The seeds of the idea of Align were planted after Matthew and Patrick met Neil at a Tottenham away game in Amsterdam, the love for their club is clearly displayed with a signed Spurs shirt high on the wall at their office I visited, while the three of them continue to be match-day regulars.

Despite their mutual support for the same club, the three of them plan to gain an edge in the market, utilising their gained specialisms through each of their unique experiences in the finance industry..

With a background in development finance, Patrick spent almost six-and-a-half years at Shawbrook Bank and, prior to that, just over two years at HTB.

Beforehand, Patrick spent time at Barclays where he met Matthew, who has spent much of his career sinking his teeth into corporate real estate, as well as the SME sector, at companies such as Arbuthnot Latham & Co and Barclays.

Neil’s experience stretches from asset finance with Lloyds Bank to the property market; his career path also saw him own a car leasing dealership, spending a number of years in the motor trade before setting up directly authorised brokerage Go Finance Ltd in 2009, a venture he runs alongside his daughter Hayley.

“Patrick has always had a development finance background in his banking career, and he's very much a specialist in that area, an expert in the field,” said Matthew.

“Similarly, I've always focused and specialised in term lending, so I've done everything from your vanilla residential, through to HMOs, PBSA, and then every different type of commercial asset available.

“Neil's obviously got the experience, he's got the setup, he's got the ability to be the glue that holds everything together and keep our feet on the ground,” Matthew continued.

Patrick sees the ability to draw on his and Matthew’s experience as lenders gives them the best possible platform to secure a deal for a client and identify any ‘skeletons in the closet’ early, in addition to any potential hiccups in the process.

“Being on the other side, we understand what it is a lender wants to see, getting that information from our clients at the get go and presenting it in that way makes the process a lot smoother,” said Patrick.

Matthew highlighted that putting the leg work in early and keeping the first stages under the microscope are one of the key areas for Align.

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“Rather than just trying to get terms out of a lender as quickly as possible, we take a little bit longer, spending time with the client gathering due diligence to be able to present the deal in a professional manner.

“This means the terms that we obtain will be deliverable, because there is nothing to come out later on down the line.”

The importance of due dilligence that will impact the early stages of the deal are felt by all three of the founders.

With Neil’s experience with his regulated brokerage, Go Finance, he feels this discipline is something that is already instilled and ready to be utilised for Align, alongside the wide reaching value that his co-founders have in their respective spheres.

Neil feels that funders are not used to the level of due dilligence that Align plans to implement at the starting point of a deal, “It's not anything clever from our perspective, It's just I don't think lenders expect it, and we want to be able to use that experience to deliver at a level which can help us grow and find opportunities for our clients,” he said.

“Always, always, always the better prepared the case, the easier to get it through and over the line,” continued Neil.

However experienced the three are in their respective niches, Matthew was taken by surprise at the reaction of fellow brokers as they entered the market.

“I thought they would effectively shun us… turn on their heel, walk away.

“But I've been really surprised at how many have been very positive, have said, ‘it's exactly what you should be doing; if you've got any issues, give me a call, If you've got anything you're struggling to place, give me a call’.”

For Align, the anticipation to enter the market and work with its client base has been just as strong; the trio look forward to putting their specialisms to the test.

Matthew continued, “There's no doing things in a  different way, It's doing things right. We're specialists. That's the key. Specialist development, specialist term, specialist experience.”

As the trio launch their new venture today, and use the specialist and unique experiences of their career, they have their eyes firmly set on getting to work within the market… while keeping their fingers crossed for the upcoming Spurs season.