After graduating from University, the two co-founders applied for corporate jobs just like most Hong Kong teenagers. However, both co-founders found their jobs meaningless after a few years, and turned their heads to follow their passion and do something they truly enjoy. Therefore, they decided to return to school and ended up meeting in the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology MBA program.
One day, both Kyle and Joe had a conversation about potential startup ideas and they both came to realize that the mortgage sector is a traditional market that has a lot of room for innovative improvement. Since then, the concept of ROOTS was born. ROOTS, the robo-advisory property and mortgage platform seeks to help Hongkongers tackle home purchase problems.
While both Kyle and Joe have extensive business knowledge accumulated during their times working in corporates, both founders had little to none software engineering experience. They tried reaching out to potential partners throughout the university, but very few were interested in their idea. Therefore, they decided to bootstrap their startup and invest all their savings into an outsourced team of programmers. Despite their efforts, the outsourced team didn’t meet the co-founders expectation, so Kyle and Joe decided it was better to take matters into their own hands and learn to develop the product themselves. Together, they designed Hong Kong’s first A.I. platform on recommending and applying for mortgages from local banks.
What started as a simple idea from two people is now a platform that enables aspiring homebuyers to achieve their dreams. Here is what the co-founders wish to share with other young people who are hoping to make it big in other fields - “if you don’t try, you will never succeed.”
