A company built in an attempt to address Britain鈥檚 housing crisis by improving the planning permission process has closed down.
PropTech Tract, which raised 拢744,000 in a pre-seed funding round in April 2024, has decided to wrap up operations and released on its site.
The lengthy article depicts a detailed version of the London-based firm鈥檚 journey over the past two years and says that 鈥渢he ultimate failure of the company lies with us [co-founders Henry Dashwood and Jamie Rumbelow].鈥�
The company was founded in May 2023 as it looked to build software to address the UK housing crisis.聽
鈥淚t seemed absurd that bureaucratic obstacles were holding back so much potential value, especially when millions were being spent on documentation that could be automated,鈥� the document read.
鈥淲ith the rise of LLMs, we believed we could transform this inefficient process.鈥�
The company managed to raise funds from notable venture capital firms including Ada Ventures and Concept Ventures to build a platform.
The platform was built with the purpose of identifying areas of land to be built and help to compile relevant planning permission documentation to speed up the building of houses.聽
However, its customer base size did not live up to the expectation and anticipation of the co-founders, leading to it ceasing operations and returning capital to investors last month.聽
The duo have cited many reasons as to why the business has ultimately failed, including their ability to work together.聽
A quote from 鈥楢 Postmortem of a Startup鈥� read: 鈥淲e get along well, but our skill sets aren鈥檛 especially complementary.聽
鈥淭here鈥檚 significant overlap, and we didn鈥檛 hire thoughtfully enough to correct that.鈥澛�
It also provided details about the pair spending time and money on 鈥榥on-essentials鈥�, including an office, website and branding, a trip to America, contractors and unnecessary employees.
“This is the thing I鈥檓 most angry with myself about,鈥� said Rumbelow, who now plans to move to San Francisco.聽
鈥淚t smacks of vanity and stupidity, and I should have held myself to a higher standard.鈥�
Dashwood added: 鈥淚f I were to start a startup again, I鈥檇 take more time and be more intentional in talking to potential customers before needing to raise money.
鈥淚ronically this feels easier having been through the process once. I鈥檓 more comfortable reaching out, focusing my questions to avoid wasting time, and moving the conversation towards getting a firm but useful ‘No’.鈥�
Despite the business ultimately collapsing, the pair have been praised online for their openness and honesty – even by their investors.聽
Reece Chowdhry, founding partner at Concept Ventures, wrote on LinkedIn: 鈥�Building a startup is brutal. So often, VCs focus on the upside – pushing PR and celebrating successes (including me).聽
鈥淏ut in my experience, the real learning often comes from the tough moments when things don鈥檛 go to plan. I鈥檝e always made it a point to dig into these stories because they鈥檙e where the real insights lie.
鈥淚鈥檇 really encourage any founder to read the post-mortem from Tract. It wasn鈥檛 a smooth journey, but it鈥檚 filled with valuable lessons on product, go-to-market strategy, and – most importantly – how to handle challenges with integrity.
鈥�Henry Dashwood and Jamie Rumbelow are remarkable people. The humility they鈥檝e shown in sharing their experience is something I wish I saw more of.聽
鈥淗uge respect to them for their honesty and willingness to reflect publicly. It鈥檚 a powerful reminder that the hardest journeys often teach us the most and to also work together with good people on deals re Matt Penneycard in this case!鈥�
Penneycard, co-founding partner at Ada Ventures, added: 鈥淭his took bravery. The founders’ hope is that by dissecting this anatomy of a startup publicly, it may have some value for others.聽
鈥淲e invested in these fantastic individuals alongside Reece Chowdhry and I share his views that we wish more founders felt comfortable being this open, in service of others. Kudos.鈥�