Spotlight — Plentific plans for huge growth
Plentific.com, the home services marketplace designed to help homeowners find and book trade professionals, has been based in Techspace for almost five years.
The platform was founded by ex-investment bankers and property developers Cem Savas and Emre Kazan, after they realised how hard it was to find home improvement professionals in the UK.
The company has grown from two founders to over 30 employees since then, and has received two rounds of funding.
We grabbed a coffee with them at our Underwood Street office to find out more about their scale-up plans.
What is the latest news at Plentific? What’s going on at the moment?
CS — “We’ve launched our on demand service, Plentific Instant. We always wanted an on demand booking service, and the vision is coming to life. It’s not the final piece of the jigsaw, but the company is ahead of everyone else in the space.
We’ve also got a number of big announcements coming very soon! These have been a long time in the making and we can’t wait to share them. They will help us achieve substantial growth in the UK and beyond.
In the latter part of 2016, we launched our industry-first money back guarantee, as well as our payment solution, which really connects the dots by letting customers make transactions with tradesmen securely online.”
How has investment money helped you to grow?
EK — “We’ve put significant energy into our product and marketing efficiency. In the last six months we’ve optimised job lead conversion rates by 5x and automated a number of tasks, which now gives us a product ripe for scale. We also had to bolster the sales team to ensure that our supply is meeting demand.”
What are your growth intentions and plans for the next 6 months?
CS “In the next 6 months we aim to complete a large investment round, which will allow us to truly scale and invest into sales, development and substantial marketing to become a household name. We will do this with our own marketing channels as well as strategic partnerships .”
EK — “The platform is ready, we’ve tested our marketing and optimised the journey. We’re seeing rapid growth in our professional users and now it’s time to accelerate.”
What’s the biggest struggle for scale-ups that you are facing?
CS — “Scale-ups rapidly change — if you are moving or growing too slowly, it’s a problem. We are constantly innovating, tweaking our product and looking for better conversion metrics.
Every scale-up has the same struggles — recruiting the right talent takes time, as does finding the right investors and partners. The revenue model also has to be there from the beginning.
The right team and infrastructure are hugely important. The right reporting, the right vision. Make sure you are pointing in the right direction. Make sure all the team is pointing there. Your whole team needs to know the vision. What do you need to do? The most important thing is the work you don’t do. Realise your capacity.”
How would you suggest these issues could be addressed?
EK — “On the talent side , as founders you’ve got to think about the culture of your business and it’s down to you to recruit the right people initially. The wrong people burn time, people and efficiency. The same applies for partners and investors. You need to ask ‘Do they share your vision? What do they bring to the party?’.
You need to make sure your whole team is pointing in the right direction and that everyone knows what needs to be done.”
How does being in the heart of London’s tech scene directly affect the business?
CS — “It’s great to be surrounded by like-minded individuals. We’ve talked about talent and we’re at the heart of the scene in Old Street. If we were on an industrial park in Didcot we would struggle to recruit the talent we have. We’re a young team and people want to work here, to socialise and be part of this vibrant environment.
At Techspace, it’s great to sit side by side with other devs and startups and have conversations in the kitchen. We all have similar interests and visions. ”
If you met yourself from 10 years ago, what advice would you give them?
EK — “Get some sleep, you’re going to need it!”
CS — “I don’t believe in regrets as life is a constant learning curve. You make mistakes and you learn from them.”
Keep an eye on Plentific.com for their upcoming announcements in the next few months.
