Julian Kwan is the CEO of Investacrowd. Julian Kwan is a thought leader, influencer, visionary, and successful entrepreneur. Julian provides the leadership and energy that has inspired the creation of Investacrowd. Julian Kwan joins other leading CEOs and Founders taking part in our Leader Roundtable Interview Series. The DotCom Magazine editorial team has recently awarded Investacrowd with our Impact Company of 2019 award, and we are delighted to have Julian join us for our Leader Round Table Interview.
The Investacrowd story is very interesting. We are very excited to interview Julian, and also put Julian through our popular speed round as well. Julian, thank you so much for taking the time out of your busy day for this interview, and answering some questions about leadership, your vision, and your passion.
1. What is the “elevator pitch” for Investacrowd?
Digital Securities Investment platform for real estate private equity and venture capital
2. Many of our readers are just starting to build a company. What advice can you give CEO’s just starting out regarding keeping a company moving forward, and please tell us the key to your company’s success?
Choose something you truly believe in and are genuinely interested in, are passionate about and believe it has huge potential
3. For other entrepreneurs seeking to build a business as successful as yours, what advice can you give them when times get a little challenging?
You need to be able to weather some severe storms and some cashflow crunches, most business I see fail simply ran out of time and money, so if you create a way to buy yourself more time (and this might be needed multiple times when you start out), then this could be the difference between success and failure and never give up.
4. How important is the commitment to client satisfaction at Investacrowd, and how do you make sure your customers will become raving fans of your company?
We treat our investor community with the utmost respect and only ever-present opportunities that we would invest into ourselves (note: we are not actually allowed too due to regulations but you understand my point)
5. What is the one thing Investacrowd does to have great communication with their customers?
Constant updates, events and education for our community
6. In today’s fast changing business environment, how do you stay abreast of things?
Its difficult and challenging, we try to keep 1 foot in the old world and 1 in the new, right now we are at a tipping point of the whole world going digital, so those that are not interested or want to hold onto the way they are doing things now will ultimately lose
7. What is your “Why”? Why do you get up in the morning, and how do you keep yourself at peak performance to lead Investacrowd?
I am generally put off by how the” financial markets generally operate” and how there are so many rent-seeking middlemen that do not need to exist and provide no real value any more, so we want to attack these problems and believe blockchain is the new paradigm and operating system for everything we will do in the future, so we want to be helping drive that train and stay ahead of the curve
8. Can you recommend a book that has had an influence in your career? How did it influence you?
I have read many books on business and philosophy and now so much reading is via blogs and posts online, without specifics i think reading and learning how to meditate has been one of the most valuable experiences I am constantly working on and would also say that all books are written from someone’s perspective with their life history and experience shapes those views, so it is not always relevant or applicable to the situation you might find yourself in and this is especially true about books from founders from silicon valley where so much of it is irrelevant in all the other markets around the world that do not have the same ecosystem, $ or brainpower at the moment. It typically takes many years to build anything successful and failing fast is a stupid concept for many startups, especially in Asia.
9. When communicating with your staff, can you tell us the most important thing you do so that they are able to carry out the objectives that you set forth at Investacrowd?
We do a daily morning huddle to get everyone on the same page, share yesterdays success and failures and today’s game plan, then everyone can go off and start doing what they have to do, we have team and advisors spread across 10 countries so its important to be connected , touch base but then onwards into the day whatever timezone that is for everyone
10. In one sentence, can you give some advice to fellow entrepreneurs wishing to build a company as exciting as Investacrowd?
Don’t do anything that you don’t believe in or where you are not learning anything. You will get 99 no’s to every 1 yes at the beginning, so if you want to get 2 x yes, go and make 200 calls and meetings. It is often simply a numbers game.
We would like to have some fun and do a “Speed Round” with you! We will ask you ten more questions that we want you to answer in just one to three words only.
Here you go!
1. In three words or less, What makes a successful CEO?
Persistence
2. Describe your business in one word?
Bleeding-edge
3. Describe your customers in one word?
Loyal
4. What one attribute do you look for when hiring an employee?
Drive and curiosity
5. What is the one word you want your customers to say about your company?
Awesome
6. In three words or less, describe your passion?
Fruit
7. In three words or less, describe what it takes to be successful?
Stupidity, energy and persistence
8. In three words or less, describe your first year in business at Investacrowd?
Painful
9. In three words or less, describe how running a successful company has changed you?
Huge respect for all entrepreneurs, and clearly i can’t count
10. What is the one word that you believe has the most power in the English Language?
No
Julian Kwan, Thank you so much for sitting down with us at our DotCom Magazine Leader Round Table. We very much appreciate the time you spent helping others learn more about what it takes to be a leader. We hope your interview helps our readers, and we wish you, your family, and of course Investacrowd, nothing but the best. Thanks again!
Julian Kwan, CEO of Investacrowd, The Leader Roundtable Interview Series
