Our Founding Story

The foundations of Open Box were laid many years before it all came together in late 2001. Foundations of numerous relationships being built, and crucial expertise gained. All often forged through long days and late nights working towards challenging goals with great people.

A significant part of it was in 1998 when Malcolm Hall, then an employee of one of the Big 4 audit and consulting firms in London, was asked to assist a global property company with their systems in their European head office in Berlin. Malcolm had the experience and unique know-how honed through nights and weekends whilst working on similar systems in South Africa years before. The business result was a happy client and satisfied team but, just as importantly, were the friendships formed and the trust earned. One such relationship was with Joe Rich who, at the time, was a colleague of Malcolm's - consulting to the same client at their global head office in New York.

Over the next few years, Malcolm stayed in touch with the client, acting simply as someone they could call for advice. This friendly advisory role proved fruitful in 2001, when the client again reached out, looking for assistance with their Euro conversion. Having left the consulting firm, and without negotiating a fee, Malcolm dived in behind the scenes, to a life of seven-day work weeks and once again created the solutions for previously unsolvable problems. The client asked him to stay on, and Open Box (Consulting) was born.

Some months later the client was dealing with a tricky problem - dealing with service charge calculations at their largest European property. The only available new solution was clunky, didn’t operate with their other systems across Europe, and came with a hefty price tag. Ever the pragmatist, Malcolm suggested they simply replace the manual process with a custom application, and after research he recommended a London-based company to complete the task. The client’s European IT Manager, Elizabeth Riley had another idea; “Why don’t you build it?”.

At the same time, but many miles away in Cape Town, South Africa, Richard Hartley was getting itchy feet. He had been integral in putting together the back-end systems for a phenomenal start-up internet bank, 20Twenty, and having moved on, was now struggling to be excited by the companies around him. Richard and his friend Andrew Preston had been looking to start an inspirational software company of their own but hadn’t hit on a plan that moved them. They were the first people Malcolm called with Elizabeth’s suggestion.

Over the next few weeks, these three put together plans, not only for the system’s requirements but for the foundation of the new company that would deliver on them. The idea was to be the software and services company that the Real Estate Industry would need - the trusted advisors, the ones who worked tirelessly in the background to find a better way to unlock the answers to tricky problems, streamline operations, and elevate the people and companies they worked with. A company with a meaningful culture, working with great people across its ecosystem - colleagues, clients, and suppliers. One where everyone would look forward to coming to work every day. So certain were they that this would be successful, their proposal was to take no payment from the client until they had delivered a system the client was happy with.

If this were a movie, it might end with the montage of the following six months, the numerous flights between London and Cape Town, the development meetings in a small, cold Cape Town flat, the feedback sessions, the midnight squash games, and the final, successful implementation and celebrations for a job well done.

Maybe the credits would roll and epilogues would show us the next six or seven years as the company cemented itself as a trusted advisor to leading real estate companies? We would see multiple new clients signing on, and the team grow to incorporate analysts, coders, designers, project managers, and more on three continents.

Hopefully, though, it would pause to focus on Elizabeth Riley, Sandy Mechael, Dave Spence, Tracey Frazzetta, Virgie Barreras, Larry Schachter, Joe Rich, and all the other friends at the initial client who took the risks, put their reputations on the line, believed in Malcolm and his team, and created the opportunity for the founding of Open Box. And, who, many dozens of successfully completed projects later, remain valuable clients, and cherished friends, to this day.

Our why is a better way. It drives everything we do

MALCOLM HALL, FOUNDER