The Entrepreneurial Mindset: Navigating Challenges and Building a Strong Brand

Speaker A: Foreign m.

Speaker B: Welcome to the Startups of London podcast. I'm your host, Ozan, and the founder of Startups of London. Today I'm joined by Dennis Alderman, co founder of Easy Tool Hire. Easy Tool Hire is an interesting business that makes the tool plant and the plant hire process quick, easy and accessible to all. It helps you rent everything you need to kick off, for example a renovation project, a gardening project, ongoing works and much more. Uh, they're a part of the Easyjet, uh, easy family of brands and I'm excited to have. Denison, welcome.

Speaker A: Hi there. Thank you very much for the invite, Ozad, and I'm looking forward to our conversation.

Speaker B: Same here. So uh, why don't you tell us about the business, how it started, just so that we have uh, a basis, background, understanding of what it is that you do and where the business is today.

Speaker A: Sure, I'll try to keep that concise since I can go on about it for quite a bit.

Speaker B: Don't worry, I'll definitely interrupt you. You can.

Speaker A: Okay, good. Yeah, so, yeah, so um, we actually, you know, as many, uh, startup journeys kind of end up, we didn't. The original idea wasn't really easy tool hire. So that wasn't what we started off with. That's something that we landed in after we were in the market. And um, over a period of a few years we iterated. But we first started out really early 2018 and it was a general goods rental marketplace. So it was a marketplace business and it was for anything and everything that you can hire. So we would onboard suppliers that literally would uh, that would rent you wheelchairs, that would rent you bouncy castles, that would rent you baby strollers, baby cribs, literally anything you could imagine. And the focus was uh, a bit more on hospitality. So we were working with hotels and service department. So that was really, really the original genesis of where we started. And the reason um, for that was because my, I was more in hospitality and my co founder Andrea, you know, was at Rocket Internet and he had moved around a lot to uh, different locations and there uh, was always a few things that you know, was missing that didn't make sense for him to buy. But uh, renting made more sense. And then when we, you know, met each other at Imperial College, we both went to uni in London and uh, reconnected after some years later and had this idea and this experience that we can both relate to. We, we decided to launch uh, back then it was called Rentu, which was, as I explained, this general goods rental marketplace that evolved over the years and it went into events specifically, instead of working with hotels and service departments, we focused on the event side of the business. So it was mostly furniture rental and hire. And then of course Covid happened in 2020. And uh, around that period of time we had also just gotten investments from, from Stelios, which is the founder of EasyJet, a very, uh, you know, I think a high profile figure in the UK especially and a very successful figure that launched, you know, Europe's most well known low cost airline or one of the most well known airlines. So he got involved with us around 2019 and um, we were running the event hire, uh, marketplace business. And then 2020 we were still on that trajectory, but we had then taken on the Easy brand since that was part of the deal we had with Stelios. He would be a shareholder but also give us a brand license. But then Covid happened and then we landed in construction. So it was quite a journey from being a generally general goods rental marketplace to an event hire marketplace. And then, and some also iterations along the way, but basically ending up in tool and construction hire as and not m a marketplace, but more of a licensing SaaS and franchise model. So that's just maybe a bit of a snapshot of um, our journey.

Speaker B: Thank you, Appreciate it. Uh, so the uh, EasyJet Easy family of brands, uh, so what's the investment strategy there? Because that seems to be one of the big news that uh, has perhaps changed the trajectory of the company. So maybe we can start there.

Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, of course. So Stelios was really inspired by Richard Branson. So m, that's what he shared with us and just how Virgin has uh, expanded into a lot of different verticals and put that really strong brand on a lot of different types of businesses. Stelios went out to achieve exactly the same thing and he has done that successfully with um, other brands such as Easy Hotel, for example, or Easy Car. So his investment strategy is very much to invest in a brand that he believes or invest in a business that he believes can take on his brand. So he always offers you a brand license and there is power in that brand because airlines build strong brands. It has 98% consumer brand recognition in the UK alone. So he needs to believe in the business. He's an entrepreneur. And uh, that's exciting compared to working with maybe a institutional fund. When you work with him, you know, you're really talking to the decision maker and you're talking to someone with some real wealth of experience. You know, that's really went through that journey himself.

Speaker B: So it's not just uh, the investment that you've received, but more about some board level direction, strategic advice as well. Is that, is that the case?

Speaker A: Definitely. Look, he's been very generous with his time. Uh, he's incredibly, you know, um, experienced and um, um, you know there's been resource that we've been able to get access to uh, because of him. So we're very grateful for that. You know, whether that's around IP licensing and franchising, whether that's you know, just general business advice. So definitely I, I would say so.

Speaker B: Got it. The, you know there was this uh, funny story of people don't need uh, uh, they actually don't need drills. What they want uh, are the holes in the wall. So in terms of this is always used like a sales or like a marketing uh, puzzle. So I want to hold in my wall. I really don't care that if I have a drill or not in terms of what you sell to people and what, what the real desire is, what the need is. But in your case I think that's, that's kind of literally it. Right. So from my limited understanding of the business, people have jobs to be done and then they need tools to do those jobs but they don't want to buy those, those tools. Is that the main niche of the need in the market that you're addressing? What's, what's there that does not meet the eye.

Speaker A: Okay, so um, that's, I think that's a really good question. And so yeah, with Easy Tool Hire, for example, the name might point you in the direction of tools. And that's something we definitely do do. But we do more than tools as well. We also do micro plants. So for example, one of our most popular products in the UK is a 1.5 ton mini digger, an excavator and um, but we have a very wide product catalog and in essence you know people, uh, all sorts of people, whether it's a DIYer, so it's someone that's doing the job themselves, they're doing a little renovation gig at home or a little landscaping job or whether you're a contractor or a builder or um, you know, like that, you know, tradesperson, you will need to hire specialist equipment for certain jobs and it doesn't make sense for you to own it uh, most of the time, especially if it costs a lot to buy. So rental is a much more affordable, value driven proposition. So you know, for certain drills that might not be the case since you use the example of Drills. But there are other items, such as, you know, breakers or micro plants, such as mini diggers or dumpers or scissor lifts that, you know, some of those products will be really expensive, you know. And the mini digger example, it costs you 25 grand to buy a digger. It costs you only a couple of hundred quid to rent it. So

Speaker B: I don't see myself owning a scissor lift. I don't see the.

Speaker A: You will not own a scissor lift. Exactly. So it is. Even if you're a professional within the industry, it doesn't really make a lot of sense for you to own it. It's just a pain to maintain, to transport and it's a lot to purchase up front. So um, that's why rental companies exist. And the rental industry is really big. It's a 30 billion pound industry across Europe and the UK and that's just documented equipment rental. And there's much more of that if you include the general DIY market. So we appeal to both people that are professionals as well as people that are looking to do something at home. And uh, the catalog we offer covers definitely tools of all shapes and sizes as well as micro plants.

Speaker B: I was going to ask about that actually. Uh, so before, before we go forward, uh, what's the breakdown of, of, of your base customers? Is it B2B large construction companies? Uh, more, uh, weekend, uh, fiddlers, DIY warriors.

Speaker A: So um, yeah, in terms of our customer split, it varies. We are in four countries in four different languages with over 27 different franchise regions. So there is of course variance between each of those different locations. You know, the Portuguese market or the Italian market or the Spanish market is all a bit different than the UK market. And we're present in all four. But what I can say about the UK is that, huh, generally it would fit that Persona of a sole trader. So kind of a micro business, it would be uh, a contractor, it'll be a builder, it would be that DIYer, so someone that is looking to do a gig at, at home. And the industry would call that cash customers. So there's credit customers, which would be the larger construction companies that you've hinted towards that would have trade accounts that would have preferred suppliers and a, uh, procurement process that is really tight. And then you have the other side of that where there's people that will just need to hire and rent items and they won't have that account need from a rental company. And that's the segment we target because the brand works really well. It has 98% and consumer recognition. And we would focus on those micro businesses, sole traders, contractors and builders and DIY ERs.

Speaker B: That's, that's like a very strong competitive uh, advantage you have there. The, the recognizability of the brand. And it makes so m much sense, uh, to, to, to, to double down on it. But with that in mind, it makes me think about the distribution. Now that we have a base level understanding of the breakdown of, of, of your customer base. Uh, let's say I do have a need for a mini excavator or something, but how do I actually uh, find you? What is your strategy for reaching out to people? Are you optimizing for SEO? Uh, do you do events? Uh, is it partnerships with key people, key organizations in the industry? There are a lot of ways and sometimes I think this is where most businesses either make it or break down. Uh, they, they might have a great product, they might have identified, ah, a pretty accurate niche in the market and they might actually be able to create a lot of value at a good price point. That's also another question. How do you know how to price it? But uh, we'll come to that later. But my current question is how do people find you? What's your strategy there?

Speaker A: Yeah, distribution. Okay, sure, yeah, that's a really key point because you can be, you know, fantastic as a business, uh, but if no one's heard about you, then you're not really a business, are you? So I like the tree in the

Speaker B: forest that fell because nobody heard it.

Speaker A: Exactly. So distribution and marketing is so, so important. And for us, you know, you mentioned search. Search is actually a big part of our acquisition strategy. It's actually a big part of the industry as well. You'll be surprised with how many people will go to Google and they will search for mini digger hire or they'll search for scissor lift higher or they will search for a wacker plate or a plate, you know, a plate compactor. Um, so search is definitely a big part of it. And we focus a lot on organic, uh, search. So that's SEO. And then we also do paid uh, advertising campaigns, mostly on AdWords. So again on paid search. So that is a big part of our acquisition. And then it is also through partnerships. So uh, you know, we build partnerships out with other merchants, uh, that cater, uh, the construction industry. So that could be other uh, you know, outlets and shops and gardening centers that would be, you know, selling construction material or other tools and having a presence there. So that's also something that we focus on. Which is quite important. And then we would at the same time, um, also push quite aggressively within the, you know, the local areas that we have a depot in. So whenever we sign a rental company and we engage with them on a franchise, you know, venture, a franchise relationship, they'll have different shops and depots where they would have all their stock. So having a strong presence locally is quite important. So we will do sponsorships, for example, we will do offline advertising, we'll do radio, we'll do bus advertising very locally. So, uh, that's also something that we do. But search, um, honestly has been a big opportunity and it's something that we drive pretty strong on.

Speaker B: It makes a lot of sense if you think about it. It's not an impulse purchase, exactly right. The things that, uh, you present to people, it's not like, oh, yeah, I'll do it, I want that. But it's just, uh, it needs to come at the right time, at the right place. They have a problem. And that's the good thing with search. They already have the problem. They are the person. They need that now or very soon. And then, uh. But it must be very competitive. I think the Google search landscape has changed quite a bit. So what do you think about that? Like, have you observed, uh, any changes there in the last few, uh, months, Years? Yeah, especially there's a lot of big push towards more paid, uh, organic content is changing, SEO is changing. Yeah, yeah. How is that landscape affecting your business look?

Speaker A: So, you know, I think search is so important for any business, honestly, uh, especially in a business like ours, uh, it's important not only in terms of the results you can get in regards to kind of inquiries and sales and ultimately revenues, of course, but. And people do have high commercial intent, as you pointed out, because when they're searching for something, you know, you know, they'll put mini digger higher or whacker plate higher. So they want to hire or rent the product and they literally will put that into Google. And that, um, means that, you know, their purchase intent is quite high, that they're there and they're ready to, uh, pay and get, and get, um, something. But also, I think search is really important for business decisions in terms of business intelligence. You can look at what the competitive landscape is doing. You can see, you know, other companies bidding strategies when it comes to, uh, paid ads. Also it gives you a good indication of the potential of a. So we would do a lot of keyword research. We would look at a lot of different search volume, um, metrics for different categories that we want to promote and we would do it on a very local basis. So we would do that as local as Manchester. So we would look at Manchester, we'll know exactly the search volume for our top categories in Manchester and then we would drive on that and then we would look at other parts of the country and realize actually that looked like an opportunity but then the data doesn't really back it up too much. So actually maybe that's something we should not focus on and we should focus more on, on somewhere else. So that's the way we've used search as well as to kind of guide business decisions as well as of course kind of produce results. In regards to sales, I think the landscape has changed incredibly. That's why it's so important to have uh, I think a really strong team. We have an in house team. Uh, it's been really difficult to find the right type of people. Uh, I'll be frank with you, it's, you know, we went through a lot of different type of SEO managers and um, you know, it's often viewed as a opaque field. It's like the black art of SEO. A lot of people even in marketing don't understand SEO. Um, but it's just so important to get right and it's so important to get the right team on that because things change. You know, Google will push updates very, very frequently. This is what people don't get. People think they'll go up on the search rankings and that's a permanent slot. That's never going to change. Just because you're on PA1 now doesn't mean you're going to be on page one tomorrow. Because Google's constantly changing the algorithm. So you need people to, you know, be up to date with that and you know, you need people to be passionate about that, to go to SEO conferences, to constantly read about the field of SEO. Um, because it does change and it will continue to change.

Speaker B: Obviously that is the case. It's also a landscape where the competitive nature of things are quite visible, which I kind of appreciate about it. Uh, in a world without uh, Google search and SEO or other uh, options, people are limited to what they can reach within a certain physical, uh, distance. But now it's just much more international. So the competition is there, you can actually see it. And with that in mind, I would love to actually touch base on that. What is the competitive landscape for your business? Who are your direct competitors and what are the cases when people choose to go with them rather than you or the opposite?

Speaker A: So yeah, in Terms of our competitive landscape, I would say that you have some of the larger national hire companies that some of the audience here might have heard of. That could be, if they're based in the UK of course that could be HSS Hire, Speedy Hire, uh, definitely for that uh, DIY market especially. And then you have other companies like Sunbelt Rentals, but they don't have too much of a DIY focus, but still a very large national hire company that works with businesses. So those are some of the nationals. Our industry is pretty big. So for example HSS Hire is a publicly listed company. Uh, so is Sunbelt Rentals. Uh, Sunbelt Rentals is part of Ashtead Group and I think their last market cap was about 35 billion. It's a U.S. company. Uh, so you have some really, really big players in Europe as well. You have Bulls, uh, from the Netherlands, you uh, have Kilo two in France. So these are companies that produce hundreds of million in revenue and have multi billion uh, valuations. So what our strategy has always been is there are some large national players, some large private equity backed players as well as publicly listed. So we would work with independent operators. So we work with kind of, you know, small, medium sized businesses within the rental world and we bring them together to fight against the big boys. So we will get multiple different independent rental companies for each different region in the uk. And the industry is hyperlocal. That's why it's super important to have a hyperlocal presence is where your depots and shops are located that are very important because some of this kit is not easy to transport. Right. So we would partner up with these independent businesses and then together we would have the same network effects that a large national player would have. So that is something that I can say about the landscape and how we operate within it. There's also other parts of that. There are other kind of, you know, brokers that just do the brokerage of um, equipment rental and hire. We, you know, they are to some extent a competitor. But then again, you know, our business model is just so different. We're not a broker. We work only with one supplier exclusively per geography. So we'll have one company in Scotland, one company in London, one company in the northwest and northeast of England, which means that we just integrate so much more deeply in terms of it being a business partnership and a venture so that we can really add value to that end customer. But that's what I probably can say about the competitive landscape.

Speaker B: Got you, got you a good summary. Thanks for that. What I'm curious about is what are the big milestones, uh, in, in your mind, uh, Dennis, uh, in terms of the business, what is, what are the things that you're looking forward to? Whether the. What would be a great, great, amazing news, uh, for the company in the next year? Let's say, what are you looking, looking forward to?

Speaker A: Yeah. So, um, you know, right now we're about 30 people, uh, full time, uh, with a bit more if I include people that are part time. We're distributed and remote as a team. We do meetups every month. We're in four different countries in four different languages, and 27 plus franchise regions. In regards to, you know, I think a milestone that we're looking to achieve is we would like to expand internationally. Obviously, we've done this successfully within the four markets on, um, the same, you know, product that we have. The same deal has been signed in Glasgow, as in Rome, as it has in Lisbon, as it has been in Madrid. So there is more international expansion in the pipeline. We would like to expand into the French market market. So that's something that we do have planned for later this year, at the end of year, uh, because that's a big opportunity. Um, there is also, I think, uh, a very, very important milestone of consolidating the existing markets that we're in. The UK is our biggest opportunity, so it is the biggest market for, uh, this industry. And I think a really key milestone would be for us to get complete national coverage. We're not fully covering the entire country yet. We're covering a lot of the key areas, but we don't have full national coverage as of yet, which we will hopefully very, very soon. So I think that also will be a big milestone for us. And then, um, it's just us executing on the plan. You know, we've got a really clear plan in terms of the marketing as well, in terms of the partnerships that we're building. So it's just giving that the time to, um, work, which it really is because, you know, we're growing rapidly, uh, month on month, which is really exciting. And I think at that point another milestone would be us really being able to have the network effects of having all these other businesses that have signed up to the easy venture to work together and start passing business between each other. So I think that's also something that would be a big benefit for us.

Speaker B: When I imagine people using your products, uh, immediately, what comes to mind is people are either delighted by this whole experience from start to finish, right? They start with the search intent or they see your ad somewhere or they hear it from a friend and then the whole online booking, payment, uh, uh, delivery, timely and high, uh, quality delivery, disclaimers, warnings, etc about the use of these uh, tools and devices, people then using them, collection, uh, feedback, that whole cycle, the more smooth it is. And sometimes what I experience as a customer myself is you buy a product and then they give you like uh, a little candy on top. It's just a little thing, but it's beyond what you wanted and it does really add to your satisfaction. So even with things like that, just uh, to surprise and delight people in ways that you show them. Okay, we are really good operator here. And then what that creates is this unstoppable force of a feedback loop of positive reinforcement, uh, where people do a lot of word of mouth marketing for you and then it grows and then the opposite thing can happen as well. Right, right. People, people, people have an experience with you and then they're like, uh, I would not really go with easy tool hire. Why? Yeah, because uh, it's late. It's just so a lot of things come down to execution and the quality and the attention to detail I see there. Uh, so I don't know what your thoughts are on that. So I would love to get your thoughts on what I just said as well as to hear how you're measuring, how you're collecting data about customer uh, satisfaction and user happiness.

Speaker A: Yeah, okay, so look, I'm absolutely with you. I think attention to detail is key. You need to delight your customer and uh, that's so, so important. And in the end of the day, you know, business is people. So you know, you need to have common sense and you have to treat people the right way and you need to delight them and surpass their expectations. So you know, that very much is a big focus for us. The way we achieve that is, you know, by picking really the right partners to work with. Because, you know, we don't own the stock ourselves, we don't deal with the fulfillment and the logistics of it either. But we do make that process much easier. You know, we do enable people to go online, have the full product catalog, know if it's available or not, see, you know, transparently what the cost breakdown is and uh, you know, enable them to get a quotation or to place that order immediately, book a delivery slot. So we definitely digitize and make that entire, you know, process very easy for someone to do. And we provide all the FAQs and information you would need to make a decision. And you know, for Our uh, franchise partners, we also make it really easy for them and cost effective for them to service, you know, that customer demand. We have CRM, uh, systems integrations with inventory management systems and we have a whole lot of marketing automation that kind of makes their lives easier. Um, and you know we do track a lot customer feedback. So um, that happens in multiple ways. It happens on site when people come to one of the locations and of course they can fill out a form or they can just share their feedback. It happens over the phone. You know the operators at the hire desk will always ask you know, if a customer is satisfied and then we'll put it down if they're not and the same they are. And then it'll happen also digitally through um, you know, different emails and SMS and interactions that we have when someone engages with the platform. So you know we do measure it. It's incredibly important for us to measure it and to constantly keep that focus on the customer because it is all about the customer and I think some businesses lose track of that. But you know having that customer focus is so, so important and it's something that we're constantly striving to do more around.

Speaker B: It's a key part of running the business and I'm so happy you have a big focus on it. Uh, in some businesses that I've interacted uh, either the customer or in different capacities. In the UK what seems to happen is there are a lot of uh, contractors that are subcontracting to each other and there's like this, you know the psychological term, the diffusion of responsibility. So nobody feels responsible when you have a situation and uh, it's just a dreadful experience for the customer. You cannot even cancel uh, a service that you have, etc because the contact uh, the call center does, is, is just like an incumbent and they don't really are uh, key part of, so that's I think a key part of these service, uh, oriented type of businesses that the customers experience as frictionless, seamless, high quality. And it's difficult to gather data around that as well. But it's amazing that you're focused on this.

Speaker A: Look, look just, just, just to share a bit on that point. But you know it really is down to the people in the business, right that are serving customers. So that's why we spend so much time making sure we pick the right franchise partner because we want to partner since it's going to be their guys on the phone to that are really, really customer focused that are going to go that extra mile. And generally speaking it is Those independent family run businesses that do that, you know, it's not necessarily maybe a very bureaucratic, big national company, you know, where you're a small piece in a very big machine, but it's that independent business that really, really knows their local area, that really, really cares and is still very owner driven. You know, that's why we work with independent businesses which are often family run, because they really, genuinely care. And that culture, you know, comes top down, bottom up and is really, really, really present. So I think, you know, that is just super important to always have to be human about it as well and to make that process easy if, you know, you can't bounce. I've been in that situation myself. It's horrible. Whenever I call, I'm not going to name other brands, but whenever I call like a big bank or you know, I call some call center and then I'm waiting for 20 minutes, they transfer me between department to department. No one wants to accept accountability and responsibility. It's a nightmare. So, you know, that's exactly why, you know, we've spent so much of our resource, um, you know, making that process as straightforward and as easy and you know, pun intended with the brand. Since we are easy tool hire, we want to make it easy for people to fulfill their tool and makes so much sense.

Speaker B: Dennis. Uh, I think this was an amazing conversation, uh, easy tool hire for sure. When I have something like this, uh, that I need, uh, it will be the first time, first, first place I check and uh, I'll let you know how it goes.

Speaker A: Terrific. Thank you so much. It was an absolute pleasure being invited to the podcast and having the opportunity to have a chat with you as well. So, um, looking forward to staying in touch in the future and please look, uh, anyone that is listening, you know, the one thing I've learned being on this journey is that you need to give back. I've been, you know, I remember when we started out, I didn't really know what direction this was going to take, but being able to lean on others that have already done it or have had similar experiences I think is so important. And, um, I think the UK and London is really good in that because there is a big founder and startup community. So I'm very happy to answer questions to help out, uh, and share my learnings because I've made a lot of mistakes and there's been a lot of lessons I've learned as well. To everyone that is looking to start a business, that is looking to kind of do something entrepreneurial, I'm just very happy to help out.

Speaker B: Was a pleasure. This. Thank you.

Speaker A: Cheers. Bye.