With his company currently executing some $200 million worth of real estate projects in a turbulent Lebanese market, Ziad Maalouf, founder and CEO of Capstone Investment Group, says it all started with the willingness to take risks early on. “The decision to start your own company is one of the most difficult decisions you can take,” he says. “With startups, the failure-to-success ratio is very high. And add those risks to an unstable economic environment when you know the odds are against you.” A couple of years ago, at the height of his success with another Beirut investment firm, MENA Capital, Ziad felt that the time was right to move on and start something new. “Wissam and I decided to take a lot of risks to start this business,” he says, referring to his brother, the vice president and CFO of Capstone. “We both left stable jobs to start Capstone and to be on our own.” As it is with any business – whether closing multi-million dollar deals or running a small storefront – the initial challenges when getting off the ground are many, and can be daunting. The key is to start with the simple things, Ziad says: “Find a location to run your business from, find the right name for your company that reflects your own personality and your own vision, the nature of the business and so on.” And no matter how solid a new executive might think their operation is, they are only as good as their name. “Reputation is everything,” Ziad says. “You need to actually build a name for yourself, build a reputation, which takes a long time to achieve. You have to deliver on what you say you are going to do. You have to build the trust of the people you are working with.”In a country such as Lebanon, where land scarcity and a wealthy diaspora has made real estate a top sector of the economy, newcomers need to be creative in order to stand out. This means bucking trends and challenging the old ways of doing business. “We found that there is a real need for a professional money manager who actually invests in real estate development. Professionally, not like the mom and pop shops, but a more professional manner that entails reporting, dealing with the investors, and so on,” according to Ziad. “Real estate sales in Lebanon are usually done through friends, or people that the buyers know. So we have institutionalized this business. I learned from the mistakes made at previous jobs and applied what I learned here at Capstone,” he adds.
