It’s fair to say that, despite launching her own MVP business straight from university, Hannah Chappatte is very much at home as CEO of a company that is already making waves in the property sector.
When Hannah graduated from the University of Bristol in 2019, she wasn’t certain what path she wanted to take. Her degree in Liberal Arts had given her a good grounding in English, history, ethics and philosophy, but the idea of applying for graduate jobs didn’t appeal and she granted herself a couple of months off to consider her options.
Thinking time and a retrospective look at her student experience sparked a business idea that would help solve one of the biggest headaches of university life and HYBR – a property platform for students – was born.
“I started to think about the student experience and how young people are somehow expected to go from home life to this incredibly difficult task of navigating the rental market, suddenly having to find accommodation and sign rental agreements, sort out background checks and budgets, and make sure they pay the rent on time – it’s such an anxious time for them,”
explained Hannah.
“Student services do what they can to offer support, but they are overwhelmed, and so you’re in it on your own – going from nice, purpose-built halls of residence in your first year to a property market that seems to have no rules.”
HYBR started out covering just Bristol, providing a platform through which students could find a broad range of properties and prices to choose from, all tailored to the student market, and with round-the-clock support from the HYBR team, all former students, to help clients understand the process, what they should expect and what was expected of them.
HYBR was launched as an MVP (minimum viable product) which allows scope to trial an idea on a low-budget basis and build up from a fairly simple foundation. Hannah applied for and won grants from, amongst other sources, New Enterprise and The Prince’s Trust, but just as HYBR was beginning to find its place in the market the coronavirus pandemic stuck and the world of education was turned upside down.
“If anything, it came at a good time for me,”
said Hannah.
“HYBR was established, but the pandemic provided an opportunity to slow down and take stock of where we were. There was no other brand specifically for student properties, so I knew we could begin to scale and by the time things began to return to normal, I had a plan in place.”
By the summer of 2021, Hannah was ready to push forward with HYBR’s growth and since then the business has grown to encompass eight cities in the UK, employing 11 people. A move from a manual to an automated system has facilitated growth, but ensuring each city has an ambassador based locally, providing face-to-face support where needed provides the personal touch Hannah believes is so important. The ambassador roles offer valuable part-time work for students who’ve been through the rental process and can provide peer-to-peer support their own community.
For landlords, HYBR provides access to a large student market through tailored and flexible packages and backed up by transparent and honest customer service.
HYBR is now in a position to apply for further funding that will see the expansion continue, with a view to having ambassadors in every university town and city in the UK, and, eventually, into Europe.
“I think when I started, I had the confidence of naivety,”
said Hannah.
“I genuinely didn’t know what I was getting myself into, but my mum had been involved in a start-up when I was younger, so I understood it was an option, so I just started small and went for it. I was always thinking that I didn’t have anything to lose, it was just what I wanted to do.
“I was very much inspired by Guy Raz and his How I Built This podcast – it taught me a lot and gave me the confidence to keep doing what I was doing. I knew the student property market needed to change – it’s an archaic system and students almost expect to live in poor-quality accommodation but there’s no need for that. It wasn’t difficult to focus on good-quality lets and providing help for students as they navigate renting a property – I was actually amazed that a similar brand didn’t already exist.”
With HYBR now making its mark, it is beginning to be noticed in the wider business community. It’s already won a number of awards and Hannah is shortlisted in the Young Entrepreneur of the Year category at this year’s Great British Entrepreneur Awards for London and the East of England.
“I am a great believer in awards because I think it’s amazing when your work is recognised,” she said. “Now that I have a team together, and we work incredibly hard, it’s good for them to have something to celebrate, something that validates the effort we put in.”
Find out more about HYBR at www.hybr.co.uk