Heather Staff

Co Founder Street Group

What is your career background?

I joined KPMG as a graduate in their Restructuring arm, then moved into their Global Turnaround team, helping underperforming companies return to profitability. After 10 years there, I left to launch Spectre with my brother 8 years ago!

How did you come to launch Spectre?

I’d love to take the credit, but it was Tom (my brother)’s idea. He’d spent time working as a consultant in our Dad’s agency and saw the opportunity to automate their prospecting process which was very manual at the time. He then spent his evenings coding what was then Spectre v1.0!

What's your proudest achievement?

Being nominated for and reaching the finals of the EY Entrepreneur of the Year awards a couple of years ago. It was such a huge gamble to leave my safe job at KPMG and launch Spectre, so it was a really nice moment to be recognised for where we’d got to.

Which industry suppliers do you admire most?

Sarah Edmundson - she has a passion for this industry that is only matched by her knowledge of it. She’s also incredibly generous with her time and genuinely cares about her clients. 

Moneypenny - they just do everything right, don’t they?

Which estate agencies do you admire most?

Charlotte Simpson
Head of Customer Success

What is your career background?

I had a number of different jobs before joining Spectre, mainly bartending, waitressing and as a barista for Starbucks. I never really had any ideas of ‘what I want to do when I grow up,’ so I think I’m a great example of persistence and hard work paying off when you’re passionate about something!

How did you come to work for Spectre?

I was really lucky actually! I originally had my first telephone interview a couple of months before I was due to move up to Manchester and told Alex (the then Head of Spectre CS) that I couldn't make the move straight away. He offered to keep my profile on file and luckily for me, a couple of months later I got a call that they were still looking and asked if I would still be interested!

I was the second person on the Customer Success team at the time, and since then I’ve had three promotions and now lead a team of 12 CSMs.

What's your proudest achievement?

I am so proud of everything the team and I have achieved in the last 4 and a half years - but in particular, it has to be winning two ESTAS awards at the ceremony last October. The team had put in a massive amount of work, and when Heather and I got up to collect the awards, I could hear them cheering and clapping across the room, that made me feel really proud.

Which industry suppliers do you admire most?

I really admire the culture of Moneypenny and their CEO, Joanna Swash, is a massive inspiration to me. We’ve also used them ever since I started over 4 years ago and they’ve been integral to our messaging system. 

Which estate agencies do you admire most?

During the pandemic, there were a huge number of agents who continued to do everything they could to keep their business going, and were able to come out of the lockdowns a lot stronger. I had the pleasure of working with a lot of agents who continued to use tech to support their business over this period (either prospecting through Spectre, creating video tours, or Zoom viewings!) and now they’re market leaders! I really admire their hard work and determination to see their business thrive.

What is the most valuable lesson you have learnt from working with estate agents so far?

I’ve definitely learnt a lot from working with estate agents, but I think the most valuable thing is that hard work really does pay off! The majority of agents I’ve worked with over the last 4 and a half years are so dedicated to their business and work so hard to ensure it’s successful.

Jamie Redfern
Product Owner

What is your career background?

Before moving into PropTech, my background was in academia - specifically in history. I ran a history podcast professionally, had written a few books, and had a place to complete a PhD on the Roman Empire in late antiquity. It’s never an answer that people expect when I say how I started working in a software company for estate agents!

How did you come to work for Spectre?

I’d decided that I didn’t want to stay in academia, and I’d been looking for a new project to capture my attention. When I found an opportunity to join a tech startup, I jumped at the opportunity, and as soon as I met the founders, Tom & Heather, I knew that this was where I wanted to build a career.

I was really lucky to join the company at that stage, I was employee number two, so it was an opportunity to try every bit of the business. I did sales, customer service, marketing, and quality assurance, before we found that Product Owner was the right fit for me and Spectre. There are now well over a hundred of us, and I can’t imagine doing anything else.

What's your proudest achievement?

My very first feature is the thing I’m most proud of. I’d been helping several of our clients put together reports about how they were using the system. It was quite repetitive and time-consuming, and I thought there had to be a better way of doing it. So I worked out technically how the reports could be put together automatically, and proposed that we build a feature so that every agent could do it themselves.

People were excited about the idea, and we built it, and agents immediately started using it. The feeling that I’d spotted a problem that an agent had - trying to understand how effectively they were using their software - and managed to create a solution and make their lives easier was thrilling, and it’s something that drives me. Every morning when we start the day, asking ourselves what we can do to make agents' lives easier is a good place to start.

Which industry suppliers do you admire most?

There are so many great suppliers out there, but one that stands out is Goodlord. One of the most difficult things for a supplier to do is choosing to focus on the right problems, and I think Goodlord does an excellent job of that. Having used agents with Goodlord, and those without, the process makes such an impact on the end user, which is the most important thing. We always need to maintain that focus on the end user.

Which estate agencies do you admire most?

Agents using Spectre and Street.co.uk of course! I’m half joking, but also half serious. Agents are so restricted by the technology that they use, it can be difficult to see that there is a better world out there. I admire agents who see cutting-edge technology, like that being offered by Spectre and Street.co.uk, and can see the opportunities to transform their businesses there.

What is the most valuable lesson you have learnt from working with estate agents so far?

I think I’d say resourcefulness. Estate agents have so many different jobs that they need to do, and they all need doing at once. But agents always find a way through to get the job done, and I’m very happy that Spectre continues to make that job easier.

Chris Amor
Head of Data Applications

What is your career background?

I’ve worked with and led data teams in financial services, e-commerce and retail for too many years to mention now! Most recently before joining Spectre, I spent 5 years at Morrisons Supermarkets building their e-commerce data team and then leading the overall technology data team.

How did you come to work for Spectre?

I had the honour of being contacted directly by our fab talent team. Since I wasn’t close to the industry, I hadn’t heard of Spectre, but the more I learnt, the more obvious it became that it was a great opportunity to join an amazing team working on great products.

What's your proudest achievement?

There’s a lot from my career I’m proud of but I’m blessed to have 3 amazing children that top everything on that front, so I have to say them.

Which industry suppliers do you admire most?

Well, I have to say Spectre and Street for that one, give us a try!

Which estate agencies do you admire most?

Preston Baker is a brand I know well from the Yorkshire area who always seem to be pushing the industry forward.

What is the most valuable lesson you have learnt from working with estate agents so far?

That an agent’s time is the most valuable commodity with a lot of demands, so making their lives easier, quicker and more productive is critical.

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