout → revenue.

Try it

The screening service is live. The payment flow is live. You can submit a real screening request right now:

→ cloudnimbusllc.com/tenant-screening

If you want to see the rest of what Cloud Nimbus offers:

→ cloudnimbusllc.com/services

If you want to install Delivery Hub in your own Salesforce org (it's free):

→ cloudnimbusllc.com/install

Built in Miami Beach. Powered by Delivery Hub + Claude Code + Stripe + Checkr. No venture capital, no team of 40, no 18-month roadmap. Just a Salesforce developer with industry experience and an AI development stack that ships at the speed of conversation. Build on existing success → launch success → drive to bigger greater success.