MoneyPark started working with Django Stars in 2012, almost from day one. Since then they\u2019ve gone a long way to become the market\u2019s leading mortgage broker. Company CTO Benjamin Tacquet has shared the story of MoneyPark and its future plans. Read on below.<\/p>\n
How MoneyPark Works<\/h2>\n
How exactly does MoneyPark work?<\/b> We work with more than 150 partners. We\u2019ve built a great customer interface<\/a> that enables customers to compare all the products on the market. Customers start their journey online using website tools. But when it comes to making a decision, they need to talk to someone. We tried to do everything online, but it didn\u2019t work well. In most cases, a home is the biggest purchase of your lifetime, and you need to see someone and talk to a live person. So, that\u2019s what we do. We advise customers, and we do it very well. What is your background and how did you end up with MoneyPark?<\/b> It seems that the Swiss housing market is a bit more complex than a buy-and-sell proposition. Income, taxes, insurance and many other criteria are involved when a customer chooses a property. How did you manage to simplify the process? How did the market and the customers react?<\/b> At first, acquiring customers was difficult. In Switzerland, mortgage brokers represent about 3% of the market. In the US, it\u2019s just over 80% percent. We had to educate the customers, and explain the business and how it works. If you\u2019re a pioneer in the market, you have to invest in people\u2019s education. What about your customers? How do you identify their needs, collect insights and use them with MoneyPark?<\/b> To collect insights, sometimes we simply talk to the customers. When they come to the branch, we ask them to answer a few questions after the meeting. Usually, customers are very positive and mostly say yes. We send in a project team that collects all the information. Which is then used again by a project team who iterate on the input of the business and of the customer and come up with a project. At MoneyPark, we try to create a standard procedure for mortgages. In the US, for example, there are websites and applications that allow you to get a mortgage on your phone. In under one hour, you have purchased your house. You answer questions like whether this is the house you\u2019re going to live in, whether you\u2019re employed, and whether you\u2019re of a certain age before retirement. This gives an 80% success rate, which they focus on. Our goal is to give mortgages to 100% of our customers by standardizing the procedure, even for special cases – we focus on that 80% to optimize this part and support the remaining 20% manually. We want all of our customers have a signed contract at the end of the first meeting. Previously, we\u2019d built a mobile application. It didn\u2019t work as planned, so we stopped using it, but I\u2019m glad we tried. I think it failed because there are too many applications on your phone that you use only at a certain time. If you need a certain occasion to use a certain app, it doesn\u2019t work this way. We will come back with a new application, but later. What does your company structure look like now?<\/b> In IT, we have five teams. We have the product team and the system administrator. They\u2019re like a protection layer for the developers. All requests first go to the product team or the system administrator. So the developers can focus on what they do best \u2013 development, and not answering questions like \u201cI\u2019ve lost my passport again, what do I do?\u201d That\u2019s how we structure it.<\/p>\n We have developers in Zurich, in Kyiv, and in Lausanne for historical and practical reasons. With all these regional differences, we need to have a local team in place to deal with it. Then comes Zurich \u2013 it\u2019s our main HQ. And we\u2019ve had our partner Django Stars in Ukraine since the very beginning. Outsourcing vs. staying in-house. How do you choose?<\/b> Remote teams give you security. In case you have someone leaving your team, you have a bigger pool of talent that can support you. The bigger the pool, the more they can exchange knowledge and experiences. If another project uses similar technology, you can learn something from it.<\/p>\n Outsourcing is good, but you must have some capacity in-house. You have to balance things. Because if you have no understanding of what you\u2019re doing, it\u2019s not good. But outsourcing on top of our internal team is something we appreciate and will continue doing.
\n![\"MoneyPark](\"https:\/\/djangostars.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/MoneyPark-Website-min.png\")
\nCustomers start their journey online<\/a>, and then come to one more than 15 locations all over Switzerland for counselling. We help them acquire their dream property.
\nSwitzerland is the land of banks. How do you stay afloat with just one website and 21 branches?<\/b>
\nMoneyPark\u2019s unique selling proposition is that we\u2019re absolutely independent. When a customer goes to a bank, they will get the product the bank earns money from. Instead, MoneyPark advisors remain independent \u2013 there is no need to select one partner or the other. They select what\u2019s best for the customer. They help customers see how this purchase will reflect on their tax situation, whether they need insurance or not, etc.. We give our customers advice. We look at the big picture. That\u2019s what we do at MoneyPark. That\u2019s why we\u2019re the best at it.<\/p>\n
\n![\"MoneyPark](\"https:\/\/djangostars.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/MoneyPark-Branches-min.png\")
\nBack in the day, like every startup, you had your struggles. What was the hardest part of your way from startup to #1 market player?<\/b>
\nFinding the right people is always the biggest challenge. But the truth is, you can overcome any problem if you find the right team. The second hardest thing after finding like-minded people was keeping them, of course.<\/p>\nLooking Back<\/h2>\n
\nI have a background in computer science and management. I was always passionate about interface, and that\u2019s why I shifted into the web industry. A few friends of mine were working on a startup, and we always exchanged ideas. So I built my first project and we sold it. Eager to start a new startup, I followed Stefan\u2019s invitation to Switzerland. He showed me his idea for MoneyPark. I liked it, and we started working. That was ten years ago.
\nYou pivoted several times. What caused you to pivot?<\/b>
\nWe\u2019ve pivoted, because we tried. You shouldn\u2019t be afraid to try. You know this American concept: try and fail fast? We started a few times, and if we saw that something didn\u2019t work, we simply stopped. But we knew we had tried.
\nBut in the end, what was it that helped you succeed as a startup?<\/b>
\nYou need the right people. You have to try, try again, fail, and try something different. But it only works with a group of people you can rely on. That\u2019s critical. So, at the end of the day, you still have the energy to try again and not be afraid to fail.<\/p>\nHow to Succeed in the Realities of Today’s Swiss Market<\/h2>\n
\nThe most important work here was the advisors\u2019. They give our project a friendly face. They gain people\u2019s trust. When you gain people\u2019s trust, it makes everything easier. Of course, people will challenge their advisor a bit. But once they gain people\u2019s trust, they can actually make the decision for the customer, and the customer will appreciate it.<\/p>\n
\nHow do you choose your business partners \u2013 banks to potentially lend money to your customers? Some banks may not be happy about their offers being listed with those of their competitors. How did you deal with that?<\/b>
\nWe started with around 30 partners, which was already a lot. Today, we are bigger, and we\u2019ve grown to become an important player in the market \u2013 #3 in the Swiss mortgage market. Now we can push our partners more to get better offers for our customers and better deals.
\nGDPR was a big deal for the European fintech industry. What about Swiss regulations? How do you deal with those?<\/b>
\nWe\u2019re a small company of about 300 people. The IT department has about 30 people, so it\u2019s quite easy to synchronize. GDPR is big for big companies, but for smaller ones it\u2019s easier to deal with. If a customer asks for his data to be deleted, I will personally take 15 minutes to take care of it. Also, our location in Switzerland makes our life easier \u2013 due to its status in Europe, they haven\u2019t signed the GDPR yet, so we have extra time to adapt our processes.<\/p>\nMeeting Customers’ Needs<\/h2>\n
\nWe work both online and offline, we\u2019re in direct contact with our customers. Every day, our advisors meet customers, talk to them on the phone, receive feedback from them. Online, we use tracking, mouse flow, A\/B test tools.<\/p>\n
\nAt some point, you created MoneyHome to retain customers. Can you elaborate?<\/b>
\nThe purchase process takes a few weeks. During this time, 30% of customers will lose their object (or desired home) to the highest bidder. It\u2019s a lot of business for us to lose. To solve this, we created a project called MoneyHome. When a customer loses an object, we automatically send him new property that matches his needs and criteria \u2013 location, price, etc..<\/p>\n
\nTo support the project, you’ve built 6 web platforms and a mobile app. Can you describe the mortgage platform development process, and how you combine features for different platforms?<\/b>
\nWe\u2019ve built one platform to serve different customers. We have a platform for our biggest partners. But behind it, there\u2019s the same application as for everyone else. The interface<\/a> for every group is different, though. For our advisors, we have the CRM. And when customers come to a MoneyPark branch, we use a different interface.<\/p>\n
\nOriginally, Moneypark was built for end customers. Now, you have a b2b platform as well. Is there any difference in building b2c and b2b platforms?<\/b>
\nWell, it\u2019s similar in a way, it\u2019s just a different customer. We have our CRM for our advisors, it\u2019s for the end customers. And there\u2019s our new customers \u2013 banks, insurance \u2013 that are interested in using our solutions. Turns out our software solutions are good. So good that other companies are interested in using them. But that\u2019s again a different customer. They will have different requirements, needs, that\u2019s why we\u2019ve built another interface to isolate each customer group.<\/p>\nMoneyPark Today<\/h2>\n
\nWe have the classical departments: first of all, HR, as we value the human factor and rely heavily on our advisors. Then we have the marketing department, quite a big one, and the financial department.<\/p>\n
\n![\"MoneyPark](\"https:\/\/djangostars.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/MoneyPark-Remote-Developers-min.png\")
\nThe team in Lausanne, for instance, is important for regionalization. Which is a big deal in Switzerland. Each region is different, and we need to maintain this difference. For example, in Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland, when people renegotiate their mortgage, you can increase or decrease the amount. If you increase the amount, you can use the extra money for anything. In Zurich, you can\u2019t. If you increase your mortgage amount, you have to use it to invest into your property.<\/p>\n
\nYou manage several teams around the world. What are your secrets to effective team management?<\/b>
\nWe\u2019re all human. This means we respect people no matter where they\u2019re from. You have to give the same amount of love and respect to anyone, regardless if they\u2019re in Kyiv or in Zurich. You can\u2019t say \u201cAh, just give it to Kyiv,\u201d It doesn’t work. It\u2019s people, and the secret is to respect them.<\/p>\nFounder’s Tips<\/h2>\n
\nWe don\u2019t have a specific guide for that. It has to be mixed. Some things are more interesting, some are less. Which is why you should diversify. You can\u2019t always outsource uninteresting jobs, it doesn\u2019t work this way.
\nWhat are your personal pros & cons of working with remote teams?<\/b>
\nThere are a lot more pros than cons, actually. It\u2019s a bit cheaper, but it\u2019s not the main reason. MoneyPark relies on sales and technology, fintech. Don\u2019t get me wrong, we do a lot internally and we love technology, but our main workforce is not technology. That\u2019s why we work with Django Stars. Technology, Python, Django \u2013 it\u2019s in their DNA. This way, we have solid support whenever we need it.<\/p>\n
\nWhat tips can you give to people who want to start building complex fintech products?<\/b>
\nSometimes you want to do too much. My best advice is to do less, but better. When MoneyPark started, we wanted to cover a lot of things: online, comparisons, etc.. In the end, we dismissed a lot of directions and focused on mortgages only, until we mastered it. And we still have to work on it, until we do it perfectly, before growing further.
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