My BE Career: Harry Walston

Name: Harry Walston

Job title: Vice-president of sales at Outra

What I do: I was brought into Outra to scale the business and accelerate its mission to be the number one provider of predictive household data to the property industry. Outra has been operating as a data supplier to companies within our group for many years. We have used learnings from this work to develop products designed to help all sectors of the property industry – developers, housebuilders, estate agents – to enable them to identify geographical areas where demand is highest for all housing types – BTR, social housing, full-ownership. We’ve got thousands of data points on 30 million households that predict, with great accuracy, where demand is highest, what type of homes people want and crucially, what people can afford.

Why I got into the property industry: The wealth of available data in property today mirrors the landscape of retail two decades ago, where I spent quite some time before. What truly excites me is the prospect of leveraging predictive and behavioural data to drive forward the property sector, much like how Amazon and Tesco’s Clubcard revolutionised retail.

How I did it: I’m generally brought into organisations to launch companies into the European market or to scale organisations from the £5m to £50m turnover bracket. My first step outside retail three years ago was to Matterport to rebuild the company’s European sales strategy. People that work in the residential sales market will be familiar with Matterport – it builds 3D digital images of properties to create immersive, interactive tours. Then, last year, I was headhunted by Outra to build its sales strategy for the UK market.

My first proper job: I worked at the Cambridge University Press School Books department in production design. At the time, this was all done on A4 pads and the production schedule took nine months to two years for each book. I thought that timescale was incredibly inefficient, so I wrote a production scheduling database. That was my segue into computer software.

My first big break: After I wrote the programme, within a year I was working in Cambridge University Press’s computer department supporting the very database I wrote. They sent me back to college on day release to study computer science. So, in a short space of time, I’d gone from a very old-world book production department to computer software. By the age of 19 I was working for the UK arm of a Silicon Valley tech firm.

My inspiration(s): Betty Boothroyd was a huge inspiration to me. Her career journey from being in the West End dance troupe The Tiller Girls to becoming the first female speaker of the House of Commons is wonderful.

The biggest challenge I’ve encountered to date: People in the property industry are used to buying data as a commodity. The biggest challenge with Outra is to get people past this very traditional use of data. We are providing predictive and behavioural insights that people aren’t used to having at their disposal. Outra was founded by Giles Mackay, who launched Hometrack and sold it to Zoopla in 2017, so we’re in good stead to make our mark.

My greatest achievement/proudest moment to date: Apart from my family, my greatest achievement is following former mentees and staff of mine on their career journeys. I’ve managed so many young people over the years and seeing them go from grads in their first jobs to leadership roles in companies such as Google, Adobe and Oracle, is awesome.

The biggest misconception people have about the property industry: What I’ve found fascinating about the property market is that people think it’s about buildings, when in reality, it’s about the people who drive and shape the market with the decisions they make.

My biggest bugbear about the industry/the one thing I would change about the industry: The amount of data available to people in this market is immense. But how they utilise that the data is still several years behind the curve when you compare it retail, utilities, or digital providers. There should also be far more emphasis placed on predictive or modelled data which tells people about their customers, or potential customers – because understanding them, and the way they behave, is a massively overlooked and under-served tool.

Why I’m so passionate about DE&I: Diverse viewpoints are the key to successful strategies. A healthy variety of people from different backgrounds and cultures provides businesses with fresh perspective.

Why I’m so passionate about ESG: Data, and using data properly, is all about making organisations more efficient. In the property world that’s good for society – building the right homes in the right places is of huge social value. We’ve also partnered with the Vulnerability Registration Service to produce a Vulnerability Index, which helps to identify households that are potentially in difficult social or financial circumstances.

Where I’d like to be in five years’ time career-wise: The potential for this business is huge. We want every agent, real estate investor, housebuilder and decision maker across the sector basing their decisions on Outra’s models.

Who I’d invite, living or dead, to a dinner party: I’ve always loved historical underdogs. People who’ve done amazing things, but haven’t had the recognition for it. One of my heroes is Joseph Banks – scientist, explorer, botanist. He was on several of Captain Cook’s expeditions. Everything that Cook got the credit for, Banks was in the background. Other than that, anyone from the 1980s Tottenham football squad!

What I do in my downtime: I’m a cycling fanatic and like playing sports. I also think it important to have a lot of interests outside the office. Recently, a group of us led a convoy to Ukraine. Organising it was great – we’d been asked to take medical equipment, dry food, wheelchairs, crutches, defibrillators, generators – lots of things they use on the front line. We did it through several different charities. Spending time with frontline workers and some of the Ukrainian army who would be, at some point in the future, returning to a warzone was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. 

The job I’d be doing if I was not doing this: I’m from a farming family. I’d love to breed pigs: Gloucestershire Old Spots or Kunekunes! Perhaps this will be my retirement project.  

My advice for someone just starting out: Keep your horizons broad. Don’t get pigeon-holed. People want to work with people who are interesting and interested in the outside world. Someone who is a stand-up comedian in their spare time, plays in a band, volunteers for charity.

My motto/mantra: Get stuff done and keep smiling.