An interview with: Christina Melling of Stipendium
You may know Christina Melling as being the female Martin Lewis of the North. Coming from a legal background, Christina spotted a technological gap in the housing market and built Stipendium to fill that gap, creating greater financial wellbeing and support for people embarking on big milestones in their house buying journey.
We caught up with Christina to discuss her experience building Stipendium. Christina also shared her advice for anyone else who wants to build a tech tool, along with the ways the Lancashire tech community has helped her on her journey.
Hey Christina, do you want to start things off by telling us about your background?
Christina: I’m Christina Melling and I'm the co-founder and CEO of a company called Stipendium.
My background is legal and financial and I went into the realm of tech in October 2022 because I noticed a gap in the market for the ability to streamline the house buying journey alongside my co-founder, John Bohan.
My background is predominantly professional services which has given me a lot of experience dealing both with clients on both legal and financial matters and becoming very familiar with the sectors from the perspectives of practice, service and proposition.
Coming from that legal and professional services background, how did you find the journey of starting a tech company?
Christina: In some ways it was daunting and a little bit overwhelming because I'm somebody who likes to know the ins and outs of absolutely everything I'm doing.
However, the benefits of me coming into this role as the CEO of and co-founder of a tech company was really founded by my experience in having worked in professional services. I'm very, very much in tune with what the demographic that I'm looking to solve a problem for, and in this case the evolution of technology presented the opportunity to innovate the house-buying journey for the nation's current and future homeowners.
Having worked with lots of different people over the last few years, I was really able to tailor the preposition from a holistic perspective for the target market. So from that perspective, it was really beneficial for me not to be from a tech background.
Having worked with lots of incredible and inspiring tech professionals from across the UK, I've now filled that gap in terms of my lack of knowledge and experience within tech because I've just been surrounded by people who have worked really hard to build this platform that we've got now.
And I bet over the last two years your technology knowledge is probably 10x better than it was before, isn’t it?
Christina: Oh yeah, absolutely. I mean, I didn’t really know much at all about building a tech platform before.
But I did have a lot of experience working with and understanding the different areas of FinTech from my financial services background. I could very clearly see the direction in which the financial services background was going in terms of the advancements of technology in FinTech.
I suppose that was really one of the inspirations behind why we decided to start this business. I had a lot of experience with platforms within the Wealth Management sector and the different tools you can use to manage investments and pensions. So, I knew how they functioned and where the gaps were. That insider knowledge was really helpful and beneficial.
Was the creation of Stipendium inspired by your personal house buying experience at all?
Christina: I had a really positive experience in my own house buying journey. The people I dealt with throughout the journey were really helpful.
However, it was still in the back of my mind that this could be much quicker, easier, and cost-effective than it is. Nobody had streamlined it, innovated it, or digitised it yet and that was really the inspiration behind it.
Everything else I could see around me in the finance space was quickly becoming streamlined. The house buying journey is something so many of us go through. There’s about 400,000 first time buyers and about 500,000 people remortgaging each year. Yet they’re still using the same archaic processes that we have all become to know and dread.
Absolutely. The traditional process is so outdated, isn’t it?
Christina: Yeah, absolutely. There’s also a lack of education around it too.
When you embark on the house buying journey as a first time buyer, you are presented with all these terms. 60% of first time buyers don’t know what terms like offer exchange and completion mean, which is completely mad, considering you’re about to make probably the largest investment of your life into an asset. So, it was about filling that gap to educate the nation’s current and future homeowners.
Accessibility of the entire house buying journey is also something we really wanted to tackle. So, we became the UK’s first professional services tool which was accessible by way of voucher code. The concept of being able to buy gifting rewards for the house buying and remortgaging journey is one of our main USPs for accessibility and making the journey more intuitive.
It seems like financial wellbeing is a golden thread that runs through the company. Can you tell me more about that?
Christina: From a personal perspective, I speak at universities to try to inspire people to 1) start their own business and 2) to educate them about the house buying journey.
I market myself as the female Martin Lewis of the North in the press as well which has been useful from the perspective of creating this personal brand for me as someone who is an expert in those fields, has got a business behind it, and who practises what I preach.
We also onboarded the Stipendium products onto the UK’s largest employee benefit platforms. This allows employers to invest in the lifecycles and future-proof their employees in a new, innovative way that’s never really been done before. So, in many cases, we’ve been the first financial wellbeing product on several of these employee benefit platforms. So, we’ve really trailblazed that region.
£121 billion is the cost of financial stress on the UK economy each year. That statistic is really alarming when you think of the impact financial stress can have on the economy. So we’re trying to encourage employers to increase the paternalistic role they play in the lives of their employees by integrating tools like Stipendium into their wellbeing and reward packages. For me, that is the way to go in terms of boosting wellbeing in the workplace which in turn will boost the economy.
“More people than ever before needed a helping hand to navigate their way through the remortgaging market so we focused on building the remortgage journey area of the platform.”
And are you the first people to build a tech tool of this type for the house buying journey?
Christina: There are several property portals like RightMove and OnTheMarket who have innovated and expanded their propositions to offer more tools and services to their end-users. But no one has created a niche standalone tool in the market to complete the house buying journey from buying to moving.
I did rigorous due diligence on the market before we embarked on this project to really understand; Has anyone done this? Is anyone about to do it? And if not, why has nobody done it yet? A lot of the time I was wondering are we too far ahead of the market at this point? Is the market ready for this?
There was a huge education gap with this that was on us to fill to allow people to understand the value of this product. It was like nothing that's ever been created before. No one has used anything like this before to completely buy a house from start to finish so that education piece was really always going to be on us to fill for the nation.
What would you say has been your biggest challenge so far when building Stipendium?
Christina: The biggest challenge by a country mile was navigating the declining property market last year because of the increase in interest rates. We launched our house buying journey in March last year which was probably around the time the market started to decline in terms of first time buyers getting on the property ladder.
Then Liz Truss delivered us a monumental blow with the increased interest rates for mortgages and that really challenged us. So, what we did to mitigate that was diversify the product range to capitalise on the remortgaging journey. There are thousands of homeowners out there that need to remortgage at some point. So, that was always something we could work on.
More people than ever before needed a helping hand to navigate their way through the remortgaging market so we focused on building the remortgage journey area of the platform.
By providing homeowners with a platform that enabled them to really look at the whole market and access a whole-of-market mortgage advice platform was a real winner for us in terms of what we could offer people.
It sounds like you are really supporting people through every aspect of that journey
Christina: There are lots of different milestone life events we go through. I think a lot of them are trying to become much easier to navigate. For years now, we’ve been able to manage our investments via apps on your own as a DIY investor.
For me, that was well ahead of its time and I feel like the rest of the professional services market is taking its time to catch up to that. So, that’s why we came to market with this.
On the flip side, what has been your biggest achievement in the last two years of building the company?
Christina: From a personal perspective, it’s being listed as one of the Telegraph and NatWest Top 100 Female Entrepreneurs To Watch in the UK last November. That was a massive achievement that completely came out of the blue. I was so proud of that, and still am. It’s a really strong accolade to have that.
We have also won various awards for being innovative in our field and being a rising star company representing Lancashire and the North West. It’s great to fly the flag for Lancashire and help put Lancashire more firmly on the map as an innovative ecosystem.
From a business perspective, it has to be the success we’ve had in terms of trailblazing the way for a new innovative method of financial wellbeing. The connections and contracts we have with the employee benefit platforms we feature on is also something that I’m proud of because we worked really hard at that.
We also launched the Stipendium products at a challenging economic time so that's something else I’m proud of.
It sounds like there has been a lot of resilience behind your achievements.
Christina: Yeah, you’ve got to absolutely believe in what it is that you’re doing. And we really did believe in what we were doing.
We had a slow start because of the economy and the fact we were bringing such a new product to market but we really believed in it. So, that resilience piece was passive and I think that can really set you apart from other business owners who might have just gone “this is too much for me. I can’t do it…”. So, continuing to fly that flag for yourself, the people you work with, and for the business, is one of the most important things to starting your own business, especially in the tech space.
You learn so much about yourself when starting a business – far beyond what you could ever learn from being employed. You don’t have that comfort blanket or protection of your pension, salary, or employee benefits anymore. You are on your own. So, you’re always looking for where the next customer or sale is coming from and how to support yourself. You really learn how resilient you are as an individual as well.
“You learn so much about yourself when starting a business – far beyond what you could ever learn from being employed. ”
While on the topic of starting your own business, are there any words of wisdom you want to share with someone who wants to start their own tech tool or business?
Christina: I think a lot of people will disagree with me on this but I think there’s a desire to become quite a well-known name very early on – and, for me, that was quite strong – but what I would say is don’t run before you can walk.
Focus on the foundations and build it from the ground up. When you’ve created that brand, got your messaging and story out there, had a few customers and partnerships established, then look at things like PR and marketing.
Otherwise, you can very quickly erode valuable capital in your first year of business and you'll look back and realise that could have been used better. So, be careful with the financial decisions you make in those early stages.
That’s a great piece of advice. I guess from day one versus day 365 of starting a business, your business can look totally different.
Christina: Absolutely.
This week, I was reading over a presentation that I've done for an award that I was a finalist for 12 months. I was going through the slides and I was just like “delete, delete” because a lot of it was just nonsense looking back. In the last 12 months, I have learned less is more and simplicity is key. I had a bad habit 12 months ago of going into way too much detail and telling people things they didn’t need to know.
You learn a lot in those first 12 months.
It’s also about consistency in the way you portray yourself and market your brand. You want people to talk about your brand in the same way you talk about it.
“The tech scene in Lancashire has allowed me to surround myself with similar people that are on their own journeys as well. ”
You do a fantastic job at representing the county. What would you say makes Lancashire a great place to grow a tech company?
Christina: Lancashire’s tech ecosystem has grown phenomenally over the last five years and, I'd say in the last year it's grown exponentially.
I have completely lost count of all of the tech, coding, digital and women in tech networks that are out there in the region. They are absolutely everywhere.
Now, Lancashire is becoming more and more of a competitor for Manchester which is a huge area of tech unicorns. So, Lancashire is becoming a great digital hub for businesses that are starting out, particularly when they're innovating something.
You've got places like Strawberry Field and Fraser House as well over in Lancaster who are making a place for themselves on the map as well.
What role does community play in your journey of growing Stipendium?
Christina: The tech scene in Lancashire has allowed me to surround myself with similar people that are on their own journeys as well. The University of Central Lancashire is a close part of my community because that's where I did my law degree. Their alumni account on Twitter has been so supportive of me too which is really nice.
It’s about investing your time in those communities or the people within those communities that want to see you do well, not just for you but also for the county as well to continue that economical growth for the county. That's really key.
Finally, are there any final words you want to share before you go?
Christina: If there is anyone in the Lancashire region who really wants to start their business, particularly in the tech sector, and don’t know how to start, contact people in the surrounding networks for advice.
We are a close knit community of people who want to see people do well and who want to encourage and inspire people in Lancashire to start their own businesses, particularly in the digital space.
We have great resources within Strawberry Fields and Fraser House Hub. There are resources like Innovate Lancashire, and other areas of the Council in terms of funding which support the Lancashire region too.
There are so many different places that you can go to for whatever areas of support you need. I will always be an ambassador for people that are starting a business, particularly in Lancashire. I will always offer any help and guidance that I can to people that need it. I know what it's like to be that rabbit in headlights at the start.
Trailblazing a new market with tech
Christina Melling and the Stipendium team are trailblazing the property market in terms of tech. It’s great to see how they are using tech to empower the property industry and to support the financial wellbeing of people going through the house buying journey.
You can keep up to date with Stipendium and Christina’s journey as Tech company founder over on LinkedIn or by visiting the Stipendium website.