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Colin Culross and family. Culross is emortal.com's CEO.
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One on One
Colin Culross, Founder & CEO, emortal.com
emortal.com CEO Colin Culross is a natural-born entrepreneur, working both in the UK and the USA. He has traveled the far reaches of the globe to meet life’s challenges head-on.
In July 2006, Culross founded emortal.com, a ‘software+services’ proposition specifically developed to allow families everywhere to easily chronicle the story of their lives together as they live it; and to share their life experiences today and for generations to come.
As he says, “We’re in the ‘family life’ business, protecting and preserving what families regard as their most prized of possessions … their life story. emortal.com is life insurance for the very essence of who we all are and what we all live for. Imagine being able to keep your most cherished memories, your love, your stories, wealth, knowledge, power and beliefs safe and secure forever. The greatest monuments to families are not made from marble; they are made from the life they live together and their legacy that lives on through their children.”
Prior to establishing emortal.com, Culross spent more than 20 years in sales and marketing. He headlined with top London marketing agencies in the early part of his career before founding his own: Junction Group Ltd. Culross was instrumental in the development of many of the superbrands we know today, including British Telecom, BMW and Thorn EMI.
In addition to his CEO roles, Culross has mined gold in the deserts of Western Australia and spent his earliest professional years as a London firefighter.
emortal.com has been developed in partnership with Microsoft and is comprised of three seamlessly integrated elements: a rich, intuitive desktop application, a private web portal and secure offsite data storage facilities featuring cloud-based support and back-end customer and data services.
The first service of its kind specifically created for families, emortal.com provides the means to easily create a rich multi-media chronicle of family life that will live on for generations. More than that, emortal.com helps families to get the most out of life together today.
What drives you to be successful?
I don’t know if I was born driven; I can’t remember that far back. But I do know that I am driven now by my love for my family. They are the most important thing in my life. Everything I do now, I do for them … it really is that simple for me. I truly believe in and love what I do, which makes success that much more achievable.
What do you think are the most important
characteristics of a successful entrepreneur?
Four come to mind. First is self-belief. If you don’t believe in yourself or what you’re doing then no one else will. Second is humility. Be humble when you need to be and never believe you know everything. Third is leadership. Lead by example so others will follow and prosper. And fourth is intuition. If you’re an entrepreneur who is going places or developing markets, products and services that no one else has, you have to hold faith in your instincts and your gut feel for business.
Would you consider yourself successful?
Some days I feel like I rule the world. Other days I feel like a complete failure. A true entrepreneur never considers himself or herself to be a success really — that’s what drives us! Having said that, if I can truly make a real difference to family life through emortal.com then I’ll have achieved my goal and hopefully I’ll be viewed as successful. How does one measure success after all?
One thing I do know for sure is that there is no greater calling in life than saving a life. I learned that at a very early age as a London firefighter. It’s funny how I started my career by saving lives for real and it looks like I will end my career by saving lives, albeit in a virtual sense. Until founding emortal.com, my proudest working days were those as a firefighter and now I have the real opportunity to feel that way again. I think that kind of satisfaction and sense of purpose is what being successful is really all about.
When you founded emortal.com, what were your goals?
When I founded emortal.com my goals were simple: Idealistically, my goal was to improve the quality of family life today and for every generation yet to come. Practically, it was to raise the capital required to develop our vision. No funding, no business!
What are the goals you are setting for yourself now?
All along the development road, you’ll keep hearing the same words from investors:
”I’d always back a good team over a good proposition; it’s all about execution.” So our goals right now are again very simple — deliver, deliver, deliver. We have a groundbreaking Web 3.0 product, a huge market, one that customers will want to buy into. We have the funds and the management team.
Now we must execute our vision. For us it’s all about looking after our customers. The rest of the business should look after itself.
As a CEO, what is your particular competitive edge?
A good CEO can run almost any business. So for me, it would be wrong to talk in terms of a particular trait or skill that gives me a particular competitive edge. However, I do have the distinct advantage of developing a business I truly believe in that, by default, cares for the people I care about most in life: my family. That’s a big advantage in my book.
What is the key to keeping your
edge and staying ahead of the curve?
Listening always to your customers and remembering that they pay your wages; never accepting a status quo and knowing that the only thing that is impossible is the word itself. Innovating continually while improving the customer experience is the secret of success.
How or from whom did you learn
your leadership and business skills?
My parents taught me right from wrong and to always be true to myself. No leader can expect others to follow him unless they trust in him and he lives by his own values first and foremost. I learned the value of command and comradeship as a firefighter. You don’t run into a burning building when everyone is running out unless you absolutely trust and respect all around you.
I learned about business on the ground the hard way, I learned about brands and customers while at Basten Greenhill Andrews London. I learned about the power of love as opposed to the love of power from my family. I learned about life by living it without fear of failure; falling down, getting up again and again, never looking backward other than to learn from my mistakes.
What type of environment have you
created to foster success at your company?
Our business is the business of ‘family.’ Our values are ‘family values.’ Simple yet hard to live by in a commercial environment where the focus sometimes can be all about value over doing what’s truly right.
Our business started as a blank piece of paper, something that had never been done before. So we have no legacies or excuses for not living by our values. We do everything in our business like a real family would do in life for each other and we have developed our business model, our systems and work environment to allow that to grow up naturally and to prosper.
What, if any, responsibilities does a
business leader have beyond making a profit?
A business leader above all else has to live by his company’s mission, vision and values. He has to be the very essence of the brand he represents. He has to be able to interrogate his business until it confesses to its strengths and then have the conviction to convey precisely what that means to everyone across the business, ensuring that they all live the brand.
What three lessons or words of advice
would you give to a would-be entrepreneur?
Don’t give up. All the way along the road to success lie many holes and barriers that at times seem insurmountable. If you truly believe in what you’re doing, stay focused and have the power of your convictions to deliver your vision. You’ll get there.
Listen when you’re talking. Remember always that you have two ears and one mouth for good reason. Keep selling the dream but always listen and learn from all the naysayers along the way. Negative feedback is nothing more than an opportunity to improve your proposition.
The customer is always right. Cliché, yes, but never was a truer statement in business said.
What are the biggest mistakes that a new entrepreneur can make?
Mistaking arrogance for brilliance — they are very close entrepreneurial bed partners. Keep them in balance at all times!
Hubris — failing to recognize when you are going down the wrong road will always result in you heading for that fateful fall. Turn on a dime when you need to.
Not watching the money — remember that cash is king, especially in a start-up business.
Any final tips?
There is no excuse for poor planning in business. Always be mindful, however, that no matter how well you plan, everything can and will change the moment you touch your customer.
The ‘venture’ in VC has stalled; not to mention the ‘capital.’ I’m very proud of the fact, therefore, that all our funding to date has come from private angel investors, with no institutional involvement against all the odds — not least of which being the worst financial meltdown the world has endured. So keep the faith and don’t panic or sell your soul on the way to success.
Treat every investor dollar like it’s your last. Keep it tight, spend wisely and always ask yourself again and again what the ROI against every dollar spent will be.
Remember that an entrepreneur is someone who creates business, who is responsible for all the risks associated with it and who has no excuses at the end of the day if that business fails. So step up to the plate, with all bases loaded, and hit a home run. There are no ‘walks’ for us.
