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Our Story

It started over
a garden fence

In 2017 Mark, a first-time landlord, let his home to Rich without an agent. Better deal for both; working out how was the hard part. Everything we've built since is the solution Mark needed that day.

2017

The deal next door

Rich was renting in south London when his landlord gave notice to sell. At a barbecue at Mike's house, Mike's neighbour Mark mentioned he was about to let out his home for the first time.

Rich did the maths on agent fees and went to Mark directly: less rent than an agent's tenant would pay, more money in Mark's pocket than an agent would leave him. Deal done on the spot.

The tenant paid less. The landlord earned more. The only loser was the fee nobody needed to pay.

Then the hard part: how does a tenancy actually get done? The information was out there, but scattered and contradictory. They worked it out together, got it over the line, and Rich moved in next door. The thing they'd both needed still didn't exist.

fence image with ideas
One fence, one deal, and everything that grew over it.
2017 to 2018

The itch that wouldn't go away

Rich kept talking about it: the fees, the confusion, an industry that ran on landlords and tenants not knowing better. Mike, then leading product management across EMEA for a large American bank, recognised the shape of it immediately: a process problem software could solve end to end. The research made it obvious.

  • 5m

    private rental homes in the UK, a huge market

  • Low tech

    among the least digitised of any major consumer market

  • High fees

    poor service, and unhappy customers on both sides

A friend from Rich's MBA, who had spent 15 years building a high-street agency group, confirmed the problem from the inside. Then he deliberately let them design from first principles, checking their work against the law and the real world. The three invested their own money and started building in late 2018.

original sketches of hn process
The original sketches, 2018. Same mission, bigger impact.
The journey

From fence to platform

Eight years, one pivot, and thousands of real tenancies.

  1. 2017

    The fence

    Rich and Mark do the deal that starts it all.

  2. Late 2018

    Building begins

    Founders' money in, first proof of concept, friends and family round.

  3. 2019

    All in

    Mike leaves banking. A seed round closes at year end, funding the build through lockdowns.

    hn first office
    Day one in the first office. Also the whole team.
  4. The pivot

    Late 2020

    We became our own first customer

    Landlords loved the platform, then hesitated: hand your biggest asset to a brand-new company? Fair question. So we used our own software to run a full letting and management service at a fraction of high-street prices, starting with flyers through every letterbox in Wimbledon.

    flyers for wimbledon
    The Wimbledon flyers, 2020. Quality control in progress.
    mike on train to first customer
    On the way to the first pitch. The mask was mandatory. The nerves came free.
  5. Late 2022

    Scaling the proof

    £1.9m raised. The managed portfolio grows to almost 1,000 properties and thousands of tenant finds, all run on the platform we were building for landlords to use themselves.

    first letting board
    The first board goes up. Sunset optional, but appreciated.
  6. 2024

    Back to the mission

    Operations mature, software battle-tested. We refocus on the original goal: landlords doing it themselves.

  7. April 2025

    DIY launches

    Get Listed and Get Rented go live. Landlords tell us what to improve and we ship it.

  8. 2026

    The challenger

    DIY properties up 4x in 7 months, growth driven by word of mouth and independent voices rather than advertising, in a market reshaped by the Renters' Rights Act. Still a small team by design: experienced people, no layers between a landlord's problem and its fix.

    hn team office photo 2026
    The team today. Not pictured: the remote dev team, allegedly at their desks.
Where we are today

Nine years on from the fence

A proven managed business, a fast-growing DIY platform, and a market that has caught up with the idea.

August 2026

Global investment firm CVC agreed a majority investment in OpenRent, the market leader we're built to challenge. The direction of travel is settled. We think the next chapter belongs to the platform that stayed founder-led and landlord-backed.

One platform, two ways to use it

Have the experience Rich and Mark had

Our managed services run on exactly the same platform DIY landlords use, so every tenancy our team completes makes the software better for everyone. And you can switch between the two without losing data or starting again, whichever direction life takes you.

One platform
The Hello Neighbour engine

You drive

List on Rightmove, find tenants and complete a compliant move-in from £29, with expert support whenever you want it.

We drive

Full tenant find and fixed-fee property management, run by our team on the same platform. Pay on move-in.

Same software, same data, switch whenever life changes.

What we believe

Fairness, on both sides of the front door

Fair to both sides

A tenancy is someone's home and someone else's biggest asset. It only works when it works for both. Fair pricing, fair terms, fair dealing in both directions.

Safe by design

Landlords protected from compliance risk and bad tenancies. Tenants protected from unsafe homes and bad practice. The process catches problems before they grow.

Clear on price

Fixed fees, stated up front, no percentages of your rent and no lock-ins. Our service should be the reason you stay.

Tech with people behind it

Software does the heavy lifting. Humans are there when it matters. Never one without the other.