This is the start of a new series of articles: #LifeAtJulie!
Julie is part of your daily life but you might wonder who created her and who works for her… So let’s meet Julie’s team, to get started, we interviewed Julien Hobeika, CEO at Julie Desk and one of the Co-founders of the company.
1. Hi Julien, can you tell us a bit more about your background?
Just after grad school, I launched the company, never having worked anywhere except for the few internships I did in the Valley back in 2012. So everything I know, I learned by doing and launching the products before Julie Desk… (but same company) WePopp. To cut a long story short, we launched 2 products and pivoted twice before launching Julie Desk
2. How did you become an entrepreneur?
I think I got the taste of it by running a non-profit organization in grad school. I thought, “I like having a project, so let’s have a project that can actually be a business”
3. What’s your role at Julie Desk? Can you describe a typical day?
I’m the CEO of Julie Desk. The typical day is, say 30% sales, 30% communication and 30% Management and Administration and 10% just taking a step back 😉
4. Any advice for people willing to do what you do?
Be Stubborn. Follow your dream and don’t give up too easily. It takes resilience to get what you want. So keep working and pivoting until you get there.
5. What is the main challenge you face (or have faced) while working at Julie Desk?
One of the most important challenges was doing our last pivot (the 2nd one) to start Julie Desk when we had only 2 months of cash left in the bank.
It was the only time in our adventure when we (2 co-founders and I) actually considered quitting and doing something else. I’m glad we didn’t.
6. How do you see Julie Desk in 5 years?
We see Julie Desk with clients all over the world and being able to help them in every aspect of their day to day business life (booking restaurants, flights, hotels, taxis, etc)
7. How do you see yourself in 5 years?
At Julie Desk, changing the world with the team.
8. Three words to describe you?
Stubborn, Smiling and Stubborn again 😉
9. Anything about you that people might not know and you’d like to share?
It’s probably the same for all entrepreneurs but I think it’s the Entrepreneur Schizophrenia: Behind our appearance of being always confident we, actually, are only human and we doubt a lot! (If not always)
10. What is the first thing you do in the morning? Any routine?
I exercise (very short between 7 to 15 min)
11. Your favorite App?
Google Maps. I don’t know what I would do without it
12. Favorite meal?
Salmon with spinach
13. Favorite quote?
Do things that don’t scale
14. Who inspires you the most?
“The hard thing about hard things” from Ben Horowitz is the most impactful and inspiring book I read so far!
15. Your best memory at Julie Desk?
Every day is better than the previous one when you scale your company because it’s bigger each day. But one important memory is when we charged our first client!
Thank you, Julien. Any reactions? Leave us a comment!
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