With 50 years of luxury travel experience between them, two former colleagues decided to set up their own property investment firm, Rocksure

David Rogers
The idea for Rocksure came through our time at Abercrombie & Kent, the luxury travel company. Desmond and I were both involved with the US market where they sell high-end timeshares known as destination clubs. The customer gets country-club luxury in the US and surrounding islands, but they don't own any equity share.

We didn't think that this model was going to work well in the UK, where people have this love affair with bricks and mortar, so we decided to take the existing concept and turn it on its head.

With Rocksure, the investors themselves own the bricks and mortar, and we make it all happen. We're rewarded with transparent fees and we share some of the gain, which motivates us to buy well and sell well.

I've been taking entrepreneurial risks for more years than I care to admit. I set up my first business, Supertravel, a skiing company, at the age of 24, so this was nothing new to me. But this business concept was a big attraction in terms of risk, because it doesn't require any overhead to run it.

We started planning the business in 2005 and launched it in 2006. We had to spend a six-figure sum in the beginning, but once we were up and running, it actually carried a lower level of risk than an ordinary business.

The big challenge was whether we could find the customers—we're pioneers in the UK market. Of course, we knew there was a market for second homes, and there was plenty of logic for why it ought to work, but until we tried it, we didn't know for sure.

Most people would say that Desmond and I have very little in common apart from this urge to do our own thing—and of course we both love travel and property. The main difference is that he can count and I can't. I'm the blarney salesman and Desmond makes sure we can deliver on our promises.

But we don't take any significant decisions without bouncing them off one another. If we don't agree about something then we'll just talk it out. I admire all the qualities he has that I don't have. 

As for the future, there is competition now and there will be more. I want Rocksure to be the best and to be used as a benchmark for the sector.

Desmond Patrick-Smith
It feels quite an achievement to be running our own business. The best things about it are the freedom and the fact that we're not limited to go down just one path. We're involved with every aspect of running the company.

We started by looking at how to start up a business tailored towards the UK market. We knew there must be a better way to do it than the system in the US, where people pay a high price to use destination clubs, but the entrepreneurs make all the money. But the biggest challenges at the start were to get the business model right and to make sure we had thought of everything, because it was a brand new concept.

We had to get the properties exactly right. Each one needed to be in a country that had a reasonably benign tax regime, a long season and a property market with a significant upside.

David and I funded the business entirely ourselves, which is one reason why we started low key. We learned a lot along the way. On the marketing side, for instance, we had to learn how to reach high net worth clients. There was a bit of trial and error but, overall, we felt we had the content right.

I'm very much on the IT, operations and finance side. David is good at the sales and marketing. Basically, I'm the back-room person and David's the front man. I enjoy tackling the various challenges involved in running my own business. I never get bored. It's hard work but it's always great fun.

We occasionally disagree but we tend to just sit down and talk it out.
I admire David's get up and go, the way he pushes and gets things done. But his lack of IT skills can try my patience. Having said that, the thing he probably finds annoying about me is that I'm not very good at explaining ideas and concepts.

We both share a love of travel and different cultures. I've travelled all over the world and visited more than a hundred countries. I've lived all over Europe and was brought up in Switzerland. 

The thing that motivates me now is building up the firm, building the brand and getting recognition for that. But we want to keep the company a reasonable size—and we want to keep it fun.