Tech Talks Daily
00:11:16 · Dan Lifshits
And that's exactly where the point of acquiring existing agents is and effectively in the way of doing so, primarily buying its landlord's customer bases really is one of the pretty known go to market approaches that I think some of the private equity backed consolidators already pursuing for some period of time, and not just in The UK, but across the globe in general as well. If we talk about The UK then such as Dexter's or Foxtons or Lidus Romans or Lomond or some of the other consolidators, private equity backed consolidators. Or I think that our core difference is that we're a tech company in the heart and in the mind. So meaning that the core of what we do is effectively, developing and building the technological platform that aims to achieve two things. That aims to, number one, provide the best level of service to the customers being the kind of landlords, the tenants, the contractors. And at the same time, to streamline the processes as much as you can streamline them with all the AI and the technologies in the twenty first century. Where I think that this is where the biggest, difference versus us and some of the private equity, call it, consolidators, where in reality they don't develop almost any internal technology or internal solutions whatsoever, but rather rely on some of the off the shelf technologies out there that sometimes might be not fit and best proper to the existing businesses just because they don't allow to achieve some of the degree of customer level excellence that you wish to achieve sometimes.
00:12:42 · Neil C. Hughes, Dan Lifshits
[00:12:42] S0: And you casually mentioned at the beginning of your answer that that journey took you to 11 Downing Street talking with Rachel Reeves, etcetera. What what what happened there? What was that about? [00:12:51] S1: We've been, I mean, very privileged and proud to say that, but that few... I think around a month ago, a few weeks ago, we've been selected as part of future 50 tech program in The UK. The program for the most promising future technological businesses built in The UK. And as part of the program, it's usually, selects 50 companies per batch a year of the most promising series b, series c startups in The UK. The previous participants of such being Revolut, Wave, Monzo, Starlink. So I think most of the things deliver, most of the things that, we as a consumer see us in our day to day is it has to do with technology. I think that this company has been part of this program. So it's really a huge testament for, I think, belief of what is kind of going forward. And I think in our case, especially as we're dealing a lot with traditional service businesses, I think that this closeness to the to the government is is really important for us. So, been privileged to be selected as one of those 50 companies in the batch and as part of the welcoming program. Usually, it's either Kyusstarman or prime minister or the, minister of finance, in this case, kind of the chancellor, obviously, doing the welcoming speech. So we were privileged, to be there and, to see
00:14:04 · Neil C. Hughes
[00:14:04] S0: them live. It's incredibly cool. And not only that, it's also grown into one of the top 15 rental agencies in The UK in just two years. So what were the early decisions or bets that you made that that that made that kind of growth possible? Because, again, it must be a story here. And I I think it's incredibly valuable to other founders that might be listening anywhere in the world. Tell me more about that journey.
00:14:31 · Dan Lifshits
[00:14:31] S1: Yeah. No. It's it's been a hell of a journey for sure because from making the first acquisition even slightly less than two years ago, buying the first agency called Lime Property in a beautiful city called Hull, where we, backed our staff, took our wives, took our kids, and moved to Hull and spent, slightly more than a year in Hull, I think until kind of something around sixteen or seventeen months to build out the full technological platform, the product, so that we then reuse it on all the other upcoming acquisitions of an agencies. So I think that, obviously, it goes with some skin in the game for sure. And, we've spent very memorable time in Hull, I have to say. I think that our wives, keep missing it, once we're back in London these days. So, yeah, kind of been been, quite a wild ride. And, we've kind of a bunch of acquisitions that were completed after that, and I think that we announced nine acquisitions to date, bringing us already to around 10,000 managed properties, slightly more than 10,000 managed properties across The UK. That makes us, yes, kind of one of the top 15 largest rental platforms. So this is great position to be in. But I think on one end, really excited about everything we achieved already. On the other end, we realized that we're just starting. So many, many more cool things to come.
00:15:46 · Neil C. Hughes
[00:15:46] S0: And quick shout out to everybody listening in the whole there. And I love how you spent time there and embraced it there and not forgot about it now you're in London. So kudos to you for that as well. And for many people listening, I think the idea of an AI powered roll up will still be quite new to some people listening. So how do you explain exactly what that means in simple terms, and and why do you believe this model is is gaining real traction now?
00:16:11 · Dan Lifshits
[00:16:11] S1: Yeah. It's it's a it's a great question. I think that this model sits to some extent on the conduit of the two worlds because I think that traditional service businesses are in general, I think great at providing good level of service to the customers. And I think having very, very sticky or long term relationships with the customer base for the years to come. But I think that sometimes what these businesses are not as great at is that adopting the most cutting edge, latest technologies that exist out there. And that's exactly what historically I think the tech first venture backed company is kinda historically been the best at. And I think that the AI roll ups almost serves as like trying to build a conduit of the two worlds where you're going and effectively acquiring traditional existing usually service businesses. But effectively not for the sake of buying the business itself, but primarily for the sake of getting the access and the distribution to the end customers through which you're then trying effectively to deliver the product that you're building. And then effectively, so one arm of yours is buying this business. I think the other arm of yours is building this effectively kind of tech first, and in our case, of AI first tech stack and platform. But then you'll kind of effectively, through your distribution of buying the businesses, aim to deliver to the end customers. I think the challenge, if you put it as a comparison, why not, for example, to go and just sell this technology to these businesses? Why do we need to buy them? I think the answer is quite often, a lot, if not like all of this service businesses, I think being quite traditional and maybe kind of not as forward looking sometimes in terms of adopting some of the cutting edge technologies. So sometimes it's not just about how to adopt the technology, but it comes along with some of the changes in the operational processes that you need to introduce vis a vis to adopt these technologies. Because, like, it's very, very often where it's not just simply about inputting the kind of AI first, the genetic system, and that's kind of it. But it's a lot about reviewing your existing workflows, rethinking how you're running these workflows, how does it impact the roles and responsibilities of the teams in these businesses, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.