On this week's episode, Joe Hanna from Fusion 4 Ventures joins Simon Baker and Harvey Hancock to discuss all things scaling and exiting. With multiple exits under their belts, Simon and Joe get into basics, wrong turns, and pragmatism, among other topics.

Please note there are some audio issues in this episode - but the conversation was good enough to warrant publishing the conversation anyway. Apologies for any inconvenience for listeners - keep your fingers on that volume button.

00:00 Introduction and Updates

02:58 Scaling and Exiting in the Real Estate Industry

08:04 Challenges and Strategies in Scaling and Exiting

14:51 The Connection Between Scale and Exit

19:07 Top Mistakes in Scaling and Exiting

21:28 Preparing for an Exit: Growth, Profitability, and Cost Synergies

24:35 Reducing Key Person Risk and Ensuring Company Independence

26:49 The Role of Fusion 4 Ventures in the Acquisition Process

28:53 Flexible Payment Schemes for Advisory Services

40:21 The Importance of a Realistic Understanding of the Process and Valuation

Harvey and Simon jump onto an emergency podcast to discuss (gossip about) the emerging news story that Australia's REA Group is considering a $4.4 billion buyout of British real estate portal Rightmove.

Ed and Simon and joined by Bernardo Cordero, co-founder of Clau (formerly Flat.mx).

A lot has changed since Bernardo and his co-founder Victor Noguera founded Flat.mx as a do-it-all PropTech in 2019. The company has moved away from iBuying and from being a brokerage and has rebranded as Clau looking to take on the real estate portal market.

Bernardo talks about why Flat pivoted away from iBuying despite decent margins, the scale of opportunity in Mexico and the challenges ahead as Clau looks to take on incumbent portals.

Is it a good time to raise funds as a PropTech?

It's the story that continues to generate the most headlines in our industry but behind all the noise, is CoStar starting to win against Zillow, Realtor.com and Rightmove?

Ed and Simon discuss some of the figures from CoStar's latest quarterly report in their broader context and ask whether there may be an ulterior motive behind the group's move into residential real estate...

Ed and Simon are joined by Hannah Parker, CPO at Addland (formerly of Zoopla and Property Finder) to discuss data on real estate portals.

As a portal specializing in land, Addland has way more data than other portals in the market and is positioning itself as a research portal for home buyers.

If all that information is out there, shouldn't the likes of Rightmove strive to put more of it in front of its users?

00:00 - Introduction and Background

02:55 - Addland's Mission to Make Data Accessible

09:05 - Target Audience and Pricing

12:02 - Collaboration with Rightmove

16:41 - Other Portals Lagging Behind in Data Integration

19:26 - Implementing Ideas from Other Marketplaces

22:00 - The Role of AI in the Real Estate Industry

25:05 - Balancing AI and the Emotional Connection in Home Buying

27:49 - The Emotional Aspect of Buying a Home

34:37 - Balancing Personalization and Monetization for Portals

41:07 - The Potential Impact of Adding More Data Layers

44:19 - The Importance of Information and Consumer Understanding

48:36 - The Uncertainty of Providing More Information to Consumers

Does it make sense for banks or FinTech players to operate real estate marketplaces?

Jorge Combe is the CEO of DD360, a company with a unique business model. Having started out as a B2B development loan specialist it has since moved into B2C mortgages and has built its own very sophisticated marketplace on top.

In this episode, Ed and Simon ask why a FinTech business would go to the trouble of building a marketplace on top of its existing business...

Inspired by a PropTech & Portal Watch presentation by Malcolm Myers, Simon and Ed discuss some of the threats to real estate portals that have come along over the years...

Some are just buzzwords, others seemed more threatening. None of them have seriously challenged big name marketplaces.

So are portals invincible?

The link to Malcolm's presentation that inspired this episode is here password = PPWBKK24