Dynamo Mortgages was a digital mortgage startup formed as a joint venture between Blenheim Chalcot (“BC”) and Countrywide (“CW”) plc. With BC’s expertise in building digital ventures and CW’s knowhow in everything real estate and mortgages, it was a no-brainer to capitalise on the synergies and take on the UK’s mortgage market.
As an amalgamation between a venture building project and a corporate venturing initiative, Dynamo had everything under the sun going for it. Secured funds, a bench of industry experts, a pipeline of prospects, easy access to talent, you name it. As the entrepreneur-in-residence leading a 10-member cross-company/ function/ culture team, my job was fairly straight forward. Aside from the “simple” task of building a new business, we had disparate cultures to integrate, divergent priorities to align and a viable commercial/partnership model to retrocrack (a particularly fun task with mortgage brokerage being the J/V partner’s main cash-generating business line).
It was a fantastic experience working with such a diverse team of experts.