"Firstly, success is a concept that is different for every person"
Taylah Allen is the CEO of triSearch since its launch in 2018. triSearch is an award-winning, all-in-one tech solution for Australian Conveyancers. Operating nationally, triSearch provides Conveyancers with software to manage their practice, a Search platform for their due diligence and a range of electronic conveyancing tools.
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Thank you for joining us, please introduce yourself to our readers.
Taylah Allen: My name is Taylah Allen, current CEO of triSearch. I have more than 10 years of experience in the legal and conveyancing tech industry. I started my career in Sales, selling legal tech both in Australia and overseas, quickly climbing the ranks into a leadership position. In 2018, I was given the opportunity to head up triSearch, after pitching the idea to investors.
Can you tell our readers in what ways you are disrupting your industry?
Taylah Allen: My company triSearch was built to be a disruptor. We entered a saturated market back in 2018 where most competitors had been around for more than 15 years. I started triSearch to shake up the stagnant industry by offering a premium technology solution to law firms, at an affordable price point, something which did not exist until triSearch. That model allowed us to enter the market and build a strong foundation of clients, but we did not stop there. In September of 2021, triSearch launched its newest product, triConvey. triConvey is a practice management software product and is the first of its kind to have the level of integration with other widely used legaltech solutions.
The unique offering is a partnership with leading conveyancing-tech provider, Smokeball, that allows us to leverage their premium software. Combined with our existing Search platform, we were able to build a seamless integration that allows property lawyers to save hours of their matters.
triConvey is a product which is purpose-built for the Australian conveyancer workflow from start to finish with the chance for conveyancers to enter their client and conveyance details once, and have it pre-populate into fields throughout the workflow. Therefore, saving more than 3.7hours per file, allowing small businesses to take on more workloads and improve overall efficiency.
While the solution itself is top-shelf, the biggest disrupting factor is that we offer the Software at $0. We’re able to do so by bringing the Software and Search functionalities under one roof, which none of our competitors have done. This means we see revenue from the Search side, allowing us to offer the Software at $0, which is a huge saving for our clients.
Did you become a disruptor by choice or by necessity? Tell us more about the journey.
Taylah Allen: I would say that I’ve become a disruptor by a mix of choice and necessity. Throughout my career I have been given the opportunity to reach new heights at each stage, and by personal choice, I have strived to surpass those expectations.
My journey in the industry started in 2013 in Sydney where I quickly thrived in an entry-level sales position. In 2014, I was given the opportunity to work overseas as an Account Manager and Business Development Manager in the United Kingdom at a legal technology start up before returning to Sydney in 2015.
It was at this time where I seized the opportunity to succeed, rising through the ranks in Australia’s leading legal and conveyancing search provider. It wasn’t until early 2018 when I truly had my first opportunity to exert my personal goals into the industry, when I saw a gap in the market and ideated triSearch out of necessity to help fill a large gap in the market, targeting smaller and sole practices in the legal and conveyancing space.
Since 2018, I have made it my mission to put our clients’ needs first and it was by choice that we niched ourselves even further at the end of last year, moving our business to focus solely on the conveyancing market, completely disrupting the tech industry with the launch of triConvey as previously mentioned.
Now for the main focus of this interview: Many readers may wonder what are the biggest challenges women entrepreneurs must overcome to be successful?
Taylah Allen: There are many industries in Australia that remain male dominated at an executive level, and the conveyancing and law tech is no exception. However, despite these odds I am proud to say I was able to surround myself with good people whose judgement of my ability to succeed in the industry, wasn’t determined by my gender. From day one, I had the support of my entire team and as I rose through jobs and responsibilities I was only seen as a person who was driven and motivated to be the best.
That said, I can’t ignore the biggest challenges most female entrepreneurs face daily and I have made it a point in my professional life to play my part in preventing future social injustices.
The first challenge I see is the social expectations placed on women in business. There is still a stigma that women, more often than men, will eventually place having a family over a career. They are expected to be the ones to pick up their children after school and that requires adjusted working hours, and therefore, have a subtle bias against them when looking for progress in their career.
Another big challenge female entrepreneurs face in business industries is the lack of women filling executive roles. While I believe all executives are respected in the industry regardless of gender, there is still a lack of equal representation and therefore less role models for younger female entrepreneurs.
How did you overcome these obstacles? Who helped you during these difficult times and how did they?
Taylah Allen: I have been lucky. From the start of my career, I have had people around me willing to help me succeed. They saw from the outset that I was willing to do whatever it takes to make it in the industry and when I started setting record numbers in sales, I wasn’t looked down upon as a female who works too much but seen by managers as the example of what to strive for.
When it came time to take on more responsibility, I was lucky enough to have the right people in my corner. If you want the support of everyone, be the hardest working in the room and they will acknowledge you and support you.
How did these lessons shaped the way you conduct business today?
Taylah Allen: Now that I am in a position of leadership, I can do the same for my colleagues. I pride myself in hiring the best person for the job and for the culture of triSearch. As a result, we have some amazing female employees at triSearch, as much as we do male.
Having the opportunity to lead my own company is a big opportunity, and it took long hours and a lot of hard work to get here. But that isn’t enough to satisfy my ambitions, and I look for the same goals in those I hire. I want to surround myself with the same people and offer the same mentorship and guidance to my colleagues as I once had in the early stages of my career.
What advice did you wish you had received when you started, that you’d like to share now with aspiring women entrepreneurs?
Taylah Allen: I have two tips I want to share for aspiring women entrepreneurs:
Firstly, success is a concept that is different for every person. Whether it means having a great career, a home or a family, success is something everyone strives to achieve. It makes you feel proud and makes you excited. However, you cannot be successful if you do not put in a substantial amount of effort. You must be the best, make sacrifices and work smarter.
Secondly, know the product back to front. Being able to answer a prospect or a client’s question straight away allows you to move on, without slowing you down in your tracks. This involves asking questions and constantly trying to improve on your product knowledge. It shows your audience that you are an expert with the product or service you are offering, and you won’t waste their time having to ‘get back to them’.
Out of all of your proudest moments as an entrepreneur, is there a particular one that stands out the most?
Taylah Allen: I can’t go past getting the opportunity to lead triSearch back in 2018 as one of my favourite moments as an entrepreneur.
However, if I look more recently, in September 2021, we launched triConvey. It has been a major market disruptor and a huge success so far. But it didn’t happen overnight. triConvey was something I envisioned many years ago and it took a great deal of trial and error, hard work and business acumen in order to bring it to fruition. I am extremely proud at what it’s achieved and what my team has been able to accomplish in just the short six months since we’ve brought it to market.
Another proud moment as an entrepreneur is the response our company culture has had to the last 12 months of growth. When I envisioned triSearch four years ago, I knew the culture I wanted to create, however, I never could have predicted it would have worked out so perfectly. In 2021, we more than doubled in size, from 10 to 22 employees and while I’ve been proud in the overall growth of triSearch, I’m even more humbled by the fact it has kept its supportive culture.
What do you plan on tackling during the 2022 year? Share your goals and battles you expect to face.
Taylah Allen: Each year is all about putting Australian conveyancers and property lawyers first. Last year, we made big strides in research and development, launching multiple game-changing products, including triConvey. Now that we’ve laid the product foundations, we want to focus on growth and retention.
We plan on achieving this by providing the tools necessary to help businesses succeed by offering the best training from highly knowledgeable account managers and fast and efficient problem solving from our expert support team.
We have also placed a great emphasis on innovation in 2022. We don’t ever want to be stagnant or take our position for granted. We are a business that will never stop growing and looking to stay ahead of the curve.
I’m sure our readers will be very thankful for the insights you have shared. What is the best book you’ve gone through lately and please share some takeaway lessons from it?
Taylah Allen: The best book I’ve read recently is easily ‘Winning on Purpose: The Unbeatable Strategy of Loving Customers’. Given my industry, I like to read books that will inspire me, and I find that while reading them I can picture how I can implement things at work the next day.
The key takeaway lessons from Winning on Purpose are the importance of being customer focused, inspiring your business/teams to treat customers like you’d treat loved ones! Also, that being customer focused motivates your employees and therefore has a positive net impact than if you were otherwise.
Thank you so much for your time but before we finish things off, I do have one more question for you. When was the last time you did something for the first time and what was it?
Taylah Allen: The last time I did something for the first time would be my recent purchase of a new puppy, a caboodle to be precise.
I underestimated the workload but am benefiting from the rewards of having a new colleague who can do no wrong… apart from eat a few shoes here and there!
Mike Weiss, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Taylah Allen for taking the time to do this interview and share her knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Taylah Allen or her company, you can do it through her – Linkedin
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