Tract, a UK-based proptech startup that aimed to tackle Britain’s housing crisis with artificial intelligence, has officially shut down. Founded in 2023, the company sought to revolutionize the planning permission process by using AI to identify ideal sites for development. And compile the necessary documentation to fast-track housing approvals.
Backed by early-stage investors Ada Ventures and Concept Ventures. Tract had hoped to make a real dent in the UK’s sluggish homebuilding system. But on Thursday, cofounders Jamie Rumbelow and Henry Dashwood published a candid blog post announcing the company’s closure. And their decision to return remaining investor funds.
“We Failed — and We Own It”
“We want to stress from the start that the ultimate failure of the company lies with us,” the pair wrote in a refreshingly honest post. “Some issues were within our control and some were beyond it.”
While Tract aimed to streamline a notoriously complex sector, the founders admitted to several missteps in execution. Compounded by systemic barriers in the UK housing market that they couldn’t overcome. Their reflections now serve as a cautionary tale for other early-stage founders.
Among the issues they acknowledged: overspending on non-critical items like a high-end website, external contractors, and even “a trip to America” — spending decisions that Rumbelow openly regrets.
“This is the thing I’m most angry with myself about. It smacks of vanity and stupidity, and I should have held myself to a higher standard,” he wrote.
Tract Failure: Lessons for Other Startup Founders
Rather than disappear quietly, Rumbelow and Dashwood are using the shutdown as a chance to share what they learned. They outlined five core pieces of advice for other founders navigating uncertain terrain:
- Get to America – where the market and capital pool are larger.
- Choose your market wisely – don’t underestimate regulatory complexity.
- Stay lean – keep your burn rate low, especially early on.
- Be aggressively commercial – focus on proving monetization early.
- Test your assumptions early – avoid scaling before validation.
The blog post doesn’t point fingers at external conditions alone. Instead, it weaves together personal responsibility, flawed assumptions, and structural challenges — offering a grounded, real-world look at how even a promising AI startup with funding and vision can falter.
Tract was building in a sector that’s notoriously difficult to disrupt. The UK’s housing crisis, marked by complex planning laws and slow bureaucracy, has long defied innovation. While Tract’s core idea — AI for housing development — made intuitive sense, turning that into a sustainable business proved difficult.
Despite their best efforts, the team found it nearly impossible to scale within a system plagued by inefficiency, regulation, and entrenched institutional inertia.
“We want to tell the story as matter-of-factly as possible,” the founders said. “Most importantly, we’re extremely grateful to everyone who supported us over the last couple of years, in money and in time.”
Their transparency, humility, and willingness to share hard-earned lessons are earning praise across the startup community — even in failure, Tract may end up helping the next generation of founders build better.
