Lifeselfmastery's podcast I Startups I Venture Capital
00:15:52 · S2, S3
[00:15:52] S2: Correct. And and do you see AI will disrupt the the market and, you know, there'll be no need for agencies going forward? [00:16:02] S3: I don't think so. I believe that letting space is a quite quite a traditional area where still people, especially landlords, would need someone to speak to. So AI is not enough to to basically deliver the end to end service for landlord and for tenant. It should be a combination of AI and the human in the loop. That's why we position ourselves as we're not selling a software to agencies. We are providing kind of a work. I think the closest analogy would be an outsourcing, but it's far more beyond what outsourcing companies are doing because we provide still kind of a technological product solution for both landlords, tenants, maintenance providers, effectively turning traditional estate agents into kind of AI enabled platforms so they can focus on the main activity they are good at, winning new business and maintaining relationships with clients. [00:17:05] S2: Correct. And is your ICP really small agencies, or is it, like, big agencies like Knight Frank and Dexter's?
00:17:05 · S2, S3
[00:17:05] S2: Correct. And is your ICP really small agencies, or is it, like, big agencies like Knight Frank and Dexter's? [00:17:14] S3: We hope to grow at kind of certain day to a stage where we can offer our services to Dexter's. Before that, we should prove that we are capable of delivering these results at a smaller scale. So for the time being, we focus on letting agencies with a portfolio of 500 to few thousand properties. Dexter's is definitely quite bigger with with a range of, like, 20 to 30,000 properties in their portfolio. But one day, we'll be there definitely. Because fundamentally, our models are different. Dexter's are doing 17% EBITDA margins. Traditional small agents are doing somewhere in the range of 10 to 15, rarely 15, usually kind of close to 12. And our target state is 35, 40% because we are a tech company. We're not a traditional brick and mortar business where a lot of tasks are done manually. This is the main difference. So fundamentally, there is a room for partnership with Dexter's definitely. And I would be super happy to see that happening. [00:18:21] S2: Yeah. No. Absolutely. And, you know, you you and I have been part of marketplaces, and marketplaces at times can get messy, you know, because even though but there's a lot of communication happening and, you know, a lot of things are being... Need to be reinvented all the time. So how do you approach building and maintaining company culture, you know, fast growing start up legglers?
00:18:46 · S3
[00:18:46] S3: Yeah. This is a really great question. I've been thinking about for quite a period of time, especially after my experience at Uber and seeing the culture evolution at Uber. And when kind of thinking backwards about our company culture in my previous venture, and I... And, basically, I was thinking about that for the only reason because we are building a new company right now, and I want to kind of make everything as good as possible leveraging my learnings. And what... Like, my last point in the thinking process is that company culture, do you want it or not, is a natural continuation of the founder's culture. And when the team is growing, the company still kind of just pretty much mirrors the personality of a founder. And if there are several founders, the company mirrors kind of several personalities. And I think the core point here, if you are not a solo founder, is to reflect on how reasonable kind of conflicts and tensions between founders that naturally happen in all companies basically cascade down throughout the whole organization. Because if, as a founder, you can easily solve any tension, but then kind of teams that are managed by these founders can get into significant clashes and... That we saw in the previous business and spent some time to basically fix it. So right now, I think it's... My kind of way of thinking is that you cannot just design any culture you want. The culture of the company will be a continuation of your personality. What you can really focus on is how to develop yourself and how to kind of make sure that any tension between founders does not cascade down throughout the company. So you should kind of... From the executive level, show employees, show team members how to resolve conflicts, especially when you know where these conflicts might happen because you know where the tension between founders might happen. So this is current... My my current way of thinking. Definitely, there is no kind of ideal answer because not... There are not too many data points on how to build a culture in the fast growing companies. As far as as far as we know, all of them had their ups and downs in building that. So
00:21:19 · S2, S3
[00:21:19] S2: Yeah. Totally. And, you know, I I worked in in the real estate industry here in The UK, and sometimes, you know, when you look at letting agencies, as you had mentioned rightly, it's a very traditional industry. How do you balance innovation with traditional aspects? And where do you see the real estate industry here in The UK can be optimized for technology and innovation going forward? [00:21:50] S3: Yeah. I think while kind of many companies and many startup founders say that they want to disrupt an industry, I don't think this is a right approach, in the very traditional market like real estate and especially in The UK. That's why we position ourselves in kind of driving rather evolution, not the revolution in the market. We want to leverage the gains already existing in the market and bring significantly further efficiency of the business, at least tripling margins, and growing the customer service level for tenants and for landlords significantly, but building that on top of the current kind of industry achievements. It's not possible to drive evolution when you do not understand why certain things work this... Basically, the way they work right now. That's why kind of you you naturally have to balance between innovation and traditional approach. That's my current way, I think. [00:23:00] S2: Got it. And, you you know, you... You've been an experienced founder. How... What role do you think, you know, timing plays in startup success?
00:23:00 · S2, S3
[00:23:00] S2: Got it. And, you you know, you... You've been an experienced founder. How... What role do you think, you know, timing plays in startup success? [00:23:12] S3: Well, the answer on that question right now... Like, if you would ask me, say, five years ago, I would tell you that no matter what the timing is, the... Yeah. Your success is based on the amount of effort you put into venture. But having been in the in the... Having built the the kind of the venture business before and after my Uber experience, Currently, I feel and I understand that timing makes a critical and kind of makes super... Plays super critical role in success of your business, and it's as critical as when you're catching waves when surfing. Because, I mean, big systems have their own laws, and they evolve kind of There are certain trends, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. And despite all the efforts that you put into your business, if you do not leverage these movements, these trends, you wouldn't be successful. So timing is super critical. And, yeah, I mean, if I would be asked five years ago, I would answer you completely differently, but that's where experience basically helps you. [00:24:29] S2: Yeah. Yeah. No. Absolutely. And when it comes to, you know, product development, do you think simplicity is always better when it comes to product design?
00:24:41 · S3
[00:24:41] S3: I think the answer to the question would be quite different in different parts of the world. Because if you take a look on any, say, Chinese website or any kind of successful company in Chinese... In China, you would be surprised how opposite their product design from our understanding what the simple product is. But to to kind of assess the simplicity, you need to understand all the cultural aspects. Because, for example, China is very high context culture, and they need, like, all that content to basically make decisions. So you cannot persuade a customer to do something if you just provide just one line as people tend to do in The US. So to answer that, you need to understand for whom you are building the product first. And that's why kind of the answer is rather no kind of... It shouldn't be simplistic always. But at the same time, I mean, if you want kind of... If you if you if you want to remain as simple as possible, you need to focus on kind of your core customer need. That would potentially prevent you from earning as much money as possible because when you try to earn as much money as possible, you try to build all these additional features to drive your additional revenue streams. And that's where you actually lose simplicity and gets into quite a complex product. If you go to the Apple website, well, you might be lost already. Right? Because they need to kind of pursue all these additional revenue streams, but the core product is different. So, like, I mean, you always have to find the balance. And Yeah. Yeah.