Managing Director, Cooper Parry Digital | Head of Early Stage, Tech & High Growth |

I lead the CP Digital business, supporting clients with their Digital needs. Responsibilities include all M&A and growth, alongside our Private Equity partners. 

I also lead market activity for CP in the Venture Capital ecosystem (funds & founders).

Our specialist team works with Founders, CFOs and Boards of early stage, scale-up and high growth businesses, navigating challenges spanning accounting, finance, tax, audit, technology, and deal support. 

We are highly active in the scale-up ecosystem and have worked as the accounting partner for leading organisations and communities whilst also building our own community platforms, TechCFO and VentureCEO.

Having started my career at PwC, I went to on to establish and build a successful early stage focussed firm, Acclivity Advisors (which was acquired by Cooper Parry in Jan’23).

Along the way, I wrote the best selling book 'The Finance Playbook for Entrepreneurs', so that entrepreneurs of ALL backgrounds could benefit from the very best teachings.  

My unique experiences and skills have afforded me a number of Board positions across industries within public & private sectors. 

At present, these include:

1. Middlesex County Cricket Club (Board Observer, Chair of Growth Committee)
2. Queen Elizabeth's Global Schools (Chair, International Schools)
3. Labrys (Advisor to the Board)
4. HM Revenue & Customs - ABAB (Board Member)

As well as the above, 

I advise Government on how to innovate for SMEs & entrepreneurs through consultative committees and forums.

All of these roles have shown me the value of sharing what I know beyond my own sector;

And so, I enjoy speaking at universities, schools, accelerators and incubators on a wide variety of relevant entrepreneurship related topics.

Asif Ahmed

I build products that solve real-world problems — in property, education, and beyond.
For the last decade I’ve led product teams for some of the biggest names in tech, and today I use that experience to create AI-powered tools that make complex journeys simpler for the people using them.

I’m the Co-Founder of Netmo (landlord + agent automation) and YoYo (AI-assisted language learning). Both are born from the same belief: great product design starts with understanding real behaviour, not adding more features.

Across my work I focus on:

Turning messy workflows into clean, automated systems

Applying AI in ways that actually help users, not overwhelm them

Shipping quickly, learning faster, and keeping things human

Bridging the gap between digital products and real-world operations (especially in property)

Alongside product, I build and manage high-quality rental properties, giving me hands-on insight into the challenges that Netmo is solving — compliance, maintenance, communication and scale.

Whether I’m working with founders, agencies, or operators, my goal is always the same:
make the experience better, reduce the friction, and deliver something people genuinely want to use.

If you’re working on something in product, AI, automation, edtech or proptech, I’m always open to conversations.

Benjamin Fountain

How I stopped overpaying for my HMOs management

When I started building HMOs, I assumed the hardest part would be finding deals.

In reality, it was everything that came after: maintenance noise, compliance tracking, tenant communication, and the constant operational drag that slowly eats into returns.

Over the past few years, I’ve learned (often the hard way) what actually moves the needle in HMO performance, and what just creates friction.

On March 4th at 3pm GMT, I’m running a short live webinar where I’ll share:

What I got wrong in my early HMOs

What I now focus on operationally

Why I ended up building Netmo off the back of those experiences

If you’re an HMO landlord, property investor, or developer trying to build portfolios that actually run well day-to-day, you’ll likely find it useful.

Register here: https://lnkd.in/egZNMHpV 

#hmo #uklandlords #propertyinvesting #propertydevelopers #landlordlife #propertyoperations

Founder @ Netmo | Being a Landlord May Never Be Passive — But With Netmo AI, It Gets a Whole Lot Easier!

How AI can remove 50% of maintenance admin

Most letting agencies don’t lose time fixing issues.
They lose time coordinating them.

A typical request often looks like this:
Tenant reports issue -> agent logs it -> agent asks follow-up questions -> contractor contacted -> quote requested -> approval -> visit booked -> updates shared.

Across a portfolio, this creates a constant stream of routine admin: messages, updates, scheduling, and chasing information.

Automation changes that.

When maintenance requests are structured from the start, with the right questions, and clear updates, many issues can be diagnosed faster, resolved earlier, or escalated only when necessary.

That’s where #Netmo comes in. Using AI that understands the property setup and appliances, Netmo helps troubleshoot issues, enriches each maintenance ticket with detailed information, and ensures contractors arrive already knowing the exact problem they need to solve.

Less back-and-forth. Better information.

How much of your team’s time is spent fixing problems, and how much is spent managing the admin around them?

#lettingagents #propertymanagement #netmo #propertyoperations #automation

The compliance risk most managing agents don’t spot early.

Most compliance issues don’t start with a failed inspection.
They start with missed timelines.

A gas certificate quietly expires.
An EICR date slips past.

Individually these look like small admin gaps.
Operationally, they create real risk.

For managing agents running multiple managed properties, compliance isn’t difficult because of the rules, it’s difficult because of visibility.

When certificates, inspections, and renewals are tracked across emails, spreadsheets, and reminders, things inevitably fall through the cracks.
And when they do, the issue isn’t just paperwork. It becomes liability.

The agents who run the smoothest managed portfolios usually do one thing well: they treat compliance like an operational system, not an occasional task.

Tools like Netmo help agents keep compliance timelines visible across their managed properties, so nothing quietly expires.

How is your agency (or HMO management company) currently tracking compliance across your managed properties?

#lettingagents #propertymanagement #propertyoperations #ukproperty #compliance #proptech

Why maintenance noise overwhelms letting agencies.

A tenant messages: “The electrics in my room aren’t working.”

From an agent’s perspective, this is a difficult situation.

They don’t live in the property.
They don’t know which appliances are connected to which circuits.

They’re effectively blind.

So what usually happens?

The agent forwards the issue.
Messages go back and forth.
Eventually a contractor gets booked.

And then the electrician arrives, only to reset a tripped breaker.

That single situation creates three problems for the agency:

A costly contractor call-out for a minor issue

Frustration from the landlord over unnecessary costs

Time lost coordinating messages, contractors, and updates

Tenant without power for way longer than necessary

The problem is that agents don’t often have room by room knowledge when the issue arrives.

This is exactly the gap Netmo is designed to solve, using AI that understands each property and the appliances inside it to triage issues before they become jobs.

Would it help your team if an AI already knew the properties you manage and only sent real issues to your agents?

#lettingagents #propertymanagement #proptech #propertyoperations #maintenance #realestateops

Where managing agents quietly lose profit.

Most letting agencies don’t lose profit on the big things.
They lose it in small operational leaks that happen every day.

A few common ones show up again and again:

Maintenance coordination:
A tenant reports an issue, the message gets forwarded, a contractor is called and the problem turns out to be minor.
Call-out fees, admin time, and follow-ups quietly stack up.

Routine admin work:
Chasing updates, logging issues, forwarding emails between tenants, landlords, and contractors.
Individually these tasks look small. Across a portfolio, they consume hours every week.

Communication noise:
Tenant messages often arrive across WhatsApp, email, calls, and portals.
When communication is fragmented, agents spend more time coordinating than actually managing.

The most efficient agencies aren’t necessarily charging higher fees.
They’ve simply designed operations that reduce friction.

Where do you see the biggest operational drain inside property management today?

#lettingagents #propertymanagement #propertyoperations #ukproperty #lettingagency

How letting agents can improve margins without increasing management fees.

Most letting agencies assume the only way to improve profitability is to raise fees or grow the portfolio.

But in reality, many agencies lose margin inside the operation itself.

Not through big strategic mistakes, through small daily friction:

Maintenance issues that bounce between tenant, agent, and contractor

Unnecessary call-outs for simple problems

Chasing invoices and updates

Individually these tasks feel manageable.
Collectively they become operational drag.

The most profitable agencies I see aren’t necessarily charging higher fees, they’re simply running cleaner operations.

They reduce noise before it reaches the team.
They structure tenant communication.

Better systems don’t just save time. They protect margins.

Where do you think most agency margin quietly disappears today?

#lettingagents #propertymanagement #uklettingagents #proptech #netmo

Don’t optimise your HMO for move-in day. Optimise it for year two.

When I set up my first HMO, I wanted it to feel premium for new tenants.

So I went all-in: duvets, covers, pillows, side lights, big lamps, all the extras to make the room feel “ready to live in” from day one.

It felt like good service at the time.
What I didn’t see was the operational debt I was creating.

Every extra item becomes an overhead later.

Those lamps? They now need annual PAT testing.
The duvets, rugs, and soft furnishings? They need cleaning on checkout, and most new tenants don’t want second-hand linen anyway. A lot of it ends up being scrapped or replaced.

If I were starting again, I’d keep it simple.
Provide what’s essential and durable.

The real lesson wasn’t about furnishings. It was about decision-making.

Good HMOs aren’t just designed for today.
They’re designed for the lifecycle.

What’s one “nice-to-have” in your HMOs that quietly creates more work than value?

#hmo #uklandlords #propertyoperations #landlordlife #rentalproperty #propertymanagement

What if the AI version of you as a letting agent lived on the tenant’s phone?

Think about the questions tenants ask every day.

Where do I report a repair?
What does my tenancy agreement say about this?
Who do I contact for this issue?

Now ask yourself something honestly.

Do you remember every clause in every tenancy agreement you manage?
Do you know the layout of every property in your portfolio?
If a tenant called right now with a specific question about their property, would you know the answer instantly?

Most agents wouldn’t. And that’s normal.

But AI can.

Once AI is given the information about a property, the agreements, it remembers it forever and can answer tenant questions instantly, anytime.

Platforms like Netmo make this possible by placing that knowledge directly on the tenant’s phone through a dedicated app experience.

Curious what it would look like if your property knowledge lived on every tenant’s phone? Explore Netmo.

If you’re interested in how AI can reduce admin, handle tenant queries faster, and improve tenant experience without growing your team, we’re running a live session on this on Wednesday, April 15 2026, 2:00 PM (London).

Register here: https://lnkd.in/e6nuZBHG

#lettingagents #propertymanagement #proptech #tenantexperience #propertyoperations #ukproperty

Reminder: We’re live on March 4th at 3pm GMT.

If you’re a self-managing landlord or wondering how to reduce your agent costs, this session is for you.

I’ll be sharing what I’ve learned from running HMOs, the operational mistakes I made early on, the real cost realities behind the numbers, and why I built Netmo.

If you haven’t registered yet, this is your reminder.

Register here:
https://lnkd.in/egZNMHpV

Hope to see you there.

#uklandlords #selfmanaginglandlord #propertyoperations #landlordlife #proptech #webinar


https://lnkd.in/eiywNeT5

How long does it take to pull a tenant audit trail together?

When issues arise between tenants, agents, and landlords, the biggest challenge is often not the problem itself, it’s proving what actually happened.

Messages get lost across WhatsApp, email threads, and phone calls.

Different tenants remember events differently.
And by the time a dispute appears, the timeline is already unclear.

This is where a proper audit trail becomes essential.

With the Renters’ Rights Bill coming into effect from 1 May 2026, this becomes even more critical.

Agents will need to clearly evidence:

What information was shared with tenants and when

How rent, arrears, and communication were handled

How repairs and issues were managed over time

Without structured records, even straightforward situations can become difficult to defend.

A clear, time-stamped record of tenant communication, maintenance requests, and property updates protects everyone involved. Agents can see exactly when issues were reported, how they were handled, and what actions were taken.

Even simple things like tenant chats, maintenance reports, and updates being stored in one place can dramatically reduce operational noise.

Platforms like Netmo help create this kind of structured audit trail automatically.

If there is an incident, how long would it take you to pull together all the evidence?

We’re discussing practical ways AI can reduce admin, improve communication, and streamline operations for letting agents in an upcoming session on April 15 at 2:00 PM (London).
Feel free to join here: https://lnkd.in/e6nuZBHG

#lettingagents #propertymanagement #propertyoperations #uklettings #proptech

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Benjamin Fountain

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The Battle

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Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Benjamin Fountain's LinkedIn Performance

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