A coffee and catch up with… Nat, Business Development Executive

My first day at Street Group was the first working day of 2021, and what a way to kick off a new year!

Previously, I had worked for a national estate agency business in lettings before moving on to be their Franchise Sales Manager; so my experience spanned both the sales and lettings industry but with a large helping of working with independent estate agency businesses.

During this time, Spectre was one of our preferred suppliers, so I had great exposure to the product, and I always rated the way the Spectre team carried out their business (and how fun they were at industry events!).

I’d heard rumblings of a new Estate Agency CRM coming to the market, so when I received the Street.co.uk teaser video via an industry news outlet, I couldn’t help but want to be a part of it (once I’d stopped tapping my feet)!

Not long after, I was the 4th person (and first outsider!) to join the Street commercial team.

The remote onboarding process was incredible; I really couldn’t have asked for a better experience. 

Not only were we in the throes of a global pandemic, but I was also based in York, so I had a big-ish move to come to terms with, and the team were incredibly supportive. One of the most valuable things was the ‘Donut’ meetings, which randomly connects you to a different person in the company each week for a virtual coffee catch up.

I’m now based in Manchester city centre and have loved getting to know the wider team in person, whilst also being able to work from my cosy (aka small) flat a couple of days a week.‍

So, what’s it like day to day?‍

No day is the same in my role, and that is what I absolutely love about being part of this team.

We start off with our morning stand-up which allows us to catch up as a team on what we got up to the day before and bring to the table anything we think the wider team might need to be a part of.

The rest of my day tends to be a mixture of meetings with Estate Agents to show them around Street, internal meetings to discuss product feedback and progress, and working with the Agents who have signed up for Street to get them onboarded as smoothly as possible.

I also liaise with people outside of the business, including Agents' website developers, and the major property portals, so I get to work with various internal departments, clients and external companies daily.

My favourite meeting is our bi-weekly Sprint Review, where the Street developers present to us what they’ve been working on. I love seeing what they’ve been getting up to and how quickly we are developing the system. It’s so exciting to see it all come together!

The day always ends with a full Commercial team debrief that sees the Spectre and Street team get together to update on how our days have been and allows Heather to update us with anything we might need to know.

From Corporate to Casual‍

I’ve never worked for a Tech company before, so it was challenging at first getting to know some of the processes and some of the terms used, but having exposure to such a talented bunch of developers has been fascinating for me. 

I’m really lucky that I get to work closely with our dev team, whether it’s working together to figure out the reason for a glitch in the system, getting a client onboarded onto Street or providing my insights into how I think parts of the system could work in practice.

The vibe of working for a tech company is also completely different from working for a corporate company — the atmosphere is much more relaxed, and you can truly be yourself, which absolutely suits me to a tee. Of course, the fridge full of beers at 4pm on a Friday is also a highlight! 

But, what really makes working for Street Group stand out is the openness of our co-founders, Tom and Heather. I was absolutely astounded during one of my first All-Hands meetings when they discussed some potential changes within the company at the decision stage — not after the event! And I’ve come to learn that that is just the way it is around here. We default to open, and it makes for such a great working environment.‍