Why Hemlane Chose the Harder Path: A Founder's Honest Take on Platform vs. Point Solution

In this episode of Why Work Here, Amit Matani, CEO of Wellfound, sits down with Dana Dunford, CEO and co-founder of Hemlane, to discuss the critical strategic decisions that shaped the company's growth trajectory and the lessons other founders can learn from their experience.

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When Dana Dunford co-founded Hemlane eight years ago, she made a decision that would profoundly impact the company's growth trajectory: building a complete platform from day one rather than starting with a focused point solution. This strategic choice—prioritizing comprehensive value over rapid early growth—offers fascinating insights for founders navigating similar decisions in their own ventures.

The Platform-First Approach

Property management isn't typically considered the sexiest industry in tech, but it touches millions of lives. "Every single person listening to this is either renting a home or has rented where they live," Dunford points out, highlighting the industry's universal relevance despite its low-profile status.

When launching Hemlane, Dunford and her team chose to build a comprehensive property management platform rather than focusing on solving a single pain point first. This decision stemmed from their understanding of their customers' needs.

"For us, we were like, we're going to build the whole platform right away because the landlord needs all of it, not just one thing," Dunford explains. "They need the whole thing, and one single point solution doesn't work for them."

This platform-first approach meant creating technology that could handle everything from tenant placement to rent collection, repair coordination, and lease renewals—a significantly more complex undertaking than tackling just one of these functions.

The Sequencing Tradeoff

With the benefit of eight years of experience, Dunford reflects on this critical early decision with nuanced perspective. While she doesn't regret the platform approach, she acknowledges the growth tradeoff it created.

"One of the things I always grapple with is how do you grow and scale faster?" she shares. "And in those early days, the one question that I would have is: could we have done it where we built a skateboard first?"

Dunford references the product development analogy popularized by Marco Zappacosta of Thumbtack: "When you take products to market, you want to start with the skateboard where it's fully like someone can ride the skateboard, then the scooter, then the motorcycle, car, truck, semi-truck."

In Hemlane's case, this might have meant starting with just tenant placement services, then adding rent collection, and gradually building toward a full platform. This sequenced approach often enables faster initial growth and earlier revenue.

"I think the founders that go like this really, really fast—right on day one and 12 months are at 10 million in revenue—it's because they did a good job sequencing," Dunford observes.

Long-Term Gains vs. Short-Term Growth

Despite the slower initial growth, Hemlane's comprehensive platform strategy has created significant long-term advantages.

"Now it's to our advantage we have the whole thing," Dunford notes, "but I think back then it led to slower growth initially for longer-term gains now."

This reflects a fundamental strategic tension in startup building: the tradeoff between rapid early traction and building a more defensible, integrated solution from the start.

The Platform Imperative

Dunford also highlights an important strategic consideration for founders weighing the point solution approach: the need to eventually evolve into a platform to maintain competitive advantage.

"A lot of times what happens is if you are a point solution, you sell yourself to the platform and then you never make the platform and you're less valuable," she explains. "When you're a single point solution, eventually, if you're that good of a single point solution, the platform is going to build you and take all that margin from you."

This creates an imperative for point solutions to eventually evolve into platforms themselves—which means the sequencing decision isn't about whether to build a platform, but when and how to build it.

How Execution Culture Supports Strategic Direction

Hemlane's ability to successfully execute their platform strategy is reinforced by their distinctive company culture, particularly their second core value: Get Sh*t Done.

"If you're much more on just the visionary side of, I have this vision, but I can't actually implement or execute on it, then that's not going to work for us," Dunford says. "What we love is someone taking a problem and seeing it through and being able to go from point A to point Z with people helping them along the way."

This execution-oriented culture enables the team to tackle the complex challenges of building and maintaining a comprehensive platform. It's a value that permeates hiring decisions as well.

"I always love having conversations where someone can really get into the details and tell me what they did and how they took a project from idea all the way to implementation," Dunford shares.

The Idea Pipeline: How Hemlane Innovates

Continuous innovation is essential for a platform company like Hemlane. Their approach to vetting and implementing new ideas reflects their strategic focus and cultural values.

Dunford emphasizes that while ideas can come from anyone, they must be framed around a clear problem, solution, and potential impact before moving forward. "Every single thing needs, what is it? Like, what's a problem? Why is it a problem? What is the recommended solution? And then the biggest thing is, what is the impact? ... What is the impact if we do this? What is the impact if we don't?"

This disciplined approach to innovation helps ensure that the platform evolves strategically rather than becoming bloated with features that don't deliver meaningful value.

"That's where the 'be your own CEO' is really important because we need you to come to us and actually say, I'll lead this. I'll stand by it and I'll stand behind the metrics of what I'm trying to do."

Transparent Leadership as a Strategic Advantage

Perhaps surprisingly, Hemlane's commitment to radical transparency also serves their platform strategy. Dunford shares everything from the P&L to cash balance with her entire team—an unusual level of openness for a founder.

"If people don't know what my biggest problems are, then we all can't solve those together," she explains. This transparency enables the entire team to align around strategic priorities and make decisions that support the platform's evolution.

"When we have that communication and collaboration, we've noticed everything moves at the speed of light," Dunford notes. This acceleration is particularly valuable for a company that chose the more complex initial path of building a comprehensive platform.

The Future: Localization and AI

Looking ahead, Hemlane is building on its platform foundation with two key strategic initiatives: localization and AI integration.

"Real estate is a local game," Dunford emphasizes. "Really thinking about localization and how do we work with partners to deliver things faster and make it feel like you have a total team on the ground no matter where you are."

Meanwhile, AI represents an opportunity to enhance the platform's capabilities while maintaining their human touch. "It's going to take all of the IQ stuff off of the plate of the day today and have our team focus on the EQ for now."

Importantly, Dunford warns that many companies treat AI as a solution in search of a problem, rather than starting with the real issues they need to solve. "The problem is people often think of AI as a solution before they have a problem."

Lessons for Founders

Dunford's experience building Hemlane offers valuable insights for founders navigating their own product strategy decisions:

Consider the full strategic context: The right sequencing approach depends on your specific market, customer needs, and competitive landscape.
Weigh short-term growth against long-term defensibility: Point solutions can grow faster initially, but platforms often create more sustainable competitive advantages.
If starting with a point solution, you should plan your platform evolution: Understand how your initial focus fits into a broader platform strategy.
Build a culture that supports your strategic approach: Hemlane's values of execution, transparency, and ownership align perfectly with the challenges of building and evolving a comprehensive platform.
Maintain disciplined innovation: Whether building a point solution or a platform, rigorously evaluate new ideas based on problem clarity, solution fit, and potential impact.

For founders plotting their course through the startup journey, Hemlane's experience demonstrates that there's no one-size-fits-all approach to product sequencing. The right strategy depends on your specific context—and your ability to execute on whichever path you choose.

BONUS TIPS FOR CANDIDATES: How to Stand Out at Hemlane

If you're considering joining Hemlane, here are the key insights from Dana Dunford on what makes candidates successful:

What Hemlane Values

Hemlane operates on three core principles that directly impact hiring:

Transparency ("Glass Walls, Open Doors"): Be ready to share your work, successes, and failures openly. At Hemlane, this transparency "makes everything move at the speed of light."
Execution ("Get Sh*t Done"): Show how you take projects from concept to completion. Visionaries who can't execute won't thrive here.
Ownership ("Be Your Own CEO"): Prepare to contribute ideas regardless of your title. Hemlane has a flat hierarchy where: "I don't like to tell people what to do. I like people to tell me what we should be doing."

Actionable Interview & Application Tips

In your interviews and application:

Share specific project examples: "I always love having conversations where someone can really get into the details and tell me what they did and how they took a project from idea all the way to implementation."
Demonstrate process improvement: Prepare stories about times you questioned existing processes and made them better. "Why do I send out that report every Friday? Maybe I don't send it out and see if anyone says anything."
Format your resume for impact: "All I need to see on the resume is what you did, why you did it, and what the impact was for the company."
Cultivate strong references: References who say "Oh my gosh, I can't believe you're getting this person" make a significant difference.

Location Considerations

Hemlane has a pragmatic approach to location:

Early-career professionals: Prioritize San Francisco (product/development) or Calgary (sales/operations) offices with 2-3 days in-office weekly for maximum development opportunity.
Senior professionals: Remote options exist for highly experienced candidates, but only when local talent doesn't meet requirements.

The right fit at Hemlane combines skills with a personality that thrives in an environment of transparency, execution, and ownership. If you're excited about transforming property management while working in a culture that values your ideas and impact, Hemlane might be your ideal next move. Check out Hemlane's jobs on Wellfound here.