Firdaus Nagree is the CEO of FCI London, a serial entrepreneur, angel investor, father, husband and passionate scuba diver who has founded or funded numerous successful companies since 1999. After beginning his career as a strategic consultant with Accenture, Firdaus quickly became involved in the London property scene, trading properties from the age of 21. He began investing in equities in the late 90's; Google and Apple being some of his early investments.
He is the founder of FCI London, a multi-award-winning interiors and lifestyle house with offices and showrooms in the UK, UAE, Nigeria & India. He was lead investor at YourWelcome, Onlicar, serves as a special advisor to RLC Ventures and Bridge Invest, and is an active early-stage investor in startups including AllPlants, Stirr, Path 81, Vidorra, Healthunlocked, Abacus Insights, F45 and many more.
Firdaus studied at UMIST in Manchester and London Business School and spends most of his time in London, Dubai and Mumbai. He is an expert scuba diver, scrambled egg maker and piggyback provider. Firdaus enjoys science fiction and practices meditation and bio-hacking.
1. Which place, or city or country do you most feel at home in?
London, which is where I grew up and live. Bombay, where I was born and spent my early years. Dubai where we often go with the kids to relax and unwind.
2. What are your proudest achievements?
I don't have one. Nothing in my life is complete - everything is a work in progress. This is true of my professional and personal relationships, my businesses, my investments, my passions and interests. Many things make me happy but nothing I have done is any big achievement. Yet.
3. What inspires you?
When people genuinely give up their time (or life) in the service of others, especially underprivileged children. Acts of kindness towards those less fortunate than ourselves. When I witness these things, it fills me with emotion and completely inspires me. Sounds cheesy but it's 100% how I feel.
4. What has been biggest obstacle in your career?
The financial crisis that started in 2008 was pretty brutal. I had never been through anything like that before, my first child was born during the middle of the crisis and we were on the edge of bankruptcy several times each week! It was difficult managing multiple businesses and responsibilities and keeping sane and motivated. Working 7 days a week for months on end with no hope in sight was difficult. The biggest obstacle during this period was the constant, crippling fear of failure that I carried with me every minute of the day.
5. Who has been the biggest influence on your career to date?
Difficult. An organisation rather than one person - EO (Entrepreneurs Organisation) is a global network of leaders. We share connections, experiences and collaborate to help one another learn and grow. Joining EO had a massive positive impact on my businesses, my personal life and my world view.
6. What is the best aspect about your current role?
The team and resources to experiment. We come up with new ideas all the time and have the ability to build these out and test them quickly and fluidly. Some work, some don't, but there is always great learning in every scenario.
7. And the worst?
As our teams (and ventures) grow, it is impossible to have real personal relationships with all the new team members. This makes me a little sad as I love interacting with people. It also makes it harder to make sure that our core values are being shared in exactly the way I hope they will be - I have to let go and trust that our values are properly instilled in the existing team and that they will spread through to new team members in the way that we have envisaged.
8. What are your long-term goals?
To create a home that my children will want to keep coming back to once they have their own families. To create an organisation that can grow and thrive without me & contribute to causes that help children. To have more time for my charity work, my hobbies and my family.
9. If you were Prime Minister, what one aspect would you change?
I’d take a long hard look at the education system and focus on redesigning it from scratch. It's easy to point fingers and complain from the outside but the current system is just not fit for purpose any longer.
10. If you were marooned on a desert island, which historical figure would you like to spend your time with and why?
Arthur C Clarke is a futurist, mathematician, physicist and science fiction writer. He's written some of my favourite books and has a wonderful imagination. I could learn a lot from him.
