Justin Stanford

Izimvo is honoured to introduce entrepreneur and investor, Justin Stanford.

Justin, 26,  is an international entrepreneur and investor from Cape Town. He is founder, CEO, director, advisor, or investor to numerous companies, mostly in the technology startup space.

Website: http://www.justinstanford.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/JustinStanford
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/justins
Location: Cape Town

Justin was kind enough to answer the following questions for us:

Personal

Q: The all important personal profile. How would a close friend introduce you at a social event? i.e. Name, age, company, interesting fact etc.

A: A 26 year old entrepreneur and now venture investor too, although still really just a simple entrepreneur at heart. Founder, advisor, CEO, director, mentor, investor to many start-ups, mostly tech companies.

I left school early without finishing and attempted my first startup at 18 in 2001. After struggling for some years and not making any headway with two different business ideas, in 2003 I launched ESET Southern Africa with R100k in loan funding, selling ESET antivirus software products purely on the Internet using innovative self-built online digital goods platform and some unique leveraged business methods.

The success of ESET SA ultimately led to the founding of the 4DI Group, which is responsible for managing a diversified portfolio of investments in startups and other companies which the group has interests in. Most recently, we founded 4Di Capital (SA) as the SA focused high-tech venture capital subsidiary of the group, in conjunction with 4Di Capital International Limited.

Q: Tell us something that not many others know about you. This could be anything from a phobia to your favorite movie.

A: I don’t like chocolate cake or anything too rich. I’m very fond of fine foods, wines and champagnes.

Q: What do you enjoy doing when you want to get away from it all?

A: I’m a performance car fanatic, so I love going for a great drive, say into the winelands around Stellenbosch and Franschhoek, or around the coast. I love getting out on the water too, soaking up the sun and doing a bit of wakeboarding. I also enjoy going away to awesome spas, hotels and lodges around the country, we have some amazing local destinations.

Business in South Africa

Q: What advice would you give young entrepreneurs starting out with little or no money?

A: Firstly, patience and perseverance. It’s generally way tougher and all-consuming that you’d imagine. You have to be prepared for some serious sacrifices, often more than most could deal with. You also have to stand by your convictions and your opinions.

Secondly, always check yourself. Perseverance is one thing, but bashing your head against a brick wall is another. Is your idea really worthwhile, are you doing things the right way? Is there another alternative that’s better? Could you be deploying your time and energy elsewhere for a better result? I dropped my first two business attempts and am so thankful for it, taking the lessons learned and figuring out what I did and didn’t want in a great business.

And lastly, always listen, and always learn. Listen to anyone and everyone, young, old, experienced, inexperienced, whether you hold their opinion in high esteem or not. You’ll almost always learn something from everyone, which can be added to your own thinking, so never allow your convictions to be too inflexible. This might sound contradictory, but things change from day to day and you need to be willing and able to adapt or to be wrong. Sometimes the smallest voice in your company might also be telling you the most valuable information.

Second last bit of advice: There are rules, and then there are rules. Some can simply not be broken, such as you have to eat to live. Others can be bent, and some can be turned upside down. Look out for those opportunities, I didn’t get anywhere by sticking to the conventional or well trodden path.

Last bit of advice: always act with impeccable integrity. It is always possible to do good business and be a good person at the same time. This idea that business “is just business” and that this is somehow an excuse to get nasty is nonsense.

Q: What, for you, were the highlights of the recent Silicon Cape Initiative?

A: Where to begin? It was all one big highlight, really! We never anticipated that it would be so huge or so widely supported in the beginning, we thought it’d start very small. I think just the immense turnout and positive response from such a wide variety of sectors was the highlight, plus the incredible quality and content of the speakers and other participants. Since then, the reaction and interest from the media, private sector and government has also been amazing.

Q: To what extent do you feel that marketing plays in a companies success and what lessons do you think we can learn from success stories such as your own?

A: Marketing is key. It’s a big part of execution. A great idea alone is never enough, in fact these days good ideas are almost commoditised. Execution is the key, it’s all about the team, their capabilities and how they build the business around the idea.

If there were two similar ideas, and one was not quite as good as the other, but better executed (and thus marketed), that is the one likely to succeed, even though on cold merit it may not be the better one.

My story shows that you can be effective at marketing and building a business without a big budget, or any budget at all, by carefully creating leverage using channels like PR. Today’s social media platforms provide another even easier and cheaper tool to add to the arsenal, although I don’t consider them to be the be-all and end-all of marketing just yet.

Q: How do you go about selecting the people you would like to work or partner with?

A: For me, it always starts with the character test. Is this person a good fit? Will we have an intuitive understanding of each other? Will they create work for me or create leverage for me?

Will I be able to get on with what I need to do, trusting that this person will get on with the job at hand, and always act in my best interests and that of the company’s?

I like people with initiative who don’t need to be told what to do, but can assess what is needed and be proactive, and identify and learn whatever they need to in order to get the job done efficiently and quickly. I value this more highly than formal skills training or qualifications.

Life in South Africa

Q: Have you or any of your immediate family been affected by crime? If yes, has it changed your perception of the country and the way you and your family live your lives?

A: Yes, many times in the past. I’ve had some pretty bad luck. Most of it seemed to happen when I was still in the early days of building my first company, when I could least afford it. I have been held up at gunpoint at home and tied up in broad daylight, while my home was looted and my car taken. My car at the time was broken into several times, and things like the wheels and sound system stolen each time.

My uncle was also murdered in the driveway where I lived by hijackers. Later, in another house, I was again broken into and everything either taken or trashed.

Has it changed my perception of the country? Probably. It also makes me think more deeply about issues in our country, such as the huge wealth divide and the seemingly hopeless plight of the very poor. Would I stoop to crime if I were in the same position?

It definitely has affected how I live my life, I take security pretty seriously, particularly on the road. I’m very alert and aware. I now live on a secured estate as well and I’m pleased to report that so far for quite some years I haven’t been affected by crime (touch wood!).

Q: Have you ever considered emigration? If yes, where do you think you would emigrate to?

A: No, although I do often think about spending more time overseas, perhaps looking at a second residence somewhere, as I really enjoy summer and summer activities, and winter gets tedious quickly! I also love getting to know new cultures and see new places. As our operations across the group start to expand globally it makes more sense too.

Q: If you were South African president for just one day, what would you change?

A: I’d probably have the country setup to be run like a company, with a board, CEO and ExCo answerable to shareholders and with the same levels of transparency, accountability and focus on costs vs. results, and repercussions. Performance related remuneration would be the order of the day for starters. Hard working cops would get better reward for their efforts for instance, and fat cats adding no value would quickly be stripped out. Quite a few issues would probably get solved fairly quickly.

Q: To which three attractions would you first take an international visitor?

A: Camps Bay (which I like to think of as the African Riviera) for sundowner cocktails, Franschhoek for great food and wine (and the Franschhoek Motor Museum!), and Hermanus to see the whales. Lots of great driving roads on the way to them all too. Table Mountain they got to see on the flight in anyways! ;)

Life in Cape Town

Q: What do you think is Cape Town’s number one tourist attraction?

A: I’ve no idea. I see a lot of foreigners stepping off of big buses in Stellenbosch, the town where I now live. A friend of mine owns a luxury car rental company, and he says based on the tracking mechanisms in the cars, the first thing most people do once they’ve picked up a car is drive down to the Camps Bay.

General

Q: What are you going to buy yourself as a 40th birthday present?

A: That’s 15 years away! I can’t even imagine what I’d be after at that point, or if I’ll even have any money to buy anything! I often remind myself that everything can always change in the blink of an eye, you may be here today, gone tomorrow… knowing myself though, it’d probably be something with a big engine, and probably four wheels, provided those still exist in 15 years time.

Q: If you were able to pick anyone as your mentor, who would it be and why?

A: Hard to say. I draw on lots of people around me all the time and it’s ever changing. I think mentors for different things at different times come and go. I think I’ve had a great business mentor in the form of my business partner and Chairman, Erik van Vlaanderen. I’ve also always wanted to work with and pick the brain of the legendary Johann Rupert, who was one of my business idols growing up, and is now also a business partner of mine.

Q: One book that you would make required reading for all matric pupils?

A: One of the business legends books: Anton Rupert, Bill Gates, or Richard Branson for instance. It’s not so much about the specific content, but more about what’s possible, broadening your thinking beyond employment, and that doing your own thing is a viable if not potentially highly successfully career path. Then if they decide to be an entrepreneur and want to raise money, an absolute must read is Raising Venture Capital for the Serious Entrepreneur by Dermot Berkery.

Q: Favorite South African band? Have you seen them live and do you own at least one of their albums?

Q: As a hobbyist musician (I play guitar and drums) I enjoy lots of local bands and try to support the industry by buying their music. From that old staple, Johnny Clegg, who always puts on excellent live shows, through to the likes of Prime Circle and HHP, I’ve seen quite a few in action on stage.

Q: Who would you most like to read about on Izimvo?

A: Local business legends, known or unknown. Getting inside the mind space of great people and great achievers, and learning how they think and see the world, has been very helpful to me in building my own philosophies and approaches and broadening my thinking.

A massive thank you to Justin for taking the time to answer our questions.