10 Years: Lessons, Growth and What's Next | Linnovate Podcast | Episode 1

Founder Henry Lynn shares Lenovate's 10-year journey, challenges, growth, and future in private markets technology and services.

Key Takeaways

Combining technology and professional services fills a critical industry gap.
Building a reputable brand in professional services takes time and persistence.
Early challenges included limited cash, lack of personnel, and establishing credibility.
Perseverance and a forward-only mindset are key leadership traits for startup success.
The private markets industry is evolving rapidly with technology and global expansion.

What the video covers

Lenovate podcast episode 1 features founder Henry Lynn discussing the company's origin and evolution over 10 years.
Henry highlights the gap in the private markets industry for combined technology and professional services.
The company started with limited resources, a small team, and faced challenges in branding, funding, and talent acquisition.
Lenovate grew from a shared two-table office to a global firm with 13 offices supporting hundreds of funds.
The private markets industry has transformed with globalization, evolving investor expectations, and increased technology adoption.
Henry emphasizes the importance of perseverance and character in overcoming early business challenges.
The company’s unique approach integrates technology with professional services to disrupt traditional models.
Looking ahead, Lenovate plans to continue innovating and adapting to industry changes including AI adoption.
The podcast aims to explore people, ideas, and conversations shaping the future of private markets.
Henry shares personal leadership insights and the motivation that kept him moving forward.

Chapters

What inspired Henry Lynn to start Lenovate?

Henry saw a gap in the private markets industry where technology and professional services were not integrated, and he believed combining them could improve fund operations.

What were the main challenges Lenovate faced in its early days?

The company struggled with limited cash, a small team, lack of brand recognition, and the need to build credibility in a professional services market.

How has the private markets industry changed over the past decade according to the podcast?

The industry has become more global, investor expectations have evolved, and technology has become crucial, with recent trends including AI adoption and increased sophistication.

Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown

Speaker A

[music] Welcome to the very first episode of the Lenovate podcast. I am Chico Nakamura. I am a client success manager. I mainly work on our business development and marketing initiatives, supporting our US and Japan expansion here at Lenov. We

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are so excited to launch this podcast as a space to explore the people, ideas, and conversation shaping the future of private markets. Over the past decade, the private markets industry has really gone through transformation. Fund managers have expanded globally.

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Investor expectations have really continued to evolve, and technology has become increasingly important in how funds operate. And at Lenov, over the years, we've grown together with this industry. What started 10 years ago as a vision to help fund managers operate

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more efficiently has grown into a global team supporting hundreds of funds across different markets. But behind every company milestone are the stories that are often not seen. The challenges, decisions, the lessons learned, and the people who helped make the journey

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possible. So our first episode, we wanted to start by going back to the beginning to discuss this. I am joined by someone who has been at the center of this journey from day one, our founder and CEO, Henry Lynn. Henry, welcome to the

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first episode of Lenovate podcast. Thank you. Well, thanks for having me and give me the opportunity to be the first participant of the podcast.

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Of course. Of course. Wherever are you in the world, Henry? I know you travel a lot.

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I'm just getting myself ready for my next trip to New Zealand. So just spending a couple days in Hong Kong.

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All right. Well, you're a traveler. You're really overseeing our 13 global offices today. So you're a busy man. And yeah, I really appreciate you being here. And yeah, we can start in our first question. So before we look

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ahead, right, I would love to start by looking back 10 years ago when you founded Lenovate. What opportunity did you see that convinced you there needed to be a company like Lenov?

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I think a lot of people would know me by my background as a technology guy, and I think people have tried different solutions, right? A lot of people tried different technology solutions including some at the company

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that I worked for before. Also, people have tried different outsourcing organizations. Yeah. But everyone complains. Everyone thinks there's something missing there one way or the other. They can't tell exactly what's missing. So you know, 10 years ago, I saw there's a potential to

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bridge the gap to have the technology and services together, and I think that that's the thing that I saw back then which we can make a difference to the industry.

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Yeah. That's a great point to make. I think you've really done a fantastic disruption to this industry where technology and professional service together truly combined didn't exist before, and you really were one of the first

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definitely to see that gap and then really head on. Thank you for that.

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We can move to the next question. When people look at Lenovate today, they see a global company, right? Like office in the US, office in Asia. You know, you're supporting hundreds of funds across multiple markets, right? But the

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beginning, I'm sure, didn't look like that, right? Day one, 13 offices straight away? I'm sure that wasn't the story. So I'm curious to know, I'm sure our listeners too, what did those early days, like really early days, actually

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look like? Were there moments when you kind of questioned whether the company would succeed?

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Like every successful business in the market that you see, people always say, hey, you know, we have, we believe in the future, but everyone will tell you that, oh, you could have done this, you could have done that. I think every story is different. And in the early days, I still remember I was only myself in two tables shared office back then. So I think the story for each

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CEO or founder is different. For me, I think I am grateful I was given the opportunity to start at Lenovate and also given many different opportunities from fund managers in the regions. And at the

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beginning in Asia, which I think right at the beginning is pretty tough because today we are not selling or trying to promote a service or a commercial product like retail. So retail is relatively easy. You have a product,

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you go out to sell. Sometimes it doesn't have to have the reputation because you can quickly gain the reputation. But in a professional services setting, it's completely different. Because you need to have the background. We certainly didn't have the background.

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You certainly need to have hundreds of people to be qualified as a reputable professional service firm. We didn't have any of this, right? So it was only myself and a spare table right next to me. So I think it was pretty challenging when we first started. But like I said, we were

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grateful for the opportunity we were offered, and it makes us different. And of course, the technology plays a crucial part because given my background in the technology space, the angle that we

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were trying to tackle it was literally at the right moment, at the right time, and offering the right service, and that's what makes us different and kicked off during that time.

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That's a really valuable insight. You talked about some of the challenges you saw. I think being new to the industry, you know, being in the right moment at the right place. Were there

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other big challenges you faced in the beginning? Well, the big challenge is, like I said, we didn't have the people. We had limited cash to fund all these setups because in a professional setting, right, it's not just talking about, like I said, it's not just talking about a retail product you go and develop,

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but you need other people. You have the people to talk about your experience, and this thing doesn't come like, oh, just someone you go to a manufacturer, you deliver a product. It doesn't work like this. It doesn't have the instant response from a client, wow, that's a great product. I

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like it. You don't have that in a professional service setting. And of course, the brand, branding, because in, you know, and that's what people always say, hey, we'll go with the big four, we go with the big five.

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These are the reputations. It takes years to build the branding, and obviously we didn't have that right at the beginning, and nobody other than people know me and know my background and know that I can deliver the work through the

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system automation. So it takes a lot of time to build up this track record. So we have done a few things, you know, trying to partner with others in the market and trying to use a different angle instead

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of, you know, putting saying that I have a couple hundred people, but we're from a technology angle. So that actually makes us very unique when we actually presented the services in the market.

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Yeah. No, this is really interesting hearing this, the challenges that you kind of listed out, the people, the money, and the branding. I think those are very big pillars, unique challenges. And I'm

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just wondering, Henry, like what kept you moving forward? I'm sure those things didn't come in right away, even, you know, you see a glimpse of those signs. Maybe there are other parts of the business that were

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challenging for you. So what about yourself, maybe your character as a person or a leader? What kept you moving?

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My character plays a pretty crucial role there. I don't g

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just wondering Henry like what what kept you moving forward I'm sure like you know those things didn't come in right away um even you know you see a glimpse of those signs maybe there are you know other parts of the business that was you

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know challenging for you. So uh what about you know yourself maybe your character um as a person or a leader uh what what kept you moving?

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My character plays a pretty a crucial role there. I don't give up that easily.

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Uh so I deliberately give myself not much option um and only forwards. So when I first time started like you know I sold my properties and I put down all my cash equity earning that I received from the last employer

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and you know my second child was born. So I was just pretty much like give myself no option to say that oh I'm you know I'm going back and return as a uh you know just work as a another

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executive from in a in another company. Um so I think that makes us you know moving. Um of course over the course of time you know each year every day we have challenges. Um but it's just my character. I I don't give up. Uh

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sometimes we might hit challenges I hit you very hard. Hey when you wake up the next day you know there's another day. Uh there are still a lot of you know members of the team are foreign in the company.

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And one of the most important thing I always said uh you know we have over 400 people we are I'm not just you know in a consideration of my own dream but also the remaining of the team members and

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the 400 families uh you have to make sure you know people who believes in you um and and get taking will will be taken care of dust.

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the main things right um it's the same thing for a conduct who believe in you and the service that you're going to deliver I mean signing the contract is easy uh to certain extent you know I can say that because we have signed the

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contract now uh but delivering the contract is always a different you know a different scale uh because you always have different aspects of it you know I I often say when you sign a contract you always have three months of honeymoon

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period, you know, after that you have to make sure you maintain the high quality of services and that's where um you know it really make us unique um in the industry and and the market.

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Thank you so much for sharing that. Um that's very very inspiring just for a leadership perspective, founder perspective um just someone who has um seen uh you know the growth I'm sure is is just very very motivating. So uh thank you so much

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for sharing that. Um moving to the next question is now right look uh looking back now over the past 10 years right 10 years forward from the stories you just shared um there have been many milestones and a lot of changes um it's

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constantly you know changing um was there any moment that you can think of um that made you think you know we're we're becoming something much bigger uh than you you know Henry and the desk 10 years ago Yeah. No, we always want to

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be we believe that we will be bigger uh always one step ahead of uh uh the our current stage because I often say if you want to be a enterprise you have to act like a enterprise it's not because now currently you are

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small doesn't means you can just be you know playing games no I mean if you want to be in the market if you want to be someone known have the brand you have to act like one right so you can't say hey I'm you know

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I don't have the size I don't have the contract I don't need to act like one you have to act like one you have to be behave like a large corporate you have to behave and respect the con and how

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you take care of your your cons and like a global organization that's how it works and that's what makes us you know difference and so you know we always think when I first time started always think that uh you know it's actually

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slower than what I I have expected you know we could have a you know over a thousand people too slow so we're still working hard to to achieve that that's great to know I feel like ambition is definitely a big big quality

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that you have and um just listening to that like day one story until now it really speaks volume. Um, moving on. So, the the private markets industry, right, has changed significantly over the past 10 years. From your perspective, Henry,

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what what changes really stand out the most to you? Well, I first um get into this industry, uh, it was back in late 2000s.

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uh you know so it was at the right after the uh credit crisis uh in the from you know the global credit crisis right so before that everyone was like investing into stock markets and so on less of uh into equity uh private

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investments and so on now because of uh you know everyone's are seeing the opposite because the stock market and the credit crisis a lot of people starting to look at private equity venture capital I think that it was the

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golden age when everyone's you know look at hey what are the potential uh investment alternative that you can you can you can make uh you can do um so I think for the over the past 10 years I'm

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talking about in particularly in Asia US has been always as you know an active investors in in in this space but because Asia opens up in as alternative in late 20s uh a lot of capital has been flooded into the private market um

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private equity market and venture you know anything with the delisted um you know it it it makes the market more sort of more active. Um you see a lot of these transformational things has make uh you know a a lot of difference uh

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after after 10 years starting to you know not just on the fund size with a small fund size you know 200 million you know 500 million to now some of the funds in Asia are 7 billion 10 billion

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US so I think over the course of time the capital increases the sophistication increases now in Um that means people are requiring a lot more support than they you know they need in in the past.

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Um I think that you know I I'm actually super excited about uh the private market because there's a lot more things a lot more transformational creativity that can be done um in the market uh which I I I am looking forward to see.

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Yeah. Um it's very um it's very you know cool that uh over the 10 years you've really seen the changes and I think the the reason why you have these great list of customers that are still you know

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with Lenovate just going strong and you know as their funds grow as you know their requirements and expectations and changes grow I think it speaks volume about how you know flexible um we are and just quick to support our customers

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as much as we can. And um I think just that 10 years um and still going strong is is just a great milestone I think uh for us. Um for the next question is as the industry has evolved, Lenov has

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evolved as well, right? And how has a company changed over the years and how have you approached balancing fund expertise with technology innovation?

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Well, like I said, because the the complexity of the private investments are getting uh much more complex uh increasingly complex um so you can't just rely on human being to get the work done. You need to rely on technology.

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Now we were the you know front runner on deploying serious technology and automation uh for our industry and then with the AI actually it's actually add um to our overall growth in terms of uh tech technology transformation before

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when we first started I would say we were doing a transformation of the services uh industry uh but now in recent year recent changes of AI adoption we are actually doing a self evolusions when it comes to you

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know how we can improve ourself from inside out rather than before from outside in which is completely different. These are the type thing that we are actively doing. We are yeah of course we can do whatever we are currently doing. I still

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very comfortable still a front runner in the industry but this is not enough with AI. I think we have to push ourselves to the next milestone to ensure that we are stay you know at the forefront of uh our innovation. Um so

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you know with with uh I'm sure you you know we spend a lot of time on the the D raise uh ecosystem.

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Um a lot of people don't know you know raises actually stand for robust alternative investment system exchange.

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So it's not a single system or application whatsoever. It's a multi- application ecosystem. It's almost like your brain you have all the cells are all connected together but they work independently.

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So the idea is having those technologies not like before everyone was saying hey putting in one single technology now when multi application in an ecosystem people talking to each other application talking to each other and being leveraged by AI that creates a

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uniqueness for us and that's where we we think that uh technology innovation is key from before trying to be one single system one shop one-stop shop that you going forward there are a lot more services that need to be provided

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then of course it has to be multi- application system but still stay connected now it also linked to the technology uh sorry the ser uh the the the industry itself because things are getting much more sophisticated that means we have to look at uh you

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know how we can serve the industry better because think about it If the work are being done by uh system the works are being done by uh automation and by AI what are we going to do right so we have to think about there's an

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additional service that we can support so moving up the value chain uh the value chain of uh you know for from Lovase perspective for the industry it becomes key so we have been doing a lot more um you know front runner in terms

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of investor on boarding coordination uh and doing a lot more support on getting the investor even you know providing support coordination before maybe a lot of these work were being done in in-house more like assistant CFO and now it can be actually executed

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through uh our team because a lot of work are being done by the system so that means our team can spend more time and talking to advance so These actually also linked to how we hire people and that's what we are currently doing. We

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are not just hiring you know I often say uh we don't need uh you know the best accountant uh because most of these work will be done and handled by AI sooner or later or by automation.

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um what we need is better communicator uh and that's the key uh for for us and that's why we're moving our team forward uh it's just like I often say in in many occasions uh 100 years ago uh you know there's we

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need the operator to operate operate the lift uh now you don't right so we're getting smarter so does it means Is there one operating lift uh that will be running out of work or stay at home? No, those guy actually

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evoke and become an engineer to do preparation of live and and all this. So it's a you know that's why I said it linked to the part I was saying is inside out sort of uh uh uh inusion and

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you know evoke ourselves for the industry. Yeah. No. Um it's it's it's great that um you you know you emphasize the the the diversity of what raise could do what you've built. You know it's not just it's not just about the investor

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portal. It's not just about the fund administration system. It's not just about the portfolio monitoring. You really create an ecosystem. Um and it's definitely a a forefront of um private market uh management system and and in the team that you've you've you know

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built and shaped as well. Um so we're very looking forward to really the future of fund operations with race what what you'll be doing um continue to do um in the future. So for our next question we have when companies share

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right their stories people often hear about the success um but growth right also comes with a lot of challenges different obstacles um what is one difficult lesson or a failure that shaped you the way that you lead today

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it's really a tough question it's Uh I I think I think it's just like never underestimate the the challenge uh in front of you and and that's always a lesson. I mean be prepared, right? Um and you know sometimes uh a lot of people

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think that hey I I'm already a master of these. I don't need to prepare. M um you know if I if I prepare it you don't get you know you always have surprises. Yes these both of these uh

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statements are true. Yeah. But doesn't means that you don't prepare. I do prepare for every single meeting I walked into even today.

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Um, so you know I regardless either I step into a car meeting or a uh a system demo I do prepare you know it's just a matter of time right at least you need to take a quick look on what you're going to talk about

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um you know what you are going to demo if the account is accessible so I think you know I have learned part lessons about about this Um and you know over the course of time I definitely I think

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just look back this is the one of the things I I I I think I learned from uh you know about experience um and afterward and I I've been you know even I've been you know telling the team who

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work with me directly always prepared um and you know even though maybe you prepare like 10 slides 10 discussion 10 statements or whatever it is like 3 hours. Maybe that 3 hours is only prepare you for that five minutes or

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maybe even like one minute of safety net and that is enough. Yeah. Um that's actually very encouraging to hear. Um especially coming from someone with your experience, right? um talking to all these type of people in a very big

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situations with your all of these track records of success that you've had um it's really encouraging to learn that even till this day you you really live by those um as lessons I guess learnings that you have um so we'll definitely

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keep that in mind um and yeah so thank you so much for sharing that um I think we're looking at our last question. So the first 10 years were about building the company, let's say, um, and establishing our foundation and growing

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with our clients. Looking ahead, right? Like from now ahead, what do you want the next 10 years to be known for? Um, it could be any opportunities that you are most excited about. Um, it could be about the private markets industry. Um

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yeah just tell us what what you're looking forward to in the next 10 years.

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Well we we have been I won't say we have been you know succeed uh we are still working every single day and trying to fine-tune our ourselves and our services and and there's always something new to tackle.

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There's always challenges every single day. Right. So um this this part remains you know service is always our bread and butter and we like service we like people you know deal with people.

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So before we have been doing a lot of like middle and back office services you know going forward you know for the upcoming 10 years we want to be more forefront on providing more integrated in depth of services. So it's not just

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doing the back office but also front runner or or you know uh uh uh uh doing a lot more like the the front uh uh uh uh uh services to covering like fundraising uh get involved with integration a lot

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more integrated services with with the clients. So these are the type thing that we have been doing before you know back office is repeat you know you can repeat these things because we think this uh activities can be easily done by

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uh the the you know through technology and we want to bring v more value to accounts you know we can connect can't become a connector between LP and GP between investors or you know multif family offices uh with uh projects. So

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we want to be you know coming up or coming up to the uh the value chain and that's where we see the 10 years uh for Lovate. [clears throat and cough] Wow. Uh this is my first time hearing

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this so this is very exciting. Um again just just raise Lovate with you know you've really found a gap um in the industry and just continue to find something different and surprise the industry. So really really looking forward to um how Lenovate will will

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play in in this uh in this landscape. Um yeah, so thanks so much for those uh longer questions that I had. Um as we close, I have about five quick rounds of questions. So you you know I'll ask a

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question and then you can just give me like a short answer. Um this will be uh kind of our fun questions uh that we don't typically ask you. Henry. So, I think it should be fun. So, let's get

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started. Um, so Henry, are you a Sorry. No, go ahead. I'm looking forward to it.

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[laughter] All right. Okay. So, Henry, um, are you a morning person or a night owl?

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I think before was pretty much a night uh before um as I'm getting old. Um, so I'm getting to be a morning person.

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Oh, okay. You know that's why you see all the successful people always say they wake up early. I I'm not sure because the success maybe because of the age. [laughter] [gasps] That's good to know. Okay. I'll keep that in mind. Uh putting things on your

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calendar from now. Um second question. Uh one book every leader should read. What is it?

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It's the uh Savians a brief history of humankind. Um is a book I like. Um, and it's only halfway through. Uh, I still remember I got that book. I watched the videos and I read uh a couple chapter

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chap uh chapters of it. It's very inspiring. Has nothing to do with business, but it's just looking at the humankind and and how people think.

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That's quite uh unique. I would say that that is something different. Yeah. Yeah. No, I read the book myself. It's very interesting how you know way back in the in the history of humankind you know we were just like monkeys and then

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throughout the years uh we became I guess the smartest you know animals on earth and we kind of rule this planet so it's it's it's very interesting to see the evolution um there's a lot to learn I yeah for sure in terms of leadership

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as well um third question biggest lesson you have learned from being a CEO. I think the the E uh stands for everything.

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It doesn't stand for executive. Um so I'm still working to to converting the E from everything to executive. It makes a difference. Uh so I'm still working to I'm still on the way to getting that done.

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All right. Always a growth mindset with you Henry. [laughter] [gasps] Okay. Um, favorite city that Lynn has that Linovate has an office in. What's your favorite city?

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I think San Francisco definitely one of my uh it's top of my list. Um, I like the weather. I like the sunshine. And yeah, no, just it's my my favorite uh city.

Speaker A

All right. Well, I'm very I'm very happy to hear that because I myself someone who is based in the San Francisco office, I can now brag about this to my colleagues [laughter] in our global offices. So, um, love hearing this. Uh, last

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question, Henry. One word to describe the next decade for Lenovate and raise excitement. Like I said, uh we we never give up. We always push ourselves. I'm still on the way to get the converting the E of everything to E as executives.

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So going through this journey, uh I'm sure there's a lot more excitement things, a lot more exciting stuff uh compared to the past 10 years. So I think excitement is only word that it can describe the next decade for Linder.

Speaker A

Wow. Thank you so much. Awesome. Um that's that's a good one and we'll all be tuning in for for all of the things that you know we will accomplish as a team at Lenov. Um yeah, very lucky to have a leader like you,

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Henry. Um and yeah, thanks so much. Those were all the questions. Um yeah, uh it was great, you know, learning about the stories from day one. uh really reflecting on the the past 10 years and also what's in front you know

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in front of us in the next 10 um I think a company's journey right is really built through many moments uh we talked about the vision the challenges uh the people that joined the mission and the relationships that continue to grow

Speaker A

along the way so yeah congratulations to the entire Lenovate team on this incredible milestone And thank you to our clients, our partners, and the community, right, for being part of the journey. So, yeah, we're very excited for what comes next. And yeah, thank you

Speaker A

for listening to the first episode of the Line Innovate podcast and we'll see you soon in our next episode. Thank you, Henry.

Speaker A

Thank you. And uh best a lot of love for all the future podcast. Um, so invite some exciting guests, please.

Speaker A

Yes, we will. We definitely will. Thank you. Thank you, Henry. All right. Thank you. [music]

Topics:Lenovateprivate marketsHenry Lynntechnology servicesbusiness growthprofessional servicesstartup challengesindustry transformationAI adoptionglobal expansion

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