Jason Howarth, Founder & CPO of Veya
Email Jason now
Connect with Jason on LinkedIn
What is your career background?
I started my career in the paper industry and then given my love of tinkering with cars was recruited into the automotive sector by my big brother. From there, my drive for process efficiencies started to surface and this led me to work across multiple functions for premium manufacturers. I was then recruited to support a large government transformation programme in Singapore with HP which taught me a lot about how to embed change across a huge user base. On return to the UK I joined Lloyds bank as a product owner in financial crime where we delivered a new platform to support the entire customer onboarding journey and here I learnt all about agile methods of development. My estate agency career came from frustration of being able to buy rental portfolios as the process was horrendous and was fed up of finding out information at the end rather than at the point it was needed. My motivation was to identify the key pain points and then understand how they could be resolved or mitigated without increasing the risk.
How did you come up with the idea to launch Veya?
The idea came from my own personal experiences of trying to build a buy to let portfolio and then when I entered estate agency I witnessed firsthand the problems that were common in the industry around long transaction times, fall throughs and low fees. My previous work experiences allowed me to identify how some of these key issues could be significantly reduced.
What's your proudest achievement?* Family aside, it is witnessing Veya come to life and achieving what I had envisioned at the start. For an agent to say that their completion times have reduced by 36% through using Veya is massive! Imagine the compound effect of that across a chain…
What are the top 3 challenges you believe your business solves for agents?
Gaining the trust of the sellers that you truly understand their property when having the ‘coffee table moment’ is key to winning the instruction. Using Veya, the agent has information in areas that will evidence to the vendors that you really understand their property
Veya is key in helping agents be pro-active with sales progression instead of ‘who shouts loudest’ from buyers and sellers alike. With Veya, communication between sales progressor and conveyancers is enhanced as more meaningful communication can occur to help ensure the transaction is completed in the shortest timeframe.
The result of solving these challenges ultimately means faster completions leading to improved cashflow as well as a faster pipeline turnover which is vital for sales agencies.
Which industry suppliers do you admire most?
Thirdfort for a superb product that gives a seamless customer experience, and the team is amazing to work with. Christopher Watkin for his willingness to show anyone how to be the digital mayor in their town and Stephen Brown, not only does he help agents find the gold within their existing customers but the achievements in his computers for schools initiative are outstanding.
Which estate agencies do you admire most?
Those agencies who genuinely want to improve the overall transaction for everyone involved and are willing to embrace new ways of thinking and doing.
What is the most valuable lesson you have learnt from working with estate agents so far?
They are open to change as the very nature of the industry is risk tolerant, however it must be crystal clear how that change will deliver on it’s proposed outcomes for it to be implemented.
Ben Blackman, CFO of Veya
Email Ben now
Connect with Ben on LinkedIn now
What is your career background?
I’m a Chartered Accountant having originally trained with PwC. Since then I’ve worked in a range of sectors including Retail, Business Information and Property. I’ve always worked within commercial finance roles working closely with the business to add value and support the business in delivering strategic goals. I’ve broadened my core finance skills through roles in Business Development and Programme Management.
How did you come to work for Veya?
Having previously worked for Purple Bricks I was well aware of the challenges Estate Agents face in a very competitive and demanding industry. When the opportunity arose to join a company focused on helping alleviate some of these pain points then it was not something I could let pass by.
What's your proudest achievement?
I’m most proud of the various challenges that I’ve taken in my career to date, from reshaping the US finance operations for a division of a high profile Publisher to opening new franchise stores in the Far East for one of the UK’s leading retailers. I’m lucky that I’ve had lots of opportunities to learn and develop.
What are the top 3 challenges you believe your business solves for agents?
The benefits of Veya for an estate agent are wide-reaching. They provide an agent with insightful information at the push of a button. This can help them build their sales pipeline and complete sales quicker. The Veya suite also supports agents with their compliance needs.
Which industry suppliers do you admire most?
It is certainly a busy marketplace and it’s great that there are so many innovative providers out there with the goal of improving agents and customer’s experiences. Coadjute look to be focused on helping the industry make a significant step-change and it will be interesting to see how their offering develops.
Which estate agencies do you admire most?
It’s fascinating to see how estate agency has evolved in recent years with the adoption of new business models and the ever-increasing use of technology. I’ve been impressed by eXp, providing agents with a platform to deliver their own personal brand whilst underpinned by a solid foundation and infrastructure.
What is the most valuable lesson you have learnt from working with estate agents so far?
Customer service is key in building their business but at the same time agents are incredibly busy managing multiple properties through the lifecycle from valuation all the way through to completion. Technology that can help an agent along this journey will win through and that is where we believe Veya can help play an important role.
John McAuley, CEO of Veya
Email John here
Connect with John on LinkedIn
What is your career background?
I started my career in the recruitment industry, ‘falling in’ to that sector after completing my degree at Manchester University. Starting off in a large corporate environment, I then moved to a smaller organization, setting up a recruitment business for their automotive electronics and software company back in 2002. I met Jason whilst working for them, and forged a close relationship before he left for pastures new in the banking industry. Having built a strong reputation and network in this industry, I started my own business, Edison Technical Recruitment, in 2012 – which was acquired by a global engineering services organization at the end of 2016.
How did you come to work for Veya?
Having kept in touch with Jason, I was extremely interested in his concept for Veya, so became one of his lead investors when he had the idea at the start of 2019. I joined Veya as CEO in September last year to help drive the business forward. Although my background is in a different sector, building relationships is still the key to success.
What's your proudest achievement?
Starting my own business and seeing it grow exponentially, ultimately leading it to a very successful exit.
What are the top 3 challenges you believe your business solves for agents?
Veya gives agents a head start over competition by giving them an easy-to-understand overview of potential issues in the title register. This helps them to win instructions by being armed with that knowledge, showing a depth-of-knowledge to their potential customers. It also helps them with compliance – downloading the register helps confirm ownership (especially with our integrated ID&V & AML solution). And finally, understanding any issues raised in the deeds gives them the opportunity to get their vendor to be more prepared for their sale, addressing issues up-front which are usually only surfaced in the conveyancing stage.
Which industry suppliers do you admire most?
We’ve partnered with Thirdfort for our ID&V & AML solution, and I’ve been really impressed with their technology and the way they work with partners. The solution offered by Sprift for providing agents with property data is also a very tidy solution.
Which estate agencies do you admire most?
I’m relatively new to this sector so meeting new agents on a daily basis, but have been really impressed from a corporate level by the work Hunters are doing, especially in the push for upfront information in the various groups they’re involved in.
What is the most valuable lesson you have learnt from working with estate agents so far?
Reputation is key to building a strong network. I’m relatively new to the industry and there’s huge changes on the horizon. It’s easy to be bombarded by the amount of solutions coming in, so any product has to drive efficiency and help make an agent’s life easier.
Trevor Richards, CTO of Veya
Email Trevor now
Connect with Trevor on LinkedIn now
What is your career background?
I’m a passionate technology person who has worked in a range of sectors including automotive, finance, security, and consulting. Prior to joining Veya I was operations manager for a large Engineering service provider as well as leading their cybersecurity consultancy offering.
How did you come to work for Veya?
Having worked in large corporate environments, I was keen to move into a revolutionary company, with the opportunity to make a massive difference to people’s daily life. Veya was exactly what I was looking for as I believe it will ultimately make the house buying and selling process easier for everyone.
What's your proudest achievement?
I’m super proud of the team that we’ve managed to bring together in Veya as well as the massive enhancements that we’ve been able to make to the Veya product in the last year. It’s exciting to watch the product evolve so quickly and tackle incrementally more complex problems.
What are the top 3 challenges you believe your business solves for agents?
Ultimately, Veya is all about getting the right information to the right people as soon as possible. This helps solves challenges including winning commissions in a crowded marketplace, slow transactions (and delayed commissions) and winning instructions at the wrong commission. I think the last point is really powerful. Agents can set their commissions in line with how complex a transaction is likely to be and walk into complex transactions fully prepared and informed.
Which industry suppliers do you admire most?
I think Thirdfort are doing great things in the Identity and Verification space. We love their approach of trying to make life easier for end consumers as well as agents and conveyancers. Their core approach is very much aligned to Veya’s.
Which estate agencies do you admire most?
Our clients! Power Bespoke are very forward thinking and data-driven – and you can see how that pays off as they are one of top estate agents in the UK.
What is the most valuable lesson you have learnt from working with estate agents so far?
I don’t think I’ve ever appreciated how busy agents are and how much work goes into the elements that aren’t massively visible as a consumer. Processes are really important and the agents that focus on automation seem to have the upper hand. We think Veya can play an important part in agent’s processes and ultimately reduce workloads.
