Keith Cline, VentureFizz
Andrea, thanks so much for taking the time.
Andrea Garvey, Hometap
Hey, thanks for having me.
Keith Cline, VentureFizz
So we're gonna talk about hometap, which is a company that I think I first heard about, when I was listening to Mike Triano, who's an investor in the company. He has a podcast, he was interviewing Jeff Glass. And it was one of these ideas for hometap that I just was like, wow, this makes so much sense for consumers. So what does the company do? Sure, yeah, so
Andrea Garvey, Hometap
Sure, yeah, so, that was a great podcast, by the way. Um, hometap is a company that makes equity investments in residential homes. So for folks who find themselves in a situation where they might be house rich, but cash poor, and looking to better balance their own personal books, we make an investment, we buy a small portion of the future value of the home and give folks the upfront capital today, up to 30% of the value of their home, typically, we'll see folks who are looking to use that money to pay down debt to fund a small business, fund retirement, or education. But the term is for that investment is 10 years, folks typically will settle that investment to the sale of a home, but that's not required. And certainly there's no prepayment penalty, so you don't have to hold that investment for 10 years, if that doesn't work for you.
Keith Cline, VentureFizz
It's such a powerful thing, right? So as a homeowner, you're building equity, hopefully your home is appreciating. And I almost related to like, you know, having a company like a startup and having a round of venture capital, where you're partnering up with a VC firm that's purchasing a percentage of your company. So it's kind of like that, right?
Andrea Garvey, Hometap
Absolutely, Right. So we view ourselves as a partner with you and your home. And we want the vision is to be as ubiquitous as you know, you asking your friend just bought a home who who invested with you?
Keith Cline, VentureFizz
Well, let's talk about your background. So you know, prior to joining Hometap, talk about your experience.
Andrea Garvey, Hometap
Sure. So my early career was all in marketing. About 10 years ago, I made a switch into HR, I was at a small, fast growing startup at that time, and really needed to focus on helping the company grow and develop some talent that was in sort of mobile development and mobile design. I was there for a long time, we ultimately were acquired, I spent a couple years at the acquiring company. And then I wanted to go back to a small company. So I joined Hometap, a year ago, next week actually.
Keith Cline, VentureFizz
Got it. That's exciting time for hometap. So you recently closed a round of investment towards the end of last year. So talk about the current stage of the company.
Andrea Garvey, Hometap
Yeah, so we closed a Series B round, last December. And that is largely capital that is used for our investments for 2020. It's not all operating capital. And if you think about our business model, we're really packaging and selling money. So we're not episodically raising capital, we're always out. It's sort of a core function of the business. And so we're doing that to secure our 2021 investments as well. When I joined the company, we were 20 people who are really fortunate we've been able to grow throughout this strange time in the world, or just about 50 now. And we've grown across the board, every single function has grown, even since we went home to work from home. So data science, engineering, marketing, and design, sales, operations, every place has grown.
Keith Cline, VentureFizz
And do you plan on continuing to hire in all those different functional areas?
Andrea Garvey, Hometap
Yes, we were very fortunate, we'll continue to grow. So between now and the end of the year, we'll add about 15 or so in most of those areas. So right now we are looking for engineers, there's a couple of marketing roles open, there's always sales operations roles open as we grow, those roles will sort of say stay perma open, if you will, so always looking for good sales people to join the team.
Keith Cline, VentureFizz
So broadly speaking, like, I know, each position has its own set of requirements in terms of what skills you might be looking for, but, you know, broadly speaking, like, how do you evaluate talent to join the company?
Andrea Garvey, Hometap
Thanks for asking. Yeah, so we really live by two sort of macro values. One is to be an owner and one is to be a good neighbor. So when we say owner, really folks who are intrinsically driven to do well at work, and and those those values sort of manifest and explore with intention, and creating solutions and rolling up our sleeves. So for us, we're really working with folks per you know, private financial sensitive information and we want to be very methodical and and be secure and safe as we develop our product. So, you know, really looking to execute with intention on that side. And then on the be a good neighbor side, we're really trying to develop a culture that's very respectful and collaborative. So those elements are collaborating with trust in a team and the homeowner first. I can't tell you how important we feel like our homeowner relations really are and communicating per can constructively and directly. So sometimes that means an obligation to present.
Keith Cline, VentureFizz
Let's talk about the culture Hometap. What's it like working there?
Andrea Garvey, Hometap
So we are all driven to achieve seven kind of key goals this year. And so that really drives kind of the day to day folks get in and are pretty heads down on those goals. And then we have time to socialize and we'll do that through some fun. Some fun, wholesome activities. During quarantine, we've done things like have a mentalist come on, we've toured a farm, which is really fun for the kids. We've actually had a couple of Princess and superhero calls for the kids at the company. And we also try to just, you know, make sure that we're not doing too many Zoom meetings, but try to keep it kind of interesting and fresh. Yeah,
Keith Cline, VentureFizz
Yeah, no, it's important to keep the culture fresh and keep things going as far as momentum in the company. So why is now the ideal time to join Hometap?
Andrea Garvey, Hometap
Sure. I mean, I think I think if you think about the market, there's really a lot of untapped potential. We're making investments in 12 states right now, that will continue to grow as the company grows. But if you think about the mission of making homeownership more accessible and less stressful, there's certainly a lot of ways that we could attack that problem. And I think you'll see more from us as we start to roll out more and more products on our platform.
Keith Cline, VentureFizz
Well, if you are interested in exploring opportunities at Hometap, you can check out all their job listings on VentureFizz. Go to their company page, which is venturefizz.com/hometap, and you'll see all their listings there. Andrea, thanks so much for taking the time and for giving us an inside look at Hometap.
Andrea Garvey, Hometap
Thanks for having me.
