In 2019, I decided to leave my job in venture capital and turned my attention to the property sector, starting with mortgages, where inefficiencies, slow processes, and broken transactions affected me and the people around me.
The real estate industry (and its derivatives) is the largest contributor to most economies globally, yet customers are massively underserved, where lack of visibility, poor customer experience, and overpayment are common problems.
The State of the Industry
Fragmented, with a commoditized service
The real estate industry has a large number of players in all of its verticals (real estate agents, contractors, developers, mortgage brokers, lenders, etc.) with many similarities, underutilized operations, and inefficient processes. This is mainly due to a lack of innovation and adopting outdated systems from fifty years ago that have not developed over time. The result is an undifferentiated offering, low margins, and a very poor customer experience. Today’s consumers are extremely sophisticated, have unlimited access to information, and demand more from businesses, including lower prices, more convenience, and greater speed - all qualities lacking in the real estate market.
The problem is more present in emerging markets
The problem described above is universal but exponentially more present in emerging countries that have a higher number of encumbrances, lower market liquidity, and little differentiation in the offering. This creates a market where the customer is massively underserved and where market dynamics are designed to provide poor customer service. This issue is in contrast with mature markets, such as the US, where multiple prop-tech companies are already building the next wave of disruptive technologies. The question remains whether these companies can create 10x value to their stakeholders given the regulatory environment in place.
Change Through Culture and Innovation
We started Huspy to disrupt one of the largest global industries through software. Our customers are at the core of what we do. We focus on building products that people love, and that offer speed (at least 3x faster than the traditional process), all under a best price guarantee promise. These are our core values, and for us to achieve them, we need to build things from the ground up.
How do we do that?
We start by assembling top talent in the tech industry who were part of companies that disrupted traditional processes and created 10x value to their customers. In Huspy, we’re lucky to have early employees of companies such as Nubank, Loft, Revolut, Uber, and Microsoft that believe in this mission and have taken the risk to move to Dubai to build this vision - for this, I’m deeply appreciative and will forever be grateful. If you mix this with great investors that believe in our vision then you have a secret weapon. Building this vision is what wakes us up every day.