Today, I am delighted to share a conversation I had with Reza Merchant, Founder & CEO The Collective. The Collective is essentially a pioneering, co-living brand that has raised over $700m in funds in a very short period of time to fuel their growth and international expansion. Reza is leading a purpose-driven business and talks a lot about what that means. This includes going all-in, having unwavering belief as well as having the right advisers and mentors around you at the same time.
It was fascinating to get a glimpse into how this founder thinks and sees the world as I am sure you will agree.
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Contact Reza Merchant: www.thecolelctive.com
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Transcription of the show
Hello, and welcome to another episode of The Property Voice podcast. My name is Richard Brown and as always, it’s a pleasure to have you join me on the show again today.
Today, I am delighted to share a conversation I had with Reza Merchant, Founder & CEO The Collective. The Collective is essentially a pioneering, co-living brand that has raised over $700m in funds in a very short period of time to fuel their growth and international expansion. Reza is leading a purpose-driven business and talks a lot about what that means. This includes going all-in, having unwavering belief as well as having the right advisers and mentors around you at the same time.
It was fascinating to get a glimpse into how this founder thinks and sees the world as I am sure you will agree.
Property Chatter
Reza Merchant
London born parents of Indian original. Reza grew up watching his father build a business from scratch. So starting a business from was a very natural thing.
As students and young people, there was a struggle to find affordable housing. So, there was a huge need to try and fix the housing crisis, along with poor service as tenants, drove the desire to start a business at age 21 with £1,600 as an agency business serving the student market.
Grew from being an agency to lease and sub-lease houses in what is now known as a rent-to-rent HMO model. Room rental market was a huge market to aim for, with the aim of making their offering of high quality.
This led to larger sized-buildings…from 6-beds to 50-beds within a year or so. This led to the birth of The Collective brand. Two pillars: convenience & community.
Then they started to build from scratch instead of converting existing units. In addition to 500+ units, they also had a range of different services, amenities and social events.
This led onto international growth focussed on London, Berlin & New York. Co-living was a rather new creation and so this also led to convincing people and investors of the merits of such a model. There are a wide variety of spaces that can be used as and when required.
Loneliness is a bigger killer than cancer, smoking & obesity.
Different types of the commercial model – a 12-month lease is getting more outdated, so they offer between 1 and 265 nights. Ultimately, this will lead to a global network of housing as well. From being country citizens to world citizens.
Financial growth and scale - $700m+ raised to date! This requires constant attention. Fund-raising has been a ley part of what Reza has done, getting investors to buy-in has been a strong part of what they have done.
How to become investable?
100% true and sincere belief in what you are doing…you get a lot of no’s and people questioning you, so you need resilience to get through this.
You have to convince others to come with you on this journey…perhaps earning less money even
A sense of purpose – coming from an authentic and pure place. Purpose-driven businesses…having a positive impact on people’s lives and the world in general.
A key driver was experiencing pain yourself which then led to the idea and intention to do something about it.
Belief or delusion…what’s the difference?
You need clarity to find the solution to realise your end goal…in other words it needs to be practical.
Set clear goals and have a clear plan (or action steps) to achieve them. This helps to break it down. Reza’s goals have evolved as they have grown, organically and opportunistically. The vision became clearer as it progressed.
Reza started with short-term project-led goals. It is fine to evolve organically at an early stage and then you should have a clear plan and vision to get people to follow you, which is necessary to attract people and grow.
Support…
Important to have experienced people around who can advise and mentor you. This helps you to shortcut the process. Surround yourself with more experienced people.
Get advisors to get an opinion and then form your own view…don’t follow things blindly.
Secured a loan against the family home was on paper a big risk but when you strongly believe in something then you have to take that step. This is a key part of Reza’s success…outing everything behind it.
Advice and tips
Find experienced people that have been through something similar and bring them on board as advisors and mentors to help shortcut the process.
Don’t go halfway…go all-in…with energy, time, finances, etc. It’s amazing to be so invested in something…which has helped achieve full potential.
Understand the deeper purpose and meaning as to why you are doing something and make that clear to others.
Contact Reza Merchant: www.thecolelctive.com
Remember, if you want to talk about anything from today’s show, or just talk property investing more generally, email me at podcast@thepropertyvoice.net, I would be happy to hear from you! The show notes can be found at our website www.thepropertyvoice.net
All that is left to say, is thank you very much for listening once again this week and until next time on The Property Voice Podcast…it’s ciao-ciao.