An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Leaving the corporate world is harder than you think. There are benefits that you don’t see until you leave, for example, regular check-ins from mentors, organized calendars, a solid routine. It’s easy to think that you’re not doing enough, or the days seem to get shorter, but know that you are moving forward and putting in the hard work. This is a journey that I am still on.
As a part of our series called “Making Something From Nothing”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Sam Syed.
Sam Syed is co-founder, CFO and COO at Capsll App. With a lifelong passion for history and philosophy, Sam is excited to be making a difference in people’s lives by utilizing the Capsll App and helping them preserve memories of their legacy. In joining the Capsll team, Sam is “coming home” and excited to be working for the purpose-driven company, a place where users can gather their once-scattered memories into digital time capsules that can be shared privately with full user control.
He joined Capsll with almost two decades of experience in the financial industry. He started his career as an equity broker in London, United Kingdom, advising clients on Commodities, Equities and FX, eventually rising to the role of Derivatives Trader. He moved to Dubai in 2012, helping clients achieve their financial goals through all areas of wealth management, including retirement planning and estate planning, where he managed millions in assets. He then moved to the United States and began working as a financial advisor at Northwestern Mutual, where he helped families secure the future they desired.
Now at Capsll, he is excited to continue working to help families safeguard their legacies in a different way. He joins Capsll’s CEO Clint Davis and CPO Anton Devenish, Co-founder and CPO, and is excited to be on this adventure to build something meaningful and impactful with two close friends.
He splits his time between Denver, Colorado and Austin, Texas with his wife, Lauren. He and Lauren have one daughter, with another on the way. In his free time, Sam enjoys traveling, mountain climbing, and has an appreciation for opera and art.
“If Capsll can find purpose in people’s lives, I would have left a greater impact than I could have ever imagined.” For more information, please visit www.capsll.app/.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your “childhood backstory”?
I was born in London, UK and raised in a working-class family with 5 brothers. Growing up in a big family was fun — lots of toys, lots of road trips and lots of amazing food. My Dad self-taught himself to be a great chef, which financially worked well because it saved a lot of money not having to eat out. I wasn’t always the best behaved in or out of school, but always had respect for my elders and was always a good kid. I had a passion for finance which led to a successful 15-year career in wealth management which started in London and brought me to Dubai and then to New York.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
I would say Oscar Wilde’s “Be yourself, everyone else is taken” leads the way for me. I grew up with a fair share of racism directed at me as a young child with Portuguese and Pakistani heritage. That’s a pretty unusual mix, especially living in West London in the 80s! Although it was difficult to feel that I was being judged for the color of my skin, it not only toughened me up and taught me perseverance, but it’s also made me embrace who I am and what I have to offer to the world. We are all unique. It made me appreciate other people’s uniqueness. I enjoy bringing diverse people together that might not have otherwise met, which creates more interesting relationships and conversations.
Is there a particular book, podcast, or film that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?
I’m sure a few people have mentioned Napoleon Hill’s book “Think and Grow Rich”. But Chapter 1’s story of ‘Three feet from gold’ made a significant impact on me. It made me realize that quitting will never be an option. If I fail, I fail forward and learn — but I won’t quit. This fueled me when I moved to Dubai and built a successful practice, and then again when I moved to New York.
Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion. There is no shortage of good ideas out there. Many people have good ideas all the time. But people seem to struggle in taking a good idea and translating it into an actual business. Can you share a few ideas from your experience about how to overcome this challenge?
The first thing that I would say is passion. Without passion, any good idea will fall through the cracks and be left for someone else with more passion to successfully build it. The second is to have an amazing team around you. So now you have a team of likeminded people who are passionate about building the same thing. The third is grit, or resilience. The reason why grit is important is because you will approach hard times, quiet times, lonely times and times where you just want to quit… and that’s where you need grit to remind you why you are building what you’re building.
Often when people think of a new idea, they dismiss it saying someone else must have thought of it before. How would you recommend that someone go about researching whether or not their idea has already been created?
Take a look at the world, look at the market, look at the demographic of potential customers that you’re planning to appeal to. If you think someone has thought of your idea, what does the world say? Are they using it? Is it successful? Could it do with some improvements? Friendster & MySpace was out before Facebook, but we all know who won market dominance.
For the benefit of our readers, can you outline the steps one has to go through, from when they think of the idea, until it finally lands in a customer’s hands? In particular, we’d love to hear about how to file a patent, how to source a good manufacturer, and how to find a retailer to distribute it.
My advice would be to surround yourself with trusted experts, mentors, professionals and friends that believe in your mission and see the potential in your idea. I believe no Co-Founder can juggle everything needed to build a successful company themselves. For example, our attorneys have filed our patents. My area of expertise is not on the legal-side, so I would rather an expert handle that portion. I can then free up my time and energy for more productive and income-generating solutions.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Started Leading My Company” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)
1. If possible, co-found a company with friends. This has been my greatest joy. Yes, there’s a few heated discussions here and there, but I will always have their back and I know they have mine. That’s priceless.
2. Raising money is harder than you think. Be tenacious, be courageous, don’t fall ‘three feet from gold’. We have investors from the most unlikely referrals, and we have naysayers from our most promising pitches. Don’t take it personally. It’s your job to show them that you will succeed regardless.
3. Leaving the corporate world is harder than you think. There are benefits that you don’t see until you leave, for example, regular check-ins from mentors, organized calendars, a solid routine. It’s easy to think that you’re not doing enough, or the days seem to get shorter, but know that you are moving forward and putting in the hard work. This is a journey that I am still on.
4. It’s important to understand that not all your closest friends will catch your vision and be there for the journey. Even though you know that it would be an amazing opportunity for them.
5. Some people will just be cheerleaders — and that’s okay.
Let’s imagine that a reader reading this interview has an idea for a product that they would like to invent. What are the first few steps that you would recommend that they take?
Speak to those that you love and trust and get as much perspective as possible, not just about the product, but also the journey. But always lead with your conviction and go with your heart. You might succeed or fail, but you must always follow with your heart.
There are many invention development consultants. Would you recommend that a person with a new idea hire such a consultant, or should they try to strike out on their own?
Firstly, I would urge people to seek their internal consul (religious leader, friend, mentor, coach, business leader etc.). I would never start a company alone and if you need an advisor, it shouldn’t take the place of forming a close team. Secondly, figure out how much money you need to put upfront to initially build. This is where you could use a consultant to build out your plan. Thirdly, whether you use an external consultant or not, you will discover very quickly on the journey whether you need them or not.
What are your thoughts about bootstrapping vs looking for venture capital? What is the best way to decide if you should do either one?
I would lean towards bootstrapping, not because of the rhetoric out there of what VCs might take as equity, but because your first investors through your family & friends are your biggest cheerleaders and believe in the mission. Those investors usually know other investors that also want to invest in the same mission. It’s all about relationships. Make sure the relationship fits your ethos, core values and your team. We have actually turned down money because we didn’t feel that the relationship was right. It’s hard to do that as founders, but we believe it’s the best approach for the long run.
Ok. We are nearly done. Here are our final questions. How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
I believe our company, Capsll, will make the world a better place. If I save my story I will understand my value. If I understand my value, I will understand that others have a story, and their value. This in turn means I engage other people differently based on their values, and that changes how humanity connects with each other.
You are an inspiration to a great many people. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
Check out http://www.capsll.app/ and download the app from the Apple Store or Google Play. We truly believe this will be a movement for the masses and bring the most amount of good in the most amount of people. For us, the joy comes from every individual story. Every investor we pitched, every person we have spoken to has thought more deeply about legacy, their own stories and their meaning. Every person is challenged to think about the meaning of their whole life.
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.
Elon Musk. It might sound like a common answer in these current times, but I feel he truly innovates to change the way we think, and to make the world a better place. Also, a ticket to Mars sounds pretty cool.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Thank you!
Making Something From Nothing: Sam Syed of Capsll App On How To Go From Idea To Launch was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
