We’re thrilled to celebrate five years with Rosa, Reuben, and Aidan at Acre.

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‍We caught up with Aidan, Reuben and Rosa, who shared some of their proudest moments, and favourite memories from their time at Acre.

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What accomplishment are you most proud of?

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Rosa

I'm always most proud of the juniors that start with us and we help them and see them grow into amazing engineers. It makes you very proud.

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Reuben

Probably when an acquaintance told me about how much easier their new mortgage had been than the first one they took out - and how good the broker's app called "Acre" was. Unsolicited feedback like that from an end user who didn't know where I worked was just super exciting, especially since it was three years ago!

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Aidan

I am especially proud of helping to deliver a new login flow for the Client Portal. It made a genuine difference to the business and to our clients, which is always the goal. It brought together colleagues from all over the company, involved juggling more than a few priorities, and called for some quick thinking under pressure. Watching it all come together and knowing I played a part in its success was incredibly satisfying.

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What has been your favourite memory at Acre?

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Aidan

One of my happiest memories is the Cambridge summer party. The day itself was great fun, but what really stood out was the atmosphere. Everyone was full of energy, working towards the same vision, and simply enjoying being together. It reminded me just how special the culture here really is.

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Rosa

I think in general all the socials we have are quite fun and help create good memories. The day in Cambridge doing punting was quite fun and then the picnic later was very nice, and the day in Ascot too was very fun an interesting, being there with everyone and seeing all sides of the event.

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What is a standout project or initiative from your time at Acre?

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Reuben

When I launched the first version of Acre's sourcing engine. It was just so different to anything that had come before - and so much faster! Tom (Price) and I had turned it round in six weeks based on the idea that we should treat the UI like any other parametric search problem so it was perhaps more like a flight booking website than Trigold. But that also meant that we attacked the problem of how to build the backend in the same way, which is why we can deliver results 10x faster than legacy solutions even with complex filters applied.

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Rosa

For my team I'd say it was the affordability work we had to do in a very limited amount of time, we even had to get more help from other people. Both backend and frontend had a lot of work to do and we managed to make it in the end.

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Why do you choose to remain part of the Acre team after 5 years?

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Rosa

Acre is in a good position, users are liking what we're creating, so that's part of the reason. But in the end a big part is the people, having a great team that you can trust and are happy to work with every day.

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Aidan

For me it is all about the people. Acre is a place where collaboration is not just something we talk about, it is something we live every day. I have had the chance to grow, to take on exciting challenges, and to see the results of my work making a difference. That combination of a truly supportive culture and the opportunity to make an impact is rare, and it is what has kept me here for five years and counting.

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Reuben

Definitely for the money. Joking aside, in the time I've been here we've gone from a half-built idea to a platform powering nearly one in every ten mortgages in the UK. That means that we're having a real, palpable impact not just on our brokers' work lives but on the most serious financial decision made by literally millions of people. Both the ability to change how the housing market functions (a problem very close to my heart) and the enormous amount of interesting data I get to play with will keep me busy for a while yet.

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