Where did the idea for Movebubble come from?
AR: I studied business in Bristol and started working for a property company to fund it. I ended up setting up a branch for them.
Later, I started doing my MBA and came up with the concept of Movebubble before I met Logan. Then we joined together and started to make it happen.
What were the startup months like?
AR: At the time, I had handed in my notice with work, had no money, and asked my flatmate at the time to allow me to live there for a few months. The two of us would be there until two or three in the morning working on Movebubble, and at the same time trying to raise money from investors. It was very challenging and it cost me an awful lot of money to walk away from my last job.
What’s been the most important lesson that you’ve learned from starting the business?
LH: What we have learned to do is to fail very quickly and fail very small. Rather than bet big on one thing, take small steps. I always encourage my team to experiment and fail because when you fail you learn something and you don’t go there again.
AR: That’s probably the biggest thing we’ve learned in the past 12 months. We had this great vision and the vision is still the same – we want to make moving easy.
Do a lot of people have bad renting experiences?
AR: We have all had really bad renter experiences and that’s one of the benefits of the business, it resonates with everybody. Agents are disliked about as much as bankers. The shiny suits, fast cars… The number of renters that talk about bad agents – they don’t want to deal with the agents, but they want to deal with the property owners.
LH: Movebubble is not an agent, it’s a collaborative platform. We facilitate the transaction, make it safe and secure. There’s a huge demand there from renters.
What’s your hiring strategy for the business?
LH: We only want to hire the A+ players. We wouldn’t look at anybody who is just OK, they have to blow us away. We are very proud of the team we have built, they are all better than us really! Everything we do is about empowering them, giving them the freedom to fail.
We run something called Your Time on a Wednesday afternoon. People can do what they want at work as long as they can explain to the team what they are doing and it is adding value.
So what’s the difference between you and an agency?
LH: We are so focused on putting the user in the middle, that’s the difference between us and an agency.
What’s been the most difficult aspect of starting a business?
AR: The hardest thing to do is to start and to give up your job and really go for it. To build another business would be a lot easier now than it has been over the past 12 months. You need to find some people who have been there and done it.
Any lessons for budding entrepreneurs?
LH: If you are all about the money, don’t do entrepreneurship. If you like a challenge and want to build a great team and do great things, it’s for you.
Aidan Rushby and Logan Hall are co-founders of Movebubble.
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