We interviewed Jordan Lomax and Sophie Overington, the two female co-founders behind Leasy. Here’s their story.
Tell us a little about Leasy, when did you realise there was an opportunity to disrupt the property management market?
The opportunity for Leasy was first realised when Jordan went to the Tribunal with her real estate agent last year. She spent hours going through all of her emails, payments in her bank, texts and everything else to do with a tenancy to get the information she needed (as well as hours on the phone to Sophie complaining about it!). It was then that we realised there was no real solution for tenants to manage everything to do with their tenancy and began working on a solution for this. After speaking to multiple real estate agents and months of research, we actually discovered there to also be a gap on the agent side, with no solutions to effectively connect agents with their tenants and turn these relationships into pleasant ones. This to us really highlighted that the industry was ripe for disruption, which was when Leasy began!
What have your experiences been like as two women in tech, a largely male-dominated industry?
There are definitely good and bad elements of being two young women in tech, that’s for sure! One of the most challenging aspects of being women in tech is being taken as seriously as our male counterparts in the first instance of meeting anyone in the start-up space, whether they be a potential investor or just networking at an event. While we, of course, acknowledge this isn’t all down to being women, there have definitely been certain occasions where we have been treated differently, whether that be good or bad, to those on a similar journey to us. What we love about this, however, is having the opportunity to change people’s perceptions of young females in tech (and young entrepreneurs in general!) after they get to know us, our work and our product – that’s something we really enjoy. In addition, there are so many great people who are willing to give their time and resources to help women in tech and plenty of great events and programs that really are making an effort to encourage equality as a whole in the start-up space.
Do you have any tips for women who are looking to pursue their startup dreams?
One of the best things we heard was from Jodie Fox (Co-Founder of Shoes of Prey) who talked about people in her industry shutting down her idea and she said “Is this person right, or is their expertise getting in the way of a good idea?” – this struck a huge chord with us because the rental management industry was full of people telling us our idea wouldn’t work, but we really do think it was just that that was the way they had always done it, so they weren’t open to change. The best advice we can give is even if you don’t have experience in the field (like us!) but you have a good idea, go for it and learn as much as you can about the industry your idea is in. Learn on the go, do your research and try to find people who do have the expertise that you may be lacking to help push your idea forward.
Where do you see Leasy in a few years?
If all goes to plan, we hope that Leasy is the norm for tenants and agents in Australia and beyond. We hope it changes the rental landscape and in a couple years maybe the war between tenants and agents can end and the relationships between the two can be a positive one (thanks to Leasy!). Of course, we have a tonne of planned features we are extremely excited about, so you’ll have to wait and see on those!
How does Leasy remain a leader in property management software against competitors?
We really made sure to have the tenant/agent relationship front of mind when creating Leasy and when we built (and continue to build) the platform – we ensured that both sides of the marketplace have equal, if not the same, benefits – Everyone should benefit from using Leasy and that’s our big selling point. Even after building the product, we make an effort to continue to talk to tenants and agents, as well as groups, unions and alike, to get an insight into pain points experienced on both sides of the market and building features to address these.
Thanks for sharing your story, Jordan and Sophie! Find out more about Leasy and track their journey on social media!
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/leasyaustralia/?ref=br_rs
Twitter: https://twitter.com/LeasyAustralia
If you want to hear more inspirational women leading the tech industry, secure your spot at this year’s StartCon below!
