#RVoSu – Plentific, Cem Savas
The Real Voices of Scale-up Series.
Intro’
In 2013 Cem decided it was time to do something about the bad experiences he’d endured as a property developer. He launched Plentific, a home-services marketplace that aims to improve experiences for homeowners, landlords and tradesmen.
To date, Plentific has raised over £5m and formed partnerships with the likes of Zoopla and B&Q.
Listen to the full podcast here.
Tell us about the pivot from your earlier product, Plentify?
Plentify was our initial vision, an all-encompassing platform to help people buy property.
The CEO of Zoopla, Alex Chesterman, said he’d be interested if we offered more services. We concentrated our efforts on ‘finding a professional’ and rebranded as Plentific. The pivot wasn’t a complete change in direction but a refocus on our features and services. Ultimately, we pivoted from buying a home to managing a home.
Over the past 6 years, we’ve pivoted a number of times. If we’d been stuck doing what we were doing, unwilling to make changes, then we would have missed opportunities that were better than what we started out with.
Why did you jump from investment banker to tech startup co-founder?
I worked hard for a very long time to get to where I was in banking but I was aware that my real purpose in life was not to be a banker, it was to be an entrepreneur. Myself and my Co-founder, Emre Kazan, took the opportunity to make that leap when the markets weren’t that great. We were landlords ourselves and wanted to improve the dysfunctional process that we’d experienced when managing properties.
I’m a big believer that if you do something well, the money will follow. We wanted to build our platform on trust because finding tradespeople, people that you let into your home, is all about trust. To establish that trust we built guarantees, insurance policies and an extensive verification process into our product. I want people to be able to rely on our platform.
How have you effectively scaled?
I’ve had to change my skill set, give up control and focus on leading the team. When Plentific was small, I knew what everyone was working on and could guide the ship quite easily. When we grew, I couldn’t do that anymore.
We built in a new layer of management who could take over, smart people who bought into the vision.
One of the hardest factors for startups is competing with banks and the likes of Google for talent. We have a very limited budget so office space and location is important. Our scaling has been supported by Techspace, a partner that can accommodate our needs as we grow in a cool Shoreditch environment.
The European home improvements sector is worth £235bn. How much market share can do you plan to capture?
It’s a very big market and that figure is for the DIY segment so does not include the insurance products that we’re selling through our platform. The opportunity out there is massive. We’re happy to take on small chunks everyday and just see how far we get with it.
How do you distinguish yourself from the likes of Task Rabbit?
Task Rabbit takes more of a peer-to-peer approach, giving non-qualified people access to helping their neighbours with jobs. Plentific has a vetted pool of tradespeople across the nation, who have to go through an extensive verification process with us. That’s the key difference. We also do a lot of B2B work that companies like Task Rabbit aren’t really doing.
You work with a range of notable partners, from Zoopla to B&Q, how do you identify and form those partnerships?
We look at where people require services around their homes, their current solutions and what could be improved with tech.
Some partners are more digitally advanced so they’re easier to form than others. The social housing space has little digital integration so it’s a longer process and more challenging to get started.
You previously attributed your success to the work you don’t do. At what point in your career did you learn that lesson?
Probably at some point when I wasn’t sleeping enough! A team approach is always better than a singular one. I recognised that if I didn’t give up control Plentific wouldn’t grow. The only way to scale is to give others more responsibility.
If you could have a conversation with your former self, back when you first launched Plentific, what would you say?
There’s lots I would tell myself and there’s lots I would do differently, but that is all part of the journey. I would say keep believing in yourself and keep pushing forwards. Listen to what your customers say, take feedback onboard and believe in what you’re doing.
If there is a moment where things don’t make sense anymore, trust your intuition and act on it quickly.
Where do you plan to be in 5 years?
We set out to be the biggest home service market player in the UK and also in some other countries. We want to be a brand that people know and think about, where they go to manage their home. Ultimately, I want to see that people can rely on us to get their stuff sorted.
How do you plan to get there?
I want Plentific to keep growing, with a sense of purpose.
Raising more funds to help us scale fast enough , continuing to build our team and empowering people to deliver amazing work will help us get there. Ultimately, I plan for us to stay as agile, lean and humble as possible.
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To find out more about Plentific, click here.
Learn more about the Real Voices of Scale-up series and listen in to other episodes here.
