Serial Entrepreneur Bootstrapping Three PropTech Ventures: LuxuryProperty Founder Jason Hayes (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: One of the keys to building scalable businesses is to operate within guardrails. What you’re pointing out in deciding not to go for any kind of permit is a huge decision. It’s a smart decision. That allows you to move quickly. In the business that you did first versus this business, it’s a different model. Debt financing is the same, but you’re not building as much in the balance sheet.

Jason Hayes: That’s right.

Sramana Mitra: These properties are turning more quickly. This is more of a real P&L business.

Jason Hayes: Absolutely. Part of that process was branding. All of the people working on the property, regardless of whether they’re employed by us, they were all wearing Propertyandhomes.com uniforms. Everything that we did was digital. If it wasn’t digital, it was definitely branded.

Branding has an enormous emphasis on company culture and the behavior. The simple things. I call them critical non-essentials. You purchase a property and send letters to the neighbors saying that we’ve acquired the company and telling them our plans. It formed part of the standard operating procedure. The neighbors think we’re great.

Sramana Mitra: That’s also terrific marketing.

Jason Hayes: That transparency and getting the branding right means that the business comes to you naturally. The MLS was like a mass marketing way of doing something. Our approach was significantly more boutique and counter-intuitive for many people. They liked it because they weren’t caught up in that real estate cycle.

Sramana Mitra: How many years was this business?

Jason Hayes: Seven years.

Sramana Mitra: This was 2007 to 2014?

Jason Hayes: I sold in 2016, so a little bit longer actually.

Sramana Mitra: You sold it?

Jason Hayes: Yes, but I kept the brand. You would remember that I wanted to do a tech company. I felt that I haven’t fulfilled what I was looking for in terms of creating digital platforms that would market homes and that would change the face of real estate marketing.

The property portal market is worth tens of billions of dollars. It’s served by the large operators who have done little in my opinion to advance the way in which we buy homes. I’m driven by delivering a truly incredible PropTech platform. The company that I built with Propertyandhomes wasn’t that.

Sramana Mitra: How much did you sell that for?

Jason Hayes: I’m on an NDA for that, so I can’t say; but it wasn’t as much as the first one. It’s still doing incredibly well. I took the brand because the domain is what I thought I was going to be using for my entity here in Dubai.

Sramana Mitra: It was a successful exit. You had a profitable return on that.

Jason Hayes: It was a great exit. It was a successful exit. Sometimes people ask why I do this. You can just play golf and dive. But I love the challenge of it.

Sramana Mitra: Serial entrepreneurs are a particular breed. We tend to like what we do. Sitting on the sidelines is not so interesting.

Jason Hayes: For me and my wife, we always wanted to live in the States. We had a home in Florida. Our children were very young. I particularly loved it. In the UK tech and real estate jurisdiction, I knew my way around. In the United States, nobody had heard of me. It was fascinating. We are two countries divided by the same language. The jurisdictions are completely different. That was great. I was building a business in a foreign country.

This segment is part 4 in the series : Serial Entrepreneur Bootstrapping Three PropTech Ventures: LuxuryProperty Founder Jason Hayes
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