Ten Questions with Danny Jay, Co-Founder at Jangle

What if zero portal spend was a reality for UK agents?

That's the idea behind Jangle, the new portal that is free for agents—now, and forever.

But in a market dominated by Rightmove, Zoopla and OnTheMarket, Jangle faces a stern test to establish itself as a valuable alternative for out-of-pocket agents.

I asked co-founder Danny Jay ten questions about monetization, agent satisfaction, and how Jangle will be the catalyst for an 'agent revolution'. His answers are below.

Enjoy!

Tell us about agent satisfaction in the UK.

Estate agents are generally instant-minded, impatient, face-to-face communicators and when things go wrong, they want immediate responses. The ‘Big Three’ were not dealing efficiently with issues that arose, yet still finding ways to charge more to their users.

I read a survey which touched on how poorly rated Rightmove, Zoopla and OnTheMarket were, and we were amazed that Rightmove market share was so high.

I thought as an industry, we should do better.

This is where Jangle began.
 

What problem does Jangle solve?

Currently, a property hunter in the UK will search through several portals to see the properties available in an area and if they wish to receive updates of new properties advertised, they’ll register with Rightmove, Zoopla, OnTheMarket and a host of others.

Once Jangle is launched, they’ll only need to register with us, as it’s a free-to-list platform with all properties for estate agents, developers, house builders and housing associations. Why wouldn’t you use it?!

What is Jangle’s USP?

Jangle has two USPs—one for agents, and one for the public.

For agents, our USP is ‘Zero Portal Spend’, while for the public it is ‘Every property all in one place’.

We are developing ‘speech search’ using the Mobile App or a PC and this will develop into AI technology, and we're also working on technology for spotting and removing duplicate listings—something we have found is a real turn-off for property searchers.

Your co-founder Jeremy Rosenblatt says Jangle will be free to use for agents, forever. How will Jangle generate revenue without listing fees?

The short answer is discreet banner advertising.

The ‘Big Three’ have huge sales teams whose job is to convince estate agents to advertise more and sell the various packages they offer. But because we have nothing to sell, we don’t need an expensive sales force. Social media is the modern form of getting your message out and most of our resources will be focused around the various channels so the business running costs will be a fraction of the competition.

Once the public starts using Jangle, our income stream from the banner adverts will bear fruit for our investors and shareholders, but this will take some time.

What feedback are you getting from agents as you embark on this journey?

Many are asking when we're planning to launch as they seem keen to start using a free service.

The question agents keep asking us is how we're going to make money—once we’ve explained the concept and strategy, they seem to want to know more.

We’ve even had a few asking if they are able to buy shares and invest directly. We'll look at this proposal further down the line.

Your messaging says “Join the revolution”. What does a successful revolution look like to Jangle given the competitive nature of the UK portal industry?

The revolution will only be a success if we have every estate agent, developer, house builder and housing association in the UK listing their properties on Jangle.

The portal business model is competitive and there have been many who have been unsuccessful, but none have done or attempted to do what we have planned.  Those before us have sold a story of how they will do it better than others, but we are the ones who have revolutionised the concept and brought it up to date.

What are your biggest challenges at the moment, and how will you solve them?

The first is onboarding.  Whilst we have had a great response from many small estate agents expressing their interest to advertise with us, we’ve not yet managed to get any national chains or franchises on board. Once we have one or two of the top 10 agreeing to upload their properties when we go live, others will follow.

The second challenge is funding.  With the world in general economic turmoil and interest rates unstable, investment in a new concept that will not have any paying customers is, understandably, a step too far for some institutions. This will become easier once we have a more tangible product that prospective investors can see in action.

Jangle has closed its first funding round and has hundreds of agent signups. What’s next?

Our web developers are hard at work building the site. Once we have a working model of it we’ll be back on the road talking to investors who will finance the next phase.

What is your short-, medium- and long-term vision for Jangle?

The short-term goal is to get the website up and running for investors to see and play with.

Medium-term, we are looking at another investment round, onboarding agents, and launching publicly.

Long-term, we want to become the first property search portal the public use (yes, before Rightmove!).

How do you see the portal scene evolving, and how will you stay ahead of the curve?

We have to keep finding new ways to drive traffic to Jangle.  The ‘Big Three’ spend their time and resources searching for new ways to increase agents' monthly spend—while our time and resources will be targeted at driving more (and better) traffic from our website to our partners' sites.

The process of buying and selling property has not changed in over 200 years. We're not reinventing the wheel here, just installing a suspension system that will give a more comfortable ride.