Jaqi Salem is the Founder and CEO of Digital Experience Agency Digital, and founder of Jaqi Purpose Co., an investment fund driven by the mission. Here he breaks down his best advice for sustainable growth, fundraising and the creation of a culture of collaboration.
What inspired you to create this business?
The truth is that I started this digital customer experience agency completely by accident. After about 15 years at the agencies, and having the feeling that I had reached a glass roof, I decided to try an independent consulting. A couple of months later, a client sacrifices me the opportunity to build and finance my own Guerrillas Dream team to collect some critical business projects after an unexpected and fast division with its previous digital agency. I did not hesitate, I called all the smartest people I knew and asked them to do to me. I was satisfied and humiliated when they did. Fast advance of 7.5 years, the qualified digital is the private capital backed by Stella Point Capital, and has more than 100 teammates composed of the smartest people I now know.
What advice would you give to entrepreneurs looking for funds?
Be sure to be looking for a partner who adds value and is aligned with your vision, not just a check. Do not be pompous, but be curious in a way that you show that you also need to know about the potential inverter. Do not ask you questions that you can find on your website; Welcome topic in conversation; Leave space for your voice, as the dynamic changes and creates more opportunities to connect. You are investing in you as a leader, as much as in your business, so be human, not a well -dressed robot. While you want to be prepared to talk all the time, wait and invite a dialogue and anticipate what they could not freeze or omit a rhythm. Practice, not only to present your deck of investors in the order in which it is presented, but for any direction in which the conversation can go. I or maintain an appendix of elements that would probably not in a field of letters, but it can be a trusted builder if they ask a pointed question and can demonstrate that it is on top.
Finally, and this is extremely important: make sure you don’t see it as a project. Investors do not want to do their job; They must believe that you can execute an incredible idea, not only that you have one. Special, if you do not have a history to point out, develop a clear plan or include a partner that can lead on the business front. Clear plans are important, anyway, so they feel they can press the easy button simply financing and advising.Knowing that statistic can be intimidating, but don’t let me put you in your head. You can prevent you from asking, and we need to change that number, not perpetuate it.
I did not find any resistance in my process, and I executed a competitive, which I used highly. This allowed me to order the value that I knew that the qualified digital was Werth, apart from gender identity.
If you are in the right stage, really consider bringing a banker to represent him. They come with rates, but the right ones, with the right network, are the weight in gold.
What son of growth have you seen?
In the early years, from zero, the qualified digital grew 100% year -on -year+. As our income number increased, that percentage has changed naturally. Last year, we deliver a growth of 45%+. This year, through the combination of organic growth and our recent acquisition of Xpediant Digital, we are on the way to offering another year of growth of 40% by 2025 and we project $ 31.5 million in income.
What advice can other founders give to maintain the company’s culture when your team is partial or totally remote?
I am proud of the balance between work and life that we can give to the team to be a totally remote company. We have about 100 employees and equivalent of FTE in our team, based on all acrross in the United States and worldwide, and that team can collect and leave their children at school, take care of their mental and physical health, or the Thibelion. The culture of the QD company encourages a mentality that is entrepreneur and collaborative, and I feel that this is one of the things that really distinguishes us.
My advice is: create an energy that multiplies and will. The culture falls in cascade from the top, so your team has to want to win, they have to want to win and have to want to win. And above all: hire great humans and interesting people. His team is magic, and it is his work as a leader to protect that culture from those who are based on it.
What advice can give the decision to acquire another company, as its recent acquisition of Xpediant Digital?
See a clear 1+1 = 3. Do not buy income, buy a value multiplier, be it a new capacity, new industries or products that accelerate what it does. Is it an added value to your existing customers, or are it new customers to which you can add value? Anyway, just make sure you have a clear vision to help your team and your team get excited to execute that vision. Make sure the company is an adequate culture; That your team and team will be proud to support your shoulder and excited to collaborate.
What does the word “entrepreneur” mean for you?
If I am sincere, the entrepreneur is still a word that I have to remember to coincide. I love this question, because it challenges the old thought I had around the word.
Taking a step back, recognizing that I am an entrepreneur, I would say this: it is some that is a highly passionate passionate about the business, the product or the problem they are solving; Someone who is not afraid to fail, but especially because they believe they won in the long run; Knowing that controlled failure is an essential part of the process in any child or significant success; Someone who touches the line of trust and illusion, enough to make the great risky changes necessary to boost a significant impact, but with the humility and pragmatism that maintains them on land and making the right changes; Someone who builds with the end in mind, making space for the correct amount of uncertainty and evolution, but with some sense of how success is seen.
Is there an appointment or individual that uses as a personal motivation?
“I have no particular talents, I am passionately curious” – Einstein. I love this appointment, and in fact, “passionately curious” is one of our five fundamental values in qualified digital. I was so related to me. He eroded part of that mentality of the imposter “them but not me.” If Einstein says he has no special
Jaqi Salem is the Founder and CEO of Digital Experience Agency Digital, and founder of Jaqi Purpose Co., an investment fund driven by the mission. Here he breaks down his best advice for sustainable growth, fundraising and the creation of a culture of collaboration.
