Forum Radio: Justin Peimani

Justin Peimani (London), a strategic advisor and investor, talks to Jessica Fellowes this week about his move to London, his excitement about the opportunities for investors in software companies and the constant flow of new information and possibilities. 

We asked Justin what he liked about his Forum membership: "Every time I think that the connecting thread has always been [that] there's always a deep level of reflection and insight that you see within the members and within the conversation. So I think every lunch that I've been to, I feel like I've gotten a little bit smarter."

Transcript

Justin Peimani 

[Speaker 2] 

Hello and welcome to Foreign Radio, our ongoing series of interviews with foreign members around the world. And today I'm delighted to be talking to Justin Paimani. Justin is a London member, having moved here quite recently from Canada, and is an executive advisor and investor in early stage software companies. 

Since moving to London, he has primarily focused on advising CEOs of business-to-business software, and you can read our longer interview with him in the Winter 2025 issue of Inforum magazine. So Justin, thank you so much for joining us today. And I know you trained as a lawyer, so this move into tech must have been quite a leap. 

So I'm really interested to know, who was your inspiration? [Speaker 1] 

So first of all, hi Jessica and hi to all foreign members that are listening to us. It's a pleasure to be with all of you. It's a good question. 

I guess the short answer to it is I don't remember his name, but there were kind of a series of inspirations. So I had never planned to practice law for very long. My thesis was always, you know, go to graduate schools. 

I have two parents who are PhDs, so graduate school was in the blood, I guess. And learn how to build businesses, and then start to invest, and then kind of take that skill set from there. And when I was a lawyer, we had a very slow summer, and we typically would work with banks, like HSBC, Standard Chartered were some of our clients. 

And we had a much smaller business that came in. One of our partners had met this gentleman at a conference, and he was running one of the first online advertising businesses that supported European and North American brands who were looking to penetrate the Asian market. So he was doing very, very well. 

A couple years into his business, at the time, he would have been in his mid-40s. And I just remember him very, very vividly describing his business, and the types of challenges he had, the types of opportunities, but I think most of all, just the excitement that he had about building his business, and collaborating with his colleagues, and building out his team. And I remember I looked at him at one point in the meeting with my partner, and I said, you know, can I come work for you? 

And my partner looked at me and said, okay, you really, you really, you really need to go. So I don't remember the gentleman's name, but there was a very specific moment where that came up. And then I've been in software since then, technology since then, and it's been absolutely 

wonderful.
 [Speaker 2]
 So what is it you love about what you do? [Speaker 1] 

I guess there's a few things. I think the biggest one is the constant learning, because regardless of whether it's on technology, or whether it's sectors that technology applies to, and technology is so broad. I work in software, and even within software, I mean, there's business-to-business software, there's consumer-facing solutions. 

Even within those, there's many, many, many subcategories and solutions that apply. So there's no end to the amount of learning that you can do, which is one of my biggest drivers, is that the constant, the constant flow of new information and new possibilities. I think to me, that's the most exciting thing. 

The second part is really building. I like taking a concept, turning that into a few initial customers, supporting those customers, turning it into bigger programs, turning that into, hopefully at some stage, a global solution provider. So I think those are really the two things that you can see happen very, very quickly in software, and probably much faster than you can in other industries that have larger capital requirements. 

But it's really the mix of learning and the ability to build something that I really enjoy. 

[Speaker 2] 

Very exciting. You're truly in the 21st century, if not even the 22nd already, probably. But on that, where do you feel you are now in your business, and where will you be in five years' time, if you've thought of that? 

[Speaker 1] 

Yeah, it's a good question. I think this last year, I've done a lot of reflection since moving to London, and I've taken a good amount of time off and focused a little bit more on building the network, and Forum was a very big part of that for me. But where am I now? 

I think where I am in my career is I've developed, I think, a very good foundation of skills that I can apply to any type of business-to-business software company, and to a lesser extent, consumer-facing solutions. So almost regardless of what the product is, I have a good sense of what the levers are in the business, how they grow, because I've just seen enough of them at this point. So I think I'm in a good position as an investor and as a company builder. 

Where do I want to be in five years? I've been very fortunate that of the three companies that I've been a part of, two of them have been quite successful, but I haven't yet really built 

something that's been truly global at a very significant scale. So over the next five years, I'd like to be a part of that, and also I'd like to be part of a solution that really has a broader social purpose. 

I think we're getting to the point, and this is what really excites me and part of what motivated the move to London for me, which is we're really at this special time where the distribution that software has is so large because so many people have mobile phones, businesses are online, so the ability to reach customers, the ability to reach patients, the ability to reach anyone is really quite large, and we can use that to combine kind of a profit motive with a purpose. 

So I'd like to be involved in really a global endeavour that combines those three over the next five years. 

[Speaker 2] 

I'm sure you will, but I was interested in something you said in our longer interview actually in the magazine, which was about the fact that those of us like you and I sitting here podcasting remotely and talking, you know, we feel very saturated by technology, but you pointed out there's a very large figure in the world that still isn't even connected to electricity. There's this huge kind of, I mean, target market sounds like a slightly sort of harsh way of looking at it, but you know, it might be more that they want to be connected and want to find a way to be connected. So does that excite you, that feeling of venturing out into those territories rather than the kind of more well-known territories, you know, which are already kind of steeped in technology as it were? 

[Speaker 1] 

Yeah, no, absolutely. It's a great point, and this is why I think London is a particularly interesting city to be in, because we have access to the entire African continent as investors. There's a lot of fundraising that happens here, Asia as well, Latin America to a lesser extent, but we really are at the centre of the world in a number of different ways, particularly when it comes to software investing, at least in my opinion. 

So I think what's interesting is to, once you start to look in those geographies, the types of solutions that are brought to market there are really supporting fundamental needs. So if you think of like the bottom two or three levels of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, so, you know, basic physiological needs, basic housing needs, connectivity, you know, healthcare delivery, basic financial services, giving people access to credit, as an example, is a very big area that really helps to materially improve people's lives. And we're only in the beginning, you know, there's a billion plus people that don't have access even to basic electricity today. 

And there's many more than that that don't have access to the types of connectivity that would be required to deliver some of these services. So there's a really big opportunity to help hundreds of millions of people, which wasn't possible, you know, 20, 30 years ago. So we, you 

know, there's a lot of media attention going to AI, and AI will certainly, you know, do a lot. 

But even at a basic level, I think there's a lot of services that still need to be delivered and, and finding the right people to build those companies and bring those solutions to market to help people that really need it. I think it's, from my perspective, it's quite compelling, but it's also, it's very exciting to see that we'll be able to make a difference for for a large number of people. 

[Speaker 2] 

That would be wonderful. What do you think you need to get you there, you know, to this big vision in five years time forms thought about trying to help you find solutions? 

[Speaker 1] 

I mean, to answer one question is people. It's all about bringing the right people together. I think I'm in the right city to do it. 

So after that, it's it's up to me. [Speaker 2] 

That's good. You've been enjoying those introductions. Since you joined Forum, what has surprised you the most? 

[Speaker 1] 

Gosh, that's a good question. I don't know if it's a surprise. But I think one thing that's been wonderful for me is really the diversity of experiences, the diversity of thought that we have within the membership. 

If I just think of the first few lunches that I went to, remember, the first lunch was a very financial services focused table. And so we're talking about markets, we're talking about hedge funds, we're talking about different strategies that different members were deploying within their own firms. The second lunch that I went to was more of a technology band, so more people involved in software. 

So the conversation was slightly different there. And the third one was much more public sector. Different members had served as part of the armed forces and who are connected to the public sector and the public and public services in a different way. 

And every time I think that the connecting thread has always been there's always a deep level of reflection and insight that you see within the members and within the conversation. So I think every lunch that I've been to, I feel like I've gotten a little bit smarter. So I think to me, not that I was surprised by that, but it's certainly been really, I guess, the most pleasant surprise of my time in Forum so far, which isn't even a year. 

So I'm sure there's much more to come in the second year. 

[Speaker 2] 

No, I think, well, what's exciting for us is, you know, we're particularly encouraging younger members to come on board Forum now. And part of that is, you know, what we think both sides can give to each other. It's sort of experience on the one hand and new ideas, new approaches on the other. 

So it's a great combination when it works. Has Forum helped you? I know you haven't been a member all that long, but has Forum helped your growth either personally or professionally since you joined? 

[Speaker 1] 

Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. I think if I want to give some concrete examples, I think that to your point, I think just being around people who are maybe 20 or 30 years ahead of where I am and just seeing, you know, regardless of industry, regardless of the time, the fundamentals stay the same. 

And so being able to learn from people with that level of expertise and success, I think, to me, that's been incredibly valuable. And then I think there's also been, you know, some connections that I've made through people, through members, either to people within my sector or people in adjacent sectors that I maybe would not have been able to meet otherwise or wouldn't have come across as quickly. And then I think, you know, for the younger members, I know there's a smaller number of us, and regardless of, you know, whether it's myself in London or Jake Hacob, a good friend of mine, who is a member based in New York, and how I came to Forum, I think we all, you know, share this idea of, you know, we learn, we meet new people, and then we want to contribute as well. 

And so, you know, we all come to this with the same mindset, and that will only make for more value for any member that's going to join us from now on or existing members, and hopefully we can give something back to the members that we learn from. At least that's how I know I like to approach it, so hopefully we can make that happen. 

[Speaker 2] 

Thank you. You've articulated that so nicely. Thank you very much, Justin. 

That brings us to the end of this particular episode. Thank you so much for listening to Forum Radio, wherever you're sitting. Remember that you can connect directly with all members, wherever they are, through the Forum website on forum.club. Go to the members directory and use the search engine to find people either by professional or personal interest, and keep an eye on the news feed for member news, as well as events happening in the chapter where you are or where you might be travelling to. Until next week, goodbye.