Welcome to Ignition Law’s ‘Igniting The Spark‘ series where we spend five minutes with inspiring entrepreneurs, talking about the key moments that defined their careers.
This month we caught up with Susanna Rock, Co-Founder & CIO of GRAVITY.
Gravity is a co-living and residential operator focused on community and flexibility. They strive to make the moving and renting experience as smooth and engaging as possible, removing the pain points that often come with renting.
Gravity provides a healthy social environment that is inserted very naturally into the day to day lives of their members, creating a welcomed support system that young professionals nowadays crave when moving to a new place. This is coupled with a stimulating setting designed to help Gravity members grow both personally as well as professionally. All this across modern, cool and well-located properties where services provided are both included as standard as well as offered as additional ‘on demand’ options.
Gravity also run several events every week across their properties that are designed not only to bring people together but also enrich the lives of members in areas of wellbeing creativity and professional development.
The moment that ignited the spark in me to start a business was:
Having worked in property investment and finance for many years as well as living in various major cities, I realized there was a gap in the market because the moving experience of most people that I knew, including myself, was terrible. It was frustrating, admin heavy and long. When I met my business partner, we started talking about this stuff and literally began to finish each others’ sentences. It was at this point that I realized I had the right person in front of me to complement my skills in delivering our amazing idea.
The toughest challenge I’ve faced is (and how I overcame it)…
HR! Hiring the right people who get the culture, understanding who you have in front of you in a number of interviews and betting on them has been absolutely the most challenging aspect. Retaining good people in a very competitive job market has also been hard work but we are very pleased with our team.
The biggest success has been…
Seeing the portfolio grow over the last couple of years, throughout and despite the pandemic, and watching our customers become our biggest ambassadors has been extremely satisfying and rewarding. We have seen people meet in Gravity and go on to become friends for life and thanking us for it which, in the end, is the real mission of what we do. Bringing people together and doing what we can to help them flourish and feel supported in their daily lives.
I’m very good at..…
Numbers and logic, less so at creatives.
The type of person I look to recruit is…
Being a hard worker is key. I have always been one and appreciate people who will go the extra mile to get things over the line. But we definitely look for people who can think outside the box in a creative way and are not afraid of bringing up ideas and can add suggestions to our brainstorming sessions. In the start up phase on the business, our staff is our biggest resource!
The part of my day I most look forward to is…
Brainstorming with the team on what we can do better is my favourite part of the job! And also at the end of a long day opening the door of my house to see my daughter run up to me for a big hug just fills my heart!
If I could give fellow entrepreneurs one piece of advice it would be…
Don’t give up! It looks like an upward slope all the time, and even when you get to your objective you already have the next one. But it’s when you look back a couple of years that you truly appreciate what you have achieved and all the efforts, pain points, concerns and stress will get repaid.
And also, don’t be afraid to ask for advice on what you don’t know, there is always opportunity to learn from others.
Outside of work I can be found…
I love a good meal with good wine. Being Italian, I am a food lover and love to cook. I will either host friends over for dinner or look to try new places across the city. That is when I am not travelling, another thing I really love!
My philosophy on life is…
If there is a solution to a problem, why worry? If there is no solution, why worry? I think this was said by the Dalai Lama, and it’s something I learned over the years both on a personal and professional level. There’s no point in getting worked up on things, either they can get fixed or you just have to accept it. Saves a lot of energy!
Helen Gerrard, Partner at Ignition Law, Assisted Gravity-Co Living on fundraising rounds and related documentation
