Meet the mortgage experts at Acre
When Acre set out on its mission to make home-buying easier, we knew that it would be impossible to be the best technology provider in the mortgage industry without the help and guidance of the experts within it.
Our first steps were critical to the quality and performance of Acre’s platform today. We started by spending a year with brokers, lenders, clubs, and insurers and gathered a team of experts along the way, including (now ex!) brokers and mortgage administrators, with first-hand experience of the challenges our customers face.
In a similar fashion to the notorious race between the tortoise and the hare, taking our time to lay the right foundations at the start may have been slow, but it meant that Acre has since been able to accelerate forward and over the course of a few years building an industry-leading product, bespoke to its users.
We’ve caught up with some of the key players in shaping Acre’s product and customer experience to learn more about their roles and how their industry knowledge has been impactful at Acre.
Meet Sam
As Head of Product, Sam's focus is ensuring that Acre meets the needs of our customers (and then some!). His list of skills and responsibilities is seemingly endless but ultimately Sam oversees the innovation and improvement of Acre’s product as well as the day-to-day product management to make sure our product is constantly growing to suit our customer’s needs.
What did you do before Acre?
I’ve worked in financial services my entire career, including time working directly as a mortgage advisor and running a large team of advisors.
How has your previous experience benefitted your role there?
Like many of our users, I was massively frustrated by how much manual ‘busy work’ was involved in the process of completing a mortgage for a customer. Often the systems I (or my team) used were not ‘additive’ to the process and were only really being used because we had to, rather than them actually making my job easier!
How would Acre’s product have made your life easier in your previous role?
As an advisor, a massive reduction in the amount of manual work involved – mainly eradicating having to ‘copy and paste’ 101 fields into 4 different systems for every case – as well as huge time savings by having access to the same level of data as the lender (Credit reporting, ONS, property insights etc.).
As a manager/business owner, the benefit of having all of my data and process in a single system would be immeasurable!
Meet Morgan
As one of Acre’s Product Managers, Morgan’s in charge of the development of our Client Portal. She’s an absolute all-rounder, collaborating with pretty much everyone in Acre’s team, working with product, engineering, design, customer success, sales, and senior management to gather complex requirements, balance priorities, and ship the right products and features to the market.
What did you do before Acre?
My last job was at a digital mortgage brokerage startup, where I worked as a Mortgage Advisor, before this I was at HSBC. I have had quite a varied career, where I have also lived and worked abroad for several years. I started my working life in the retail sector, working in the press and marketing departments of large-scale fashion and lifestyle businesses.
How has your previous experience benefitted your role there?
Working as a Mortgage Advisor was something I really enjoyed, but often felt let down by how rigid and old-school the industry can be. I think with these real-life experiences I can speak with conviction on issues brokers have and try to build our product to ease their daily struggles.
How would Acre’s product have made your life easier in your previous role?
When I was an AdviserI counted all the different services I had to use to do my job and when I got to 11, I stopped counting! Having everything in one place just makes the job that much easier.
Meet Richard
As one of Acre’s Customer Success Associates, Richard works at the frontline of customer interactions to help our users get the most out of our platform. He plays a critical role in managing customer escalations, upcoming product changes, and delivering resolutions to any issues and is an important advocate for user needs, ensuring the Acre product continually delights our customers.
What did you do before Acre?
I was previously working as a Mortgage Processor for a mortgage brokerage part of a large financial advice network.
Prior to that, I was working for an online mortgage brokerage, Trussle, where I was a Mortgage Processor /Customer Success representative.
Before joining Trussle, I was working for One Family and set up their equity release lending arm as a Business Support Analyst and Mortgage Processor.
How has your previous experience benefitted your role there?
My previous experience over the years has benefitted my understanding of the market immensely and I know what it’s like to work for both mortgage brokers as well as mortgage lenders.
How would Acre’s product have made your life easier in your previous role?
I have primarily worked with proprietary bespoke systems that have a very off-the-shelf feel.
I think that Acre would have particularly made my life easier at the point where we needed a system that was bespoke to our needs, being it storing customer information to source products to the benefit of knowing when your client's mortgage terms end. What Acre offers is vital for a brokerage with a lot of re-mortgage cases.
Meet Nikki
As one of Acre’s Quality Assurance Analysts, Nikki helps to ensure that our apps are of the highest quality and all features are up to scratch before we release them to our customers. Nikki is in charge of making sure what we build as a team passes all our criteria and works as expected.
What did you do before Acre?
I have had quite a few roles relevant to my job at Acre, starting my career as a Mortgage Administrator and then moving into the world of Quality Assurance (QA), working on software in financial services and in start-up environments.
How has your previous experience benefitted your role at Acre?
Having a combination of experience in QA, financial services and start-ups has given me a great platform to understand what is required from both the Customer POV. Also, my experience of being able to work in a fast-paced start-up environment, helps to ensure that the product is not only turned around quickly but with the highest quality.
How would Acre’s product have made your life easier in your previous role?
Acre has a product where you can add all the information required prior to Sourcing and not just for mortgages but also protection. This will save Brokers/Advisers a huge amount of time as it combines the customer’s lending and product needs, therefore making the journey a quicker and smoother experience for everyone.
Want to learn more?
If you’re interested in checking out what your industry peers have been working on in the world of tech, book a demo to learn more about us and see how our platform can make your life easier.