:Different makes a difference in IT industry landscape with expert solutions to real estate businesses

Different Co-Founder Ruwin Perera

:Different, an Australian company specialising in IT solutions to the real estate industry, is fast expanding whilst rewarding its set of highly-motivated employees. 

The latest initiative is an Employee Share Option Scheme, a rarity in Australia. The move is also part of attracting the best talent to build a world-class technology company. The company presently employs over 30 talented Sri Lankans.

:Different Co-Founder Ruwin Perera is focused on business, finance, operations and marketing. He’s passionate about excellent service and cricket.  Having worked as a Director for Softbank, a consultant for the Boston Consulting Group, and Global Business Strategy Principal for Google, Ruwin’s experience spans investment, corporate strategy, consulting and business process outsourcing. At the core of it, however, he has always been a tech person. 

To Ruwin, :Different is not a real estate company that does tech, but a tech company that does real estate. He’s not in this to build a small property management business – he and his team are in this to build a great global Australian company that changes how people live, and becomes the assistant for the home. On this journey, he and his team have consistently brought Sri Lankan talent onboard for their engineering team in Colombo; being of Sri Lankan background, Ruwin is deeply passionate about supporting the growth and development of young engineers in Sri Lanka. In this interview he speaks of the company’s recently introduced Employee Share Option Scheme as well as progress and plans of the company. Here are excerpts:

Q: What made you decide to allot shares to your employees?

 We believe that being an owner is a really important factor; one that motivates employees to reach for the stars – literally. An owner knows their performance is critical to the success of their company, recognises that for them to succeed, the company must succeed, and sets an example for others to follow. We have built our company around people, and we want those people with us for the long run. As we operate as one global team, we have people in Sri Lanka managing people in Australia and vice versa. We provide equity to all our full time employees in Australia, so we should do the same in Sri Lanka.

Q:  Is this a common practice in Australia?

 No, but it is a common practice in Silicon Valley venture-backed startups. We take it further than most companies who offer equity only to their key employees. Instead, we are giving it to every full time employee. You can tell a lot about a company by where it focuses its resources, and in our case we believe that investing in our employees will pay dividends in the long run. 

Q: Do you feel this encourages higher productivity amongst employees?

 Yes. The best way to drive growth and build things quickly is to make sure your team feels and acts like owners. The best way to do this is by actually making them owners. 

Q: What happens in the event that an employee leaves the organisation?

Assuming they leave on good terms (which pretty much everyone who leaves does), they keep what has vested up until that point. All equity in the company (including for the founders) is provided on a four-year vesting period. 

Q: Will this encourage people to join :Different for the wrong reasons?

 No, quite the opposite. Equity is a long-term incentive. Ultimately, we’re building this company together so we want the right people to stick with us in the long run.

Q: Has the onset of COVID impacted your operations and if so how?

 Yes, it has been difficult to get people together. I used to travel to Colombo many times a year to work with the team in Sri Lanka, but I haven’t been able to do that at all in the past year. On top of that, onboarding new employees has been particularly hard at times like this – we’ve hired 50 people through COVID, but many have not been able to meet each other in person.

From an operations perspective however, the team has responded to restrictions of the pandemic exceedingly well. Building our own tech has been central to the way we’ve done property management from day one, which meant that we were able to carry out the day-to-day management of our owners’ properties throughout the lockdowns without experiencing too many hiccups. 

Q: Do you have plans to perform your services here in Sri Lanka as well?

 No, it’s not in our plans. We are currently focused on Australia, and when we do manage to expand overseas it is likely our first market will be a larger market than Australia.

Q: Has the decision by you and your wife to leave secure employment and venture out as entrepreneurs and employers yourselves paid dividends?

We are building the assistant for the home and bringing a team of the best people in technology and property along the journey to do so. That’s a pretty exciting reason to get out of bed in the morning.

Q: Do you have plans to expand your Sri Lankan operation?

 Yes, we have expanded it dramatically to date as we are committed to harnessing the best minds in Sri Lanka to build a world-class technology company that places Sri Lanka very firmly on the world tech map. We’re already more than 30 people strong, and we have big plans going forward for Sri Lanka. 

Q: What are your plans for 2021?

 The most important thing is to focus on providing exceptional customer service. From here all good things come.