Podcast Intro
Our guest today is Louis Lebbos, the cofounder of Astrolabs, a coworking space and capability building organization focused on developing the digital ecosystem in the Middle East region.
Prior to Astrolabs, Louis was the cofounder of Namshi, one of the region’s earliest e-commerce companies, and among its most successful ones to-date. He left his consulting job at McKinsey less than 1 year after finishing his MBA at Harvard - choosing to chase the steep learning curve that comes with entrepreneurship, and putting it ahead of financial certainty and predictable career progression.
In this conversation, we discuss why Louis tries to convince 80% of people to not join consulting, why you should start a startup, the misconceptions around fundraising and when bootstrapping is more applicable than raising money for it.
We discussed the intricacies of the cofounder relationship and what it’s like to cofound a second company with the same founder.
We go over what a mission driven organization is, how Louis manages his environment in order to achieve mental focus and be productive, and how he has set up a culture in his organization that allows people to do the same.
We finish with why Louis named his son Galileo and how that very nicely summarizes our entire conversation.
Please enjoy this wide-ranging conversation.
Louis Lebbos
LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/louisl/
Show Notes
[02:15] Louis’ Background
[04:40] Why not join a management consulting company
[06:00] Being on a steep learning curve
[14:30] The way out of consulting
[16:52] Jad’s Background
[18:36] The Reason to do a Startup (article)
https://foresight.astrolabs.com/insights/startup-insights/why-start-a-startup
[22:10] Joing Consuling
[23:45] The beginning of the Namshi journey
[27:16] The conditions that come with funding
[30:40] Seeking external validation in fundraising, education and career
[35:10] When Bootstrapped works better than funding
[38:50] What working under pressure teaches you
[42:30] Starting a second company with the same cofounder
[46:30] Cofounder Relationship
[52:35] Handling Disappointment among team members
[54:55] A Mission Driven Organization
[1:00:45] Encouraging learning new skills at work
[1:03:10] Required Reading Books - Jason Fried books https://basecamp.com/books
https://www.amazon.com/Boulevard-Broken-Dreams-Entrepreneurship-Failed/dp/0691154538
[1:05:05] Louis’ worst management habits
[1:08:10] Achieving Mental Clarity
[1:11:50] Metaproductivity
[1:17:15] Why Louis’ son is named Gallieo
[1:22:25] Kindest thing
