Paid pilots first.
Enterprise and Growth clients follow.
Harla is an enterprise and mid-market sales business. A £10k paid pilot is the entry point, mainly for Enterprise; Growth is mostly sold directly. There are no low-cost or self-serve accounts.
The sales motion
- Qualified conversation
- £10k paid pilot
- Decision meeting
- Enterprise or Growth
5% of the core market engaged over three years gives 1,250 qualified conversations. 6% start a pilot, 50% of pilots convert and 65% of those go to Enterprise. A further 2.5% of engaged prospects buy Growth directly.
Two tracks
01 · ~25,000 firms
Core market
Commercial property firms: agents, property managers, surveyors and property law firms. Growth (£15–25k) and Enterprise (from £45k) for the larger operators. The focus of all pilot and direct sales activity. The 25-account Enterprise target is just 0.1% of this market.
02 · ~400 organisations
Institutional
Institutions, REITs and large managing groups, worked as a named account list. Enterprise Portfolio (~£120k) and Strategic (£200k+) deals through a small number of institutional pilots and long sales cycles. Every £45k Enterprise client is a live reference that shortens them.
Pilot design
The pilot is where conversion is won. A paid pilot with agreed success criteria converts better than a free trial, and the plan's 50% conversion rate rests on its design. Each pilot has:
01
Success criteria agreed at the start
For example contracts and leases extracted, accuracy and time saved.
02
A named sponsor
With the authority to buy.
03
The price agreed before it starts
The post-pilot price is set up front, with the £10k credited against year one.
04
A fixed term
90 days, ending in a decision meeting. A fixed fee with no monthly add-ons keeps the decision simple.
Harla modules have customisation methods built in for Growth clients. Custom module development is reserved for Enterprise Portfolio and Strategic clients.
Sales capacity
The team is sized from conversation demand: about 12 qualified conversations a month in Year 1, 36 in Year 2 and 55 in Year 3. The founder covers about 15 a month and each salesperson another 15, about four a week each.
| Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qualified conversations | 150 | 438 | 662 |
| Pilots started | 9 | 26 | 40 |
| Sales headcount (year end) | 1 (from M9) | 2 (from M13) | 3 (from M25) |
| Customer success headcount (year end) | 0 | 2 (from M21) | 3 (from M30) |
Pilots peak at three to four a month in Year 3, delivered through a standard 90-day playbook. A customer success lead joins when Enterprise reaches 10 accounts, with another per 15 Enterprise-equivalent accounts.
Events programme 2027
Events put Harla in front of the core market and the institutional segment in a few concentrated weeks each year. One person attends each event. The programme costs about £18.3k a year and repeats in Years 2 and 3.
| Date | Event | Focus | Segment | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 2027 | RETCON USA |
Proptech strategy across CRE asset classes | Market insight and partners | £3,000 |
| 15–19 Mar 2027 | MIPIM Cannes |
Europe's main real estate investment event; strong on fund managers and institutional capital | Institutional | £4,500 |
| Spring 2027 | Future PropTech / London PropTech Show London |
UK proptech shows | Core market | £300 |
| May 2027 | ICSC Las Vegas + ICSC+PROPTECH Las Vegas |
Retail and commercial, 25,000+ attendees; proptech track with curated 1:1 meetings | Market insight and partners | £3,000 |
| 18–20 May 2027 | UKREiiF Leeds |
16,000+ attendees and 1,750+ investors | Core market and institutional | £2,000 |
| Jun 2027 | Proptech Expo with Provada Amsterdam |
The Benelux region's main proptech gathering | Market insight | £1,000 |
| Sep 2027 | Blueprint Vegas Las Vegas |
Built-world and construction tech | Market insight and partners | £3,000 |
| Oct 2027 | Expo Real Munich |
The DACH equivalent of MIPIM; strong on investors and lenders | Institutional | £1,500 |
| Total | £18,300 |
MIPIM, UKREiiF, the London shows and Expo Real (about £8.3k) go straight at the UK core market and the 400 institutions, which is where the pipeline comes from. The three US events and Amsterdam (about £10k) are for partners, investors and market insight.
Why founder-led sales
George sells the first accounts personally even after the first sales hire at M9. The first hire is to support customer success. The commercial real estate sector is relationship-driven, and the conversations that win early pilots are not product demos. They are strategic discussions about how AI changes the way an operator manages its contracts and portfolio.
The four development partners already running pilots shape the modules Harla takes to market, and become the first references for the core market and the institutions.