Founder & CEO of Nexvia, Pierre Clement reveals what it was like to launch Nexvia in 2016 and how certain challenges have served as ideal learning opportunities, requiring pivots along the way.
Pierre Clement says his dream, even when he was quite young, was to become an entrepreneur. The Frenchman, who has lived in Luxembourg for two decades, began his career at PwC Luxembourg, first in auditing, then as an advisor in corporate finance.
But the desire to launch his own venture couldn’t be quieted. Together with a close friend, he began to look into ventures, first in the car industry, later in real estate. They launched a company—which wasn’t Nexvia—but then his partner decided to move back into the corporate world.
So instead, Clement had to pivot the business model, which led to the launch of Nexvia nine years ago. The part that was “revolutionary”, he says, is the online valuation tool for residential properties, adding: “We remain the main valuation tool in Luxembourg, and I think the most accurate, to value apartments and houses. It was a breakthrough moment.”
“We had the skills, and it was close to Nexvia’s business, so we thought we’d succeed quite easily. This was not the case.”
Help at an incubator
But getting there took some efforts. Although Clement was clear about his vision and had no problem running financial models through Excel, he knew he lacked the engineering background. “I needed someone to develop the software so that it would work well, that the online experience would be good,” he recalls.
Enter Fräntz Miccoli, who Clement met while he was based at the Technoport in Belval. Miccoli, who helped develop the tools that enabled the company to finally launch, helped initially on a freelance basis. He now serves as COO-CTO of Nexvia. Getting this partnership right, Clement says, was a key element to the company’s success.
Although being at the incubator had proven helpful, Clement says meeting clients there was probably not optimal, in the sense that “people weren’t expecting to meet a real estate agent in an incubator.” The company has since moved offices to the Ville-Haute in Luxembourg City.
Learning curves
The first three years were the most difficult: Clement says he was monitoring cash flow daily and, having to spend money quite quickly at the start, there were the occasional worries the company wouldn’t survive. “This was so stressful. During that time, you really need the team behind you.”
Another early learning lesson Clement cites is that initially he thought he could hire agents straight out of business schools. However, as most of the company’s clients were 40- to 45-year-olds, “I think they weren’t really ready to take on an agent who was 23 or 24.”
The tools could carry the company a long way—but Clement admits he may have underestimated how much people need “a sense of trust, to be reassured.” The CEO adds that the team, now 18 strong, helps deliver on the values he sees as important—good collaboration, a commitment to excellence and details, which translates into the client experience, which Clement calls “one of the most important things.”
Entrepreneurship requires taking risks, but Nexvia has also managed to pivot to better outcomes in difficult situations. In 2019, for instance, they’d launched Next Fin, a mortgage brokerage business to help buyers get the best loans in Luxembourg. Clement recalls, “We had the skills, and it was close to Nexvia’s business, so we thought we’d succeed quite easily. This was not the case.”
He admits that it would have been better to analyse this activity and the business environment more deeply before launching. Finally, after three years, they decided to find an exit strategy. Clement says that there was still a good structure to this endeavour, and in the end, it was acquired by Foyer Group (now called credihome). “This failure was not too much of a failure,” Clement states. “We were happy to have this good solution—for the team as well, so the business would continue to exist, so people could keep their jobs.”
“Trust is the foremost thing you need to have if you want to be a good agent…”
Company culture
While Nexvia solutions were originally marketed towards private individuals, Clement says they are now sold to financial institutions, who need to valuate properties for regulatory purposes. But the company’s fundamentals haven’t evolved much otherwise. “I think we have a culture where everybody feels that they’re part of the success,” he explains. “This is true, and I think they all feel they really contribute to the growth story of Nexvia: they’re part of it, and they get the return out of it.”
While Clement says the “magic” happens with the technology and the tools Nexvia has built, its business remains brokerage for the most part and, when selling houses or flats, the team needs to have great agents on the ground who understand the properties but also the economics behind the real estate, taxes behind the acquisitions or sales, etc.
“Trust is the foremost thing you need to have if you want to be a good agent… We want to be seen as great people in the real estate agency business—as differentiators, real professionals, and that’s why it works very well.”
