Name: Marcus Moufarrige
Title: CEO and founder of ility
What I do: ility is a no-code platform that connects new and legacy systems, giving owners and operators complete control over their technology, operations and offer, to drive increased NOI. I thrive on being actively involved, alongside my team, in all parts of the business. From overseeing strategy and operations, managing investors, right through to business development and working with clients.
Why I got into the property industry: Growing up, I was surrounded by property. I found listings especially fascinating and my interest in the space grew from there. After watching my dad (Alf) create a successful flex-office business (Servcorp), I knew this was the sector to build my career.
How I did it: By making the most of any opportunities I had to learn about the industry. I listened to what was going on around me and analysed where change was needed. ility came from my experience seeing the gaps around me. I’ve been both a landlord and a tenant before, and doing so I recognised the potential for tech to change all aspects of the real estate industry. Both sides of the coin really.
My first proper job: Fresh out of college, I sold condos for a local real estate firm.
My first big break: Before I founded ility, I spent over two decades at flex-office provider, Servcorp, where I oversaw product strategy, customer service, and all things operational. It was here that I saw how tech could improve real estate.
The biggest challenge I’ve encountered to date: The property industry can be incredibly resistant to change, and tends to favour tech that is created from within the sector. Demonstrating the future potential of ility’s software to businesses that were keen to remain using traditional methods was difficult, but we showed it’s possible!
My greatest achievement/proudest moment to date: Deciding to quit my stable career, that I had been doing for 25 years, to become an entrepreneur. It’s crazy to think what was once just a few slides on a deck is now a solution deployed across more than 80m sq ft and used by organisations like Microsoft, Deloitte and LGIM.
My biggest screw-up: My biggest screw-up was not doing it sooner. I’d lived and breathed these problems for years but it took my father giving me an ultimatum for me to take the leap and do it.
My biggest bugbear about the industry: The property industry is well-known for being a dinosaur. It’s slow to adopt new tech and continuously fails to invest in innovation. In the future, I am excited to see businesses, and more specifically landlords, recognise the fundamental nature of tech in creating and maintaining an economically sustainable portfolio that’s viable long-term.
When I became interested in ESG: I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t always known that ESG is important. But, now, with increasingly stringent regulations and government sanctions, it’s crucial to business success. It’s vital to help businesses have greater strategic freedom and to encourage higher returns on investment.
My main career goals right now: Growing ility. We’re expanding into multifamily and scaling our platform as we roll out bigger and better. We’ve worked hard to develop our offering based on feedback from current customers, which has provided a refined product to scale from. We’ve actually had our own customers invest in us, which is a testament to our product and its potential.
What I do in my downtime: There’s four main things that I love doing: listening to music, travelling the world, spending time with my wonderful family and photography.
My advice for someone just starting out: Pay attention to the world around you. Have confidence in your ideas and be prepared to bring innovation to the space.
My motto/mantra: Tenant experience is an outcome, not an app. Remember it!
