Social Impact Tech: Ifty Nasir of Vestd On How Their Technology Will Make An Important Positive Impact
An Interview With Jilea Hemmings
Equity management used to be complex, expensive and frustrating. Our platform makes the process simple, safe and inspiring. Our customers no longer have to rely on the dark arts of their accountants and lawyers. And their teams can log onto the platform and see the value of their equity in real time, which incentivizes people like nothing else. Our customers can manage their shareholders as easily as adding a photograph to Facebook. They can also set conditionality, issue shares, add directors, view their cap-table and more.
In recent years, Big Tech has gotten a bad rep. But of course many tech companies are doing important work making monumental positive changes to society, health, and the environment. To highlight these, we started a new interview series about “Technology Making An Important Positive Social Impact”. We are interviewing leaders of tech companies who are creating or have created a tech product that is helping to make a positive change in people’s lives or the environment. As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Ifty Nasir.
Ifty Nasir is the founder and CEO of Vestd (www.vestd.com). He is a strong believer in the ‘Ownership Effect’ and advises businesses on how to share equity to incentivize teams and unlock value. An entrepreneur since his teens, Ifty reached the most senior levels at BP and Essar Energy before branching out into the world of startups.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood backstory and how you grew up?
I grew up in Bradford, an industrial city in the north of England. I’m the son of immigrants and grew up in an incredibly strong family unit where we all supported each other to do the best we could. I’m still incredibly close to my family now. In fact, my sister is Vestd’s HR Manager and my nephew, Naveed, is my cofounder!
Growing up in a large family trying to carve out a life gave me an entrepreneurial streak from a young age. When I was really young, I started selling reconditioned sewing machines that I bought from textiles factories that were closing down. Later on, I attempted to set up ‘Computer Aided Real Estate’ — essentially a precursor to Zoopla or RightMove, but this was decades ago and I couldn’t secure support from the regional enterprise council who couldn’t see how it would work.
I guess everything in business is timing.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
The big story for me, the thing that informed everything, was getting into BP (British Petroleum). I worked my way up and eventually became Vice President, becoming one of the youngest leaders in the company. I ended up doing so much really interesting stuff. I’ve travelled the world and met lots of fascinating people, and I also had the opportunity to go to Stanford to study on their Senior Executive Program.
Without getting my foot in the door at BP, it’s doubtful that any of that would’ve happened and I’d be on an entirely different path right now!
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
Well again, my family. They always encouraged me to do the best that I could in life. But it’s cyclical and now I help them out when I can.
It’s vital to help those around you — if we lift each other up, everybody benefits.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
It changes all the time as there are, and have been, so many inspiring people in the world.
I turn to Sun Tzu a lot for inspiration. Sun Tzu was a Chinese general, military strategist, writer, and philosopher and he’s credited as being the author of The Art of War, a classic book and guide for life!
There are so many excellent quotes within that book, but one that I think is currently relevant to all of us is that “In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity”.
Covid has wrought chaos in all of our lives but there are silver linings. Pollution has reduced as travel has lessened, people have looked out for each other that bit more and many people have discovered a greater work/life balance.
You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
1) Having a big vision: We do, as a business, regularly ask ourselves, ‘okay, what do we want to achieve by the end of this year?’ and often, the results of those conversations can seem like a tall order. For example, wanting to double in size by this point or that. However, at the end of the day, whatever the challenge, achieving it is just a mathematical equation. So that’s how we approach it. If X is the end goal, what is it that we need to do to make that happen? How many leads do we need to have X coming in? How much content do we need? What is it that we need to turn up or down?
2) Optimism: To start any business, you need to be able to deaf out the naysayers and you also need to have unshakeable belief in your idea. I thought we’d break even at a much earlier point than we did, but you almost need to be overly optimistic about things like that. Having that optimism gives you the courage and confidence to leap into the unknown.
3) Sociability: One of the most important things to me is to meet with every new person who is about to join the team. Even as the team grows, I’m committed to doing that. I’ve always made sure that I spend lots of time with the different teams. In my previous life [in the energy industry] there was potential to become quite removed, if you were that way inclined. But that sort of dynamic isn’t for me, I love being part of a team.
Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion about the tech tools that you are helping to create that can make a positive social impact on our society. To begin, what problems are you aiming to solve?
Vestd is the UK’s first, most advanced and only FCA regulated digital share scheme platform for SMEs.
Our platform gives customers an easy and safe way to manage their equity, and saves them thousands in expensive lawyer or accountancy fees.
Companies that offer shares and options grow more quickly and create more resilience against financial downturns. Teams given shares or options are more loyal, aligned and energized.
By sharing equity, our customers will grow bigger profit pots. In fact, the top fifty firms that offer their teams equity had a combined turnover of $31bn last year, with growth 3% higher than the national average.
Many startups don’t have deep pockets but by sharing their equity, they can attract the right talent at the right time and at a competitive price.
All of this adds up to a business landscape that is democratic, economically powerful and game-changing.
Our product enables thousands of people to get a slice of the pie.
How do you think your technology can address this?
Equity management used to be complex, expensive and frustrating. Our platform makes the process simple, safe and inspiring.
Our customers no longer have to rely on the dark arts of their accountants and lawyers. And their teams can log onto the platform and see the value of their equity in real time, which incentivizes people like nothing else.
All round, our platform provides a much better way of doing things!
Our customers can manage their shareholders as easily as adding a photograph to Facebook.
They can also set conditionality, issue shares, add directors, view their cap-table and more.
Everything is done digitally, which helps to avoid a ton of paperwork, and our in-house experts are there every step of the way if anybody needs help.
Can you tell us the backstory about what inspired you to originally feel passionate about this cause?
The idea came from research that I did into common business challenges. A great many of them, such as cash-flow, recruitment, retention, team alignment etc. can be solved with intelligent equity management.
Basically, if you give somebody skin in the game, they’ll give you a greater level of commitment than somebody who is just being paid to do the job.
I wanted to make it as easy as possible for companies to get on board and start their share schemes.
How do you think this might change the world?
Vestd fuels growth and stability in towns and cities across the country. From micro to macro, Vestd creates advocates out of employees and foments cultures of success.
We know that share schemes provide more rewarding work for those who are on the receiving end. But additionally, they are proven to create stronger companies that are more profitable, more resilient and more ambitious. Giving ‘power to the people’ actually gives power and money to everybody, enhancing the quality of life for everybody involved.
It’s a perfect system and a better way of doing business.
Keeping “Black Mirror” and the “Law of Unintended Consequences” in mind, can you see any potential drawbacks about this technology that people should think more deeply about?
No. If we promote the idea of an equity economy and enable people to participate in business using the Vestd app, we’ll see a world that is more in line with the Social Development Goals set out by the UN. These are goals that have been created to drive the world towards being cleaner, safer and fairer.
By developing fairer business models, the world will see better quality work and economic growth for all, reduced inequality and more sustainable cities, infrastructure and communities.
I fully believe in the power of sharing, so any technology that makes it easier for businesses to get on board is going to make the world a better place.
Here is the main question for our discussion. Based on your experience and success, can you please share “Five things you need to know to successfully create technology that can make a positive social impact”? (Please share a story or an example, for each.)
1) Have a wide, socially-conscious mission. Your product might be an app that lists local medical facilities for example, but your mission might be ‘to create a world in which everybody has a doctor within reach’. Our mission is to create a world in which everybody has a stake, and that runs through everything that we do.
2) Think about the ‘why’ behind what you are doing. Vestd’s equity management platform might be financial, but in many ways, what we are actually selling is a fairer, more principled way of doing business, where everyone who contributes to building the business, gets a chance to share in the success.
3) Ensure that your ‘why’ impacts on all of your company actions. Vestd’s ‘fair world’ philosophy runs through everything we do, including where we spend our money and what we campaign for. From rewarding customer referrals with charity donations (such as planting trees in their clients’ names) to supporting ‘Small Business Saturday’ to encourage people to shop locally, we always strives to make best choices.
4) Ensure your internal policies reflect your positive external impact. It’s no good having an ethical product if you run your business like a sweatshop. Our policies reflect our socially conscious outlook. For example, we decided to go fully remote more than two years ago. In doing so, we estimate that we’ve saved at least 52 tonnes of CO2.
5) Prove yourself. If your industry has certifications, accreditations or benchmarks, put your money where your mouth is and get the experts in. Vestd, for example, is the only business of our kind that is FCA regulated. This is a badge of honor for us, and pushes us towards fairness and transparency in all we do, further demonstrating our commitment to ethical business conduct. I know that this is enormously important to our customers and it’s important to the team too. We know that we have a purpose, to do good in the world, and that binds us together, driving us forward.
If you could tell other young people one thing about why they should consider making a positive impact on our environment or society, like you, what would you tell them?
As obvious as it is, I’d remind people that it’s a small world. Everything and everybody is connected so we must all do our best to protect each other and the planet we live on. This makes sense from a human perspective, but also from a commercial perspective.
All signals show that consumers are rapidly being turned off from buying from companies that have questionable ethical standards. Eventually, ‘bad’ companies will be left behind.
Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. 🙂
Orson Scott Card (author of Enders Game) — he’s a deep strategic thinker. I would love to pick his brains.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
The best way to keep abreast of what I’m up to is to follow our social media. We post regularly on Twitter (https://twitter.com/VestdHQ) and Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/company/vestd).
Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational, and we wish you continued success in your important work.
Social Impact Tech: Ifty Nasir of Vestd On How Their Technology Will Make An Important Positive… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.