"The current challenge is to continue showing growth while building an efficient business."
In this exclusive interview with ValiantCEO Magazine, Davide Pisanu, former attorney and Cirque du Soleil executive, shares his journey as the CEO of ClearEstate, a digital-first estate planning and administration company.
Davide’s mission is to fill a massive gap in the market, offering high-level estate planning and settlement services to the majority of the population. With empathy as a driving force, ClearEstate aims to ease the burden on executors during the difficult time of losing a loved one.
Join us as we explore Davide’s insights on business growth, efficiency, and the importance of strong partnerships in achieving success.
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Table of Contents
We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start off with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company.
Davide Pisanu: I’m Davide Pisanu – a former practicing attorney and Cirque du Soleil executive. Today, I am the CEO of ClearEstate – a digital-first estate planning and administration company.
If you were in an elevator with Warren Buffett, how would you describe your company, your services or products? What makes your company different from others? What is your company’s biggest strength?
Davide Pisanu: We are a one-stop shop for estate planning and administration services – a democratized version of what Mr. Buffet would recognize as a trust office.
Our approach is anchored in the experience of the executor – the person that truly bears the administrative burden of somebody’s death. We are highly empathetic because we know from personal experience how hard it is to grieve the loss of a loved one while simultaneously settling their estate.
ClearEstate’s goal is to fill a massive gap for the 97% of individuals with less than $1M in liquid assets, offering the majority of the population access to high-level estate planning and settlement services.
What advice do you wish you received when you started your business journey and what do you intend on improving in the next quarter?
Davide Pisanu: It can be easy to get lost in a VC-backed business.
I think one of the questions that I didn’t realize I should be asking throughout my business journey was what current and future investors would need to see to make my business investment worthy.
It’s easy to see value in your own story, but you also need to find ways to connect with what others need to understand and want to see from your business as well.
Here is a two fold question: What is the book that influenced you the most and how? Please share some life lessons you learned. Now what book have you gifted the most and why?
Davide Pisanu: I used to like big, epic novels when I was young, and remember being immensely moved by Les Miserables by Victor Hugo–I read it 3 times as a teenager. There was something about the unfairness of the world in that book, the burden of one’s situation, and how hard it can be to transcend life’s obstacles.
The book that I recommend the most is So Good They Can’t Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love by Cal Newport because it debunks the myth of pursuing one’s passion. Nobody will just pay you for your pursuing your passion, but people will pay you for attempting to master something that’s difficult. Now passion might play a role in you becoming good at something hard, but what makes this book really stand out is how Newport underlines the importance of doing something hard and choosing to master it regardless of its difficulty.
Business is all about overcoming obstacles and creating opportunities for growth. What do you see as THE real challenge right now?
Davide Pisanu: High growth is highly inefficient, and right now investors value efficiency more than growth. The current challenge is to continue showing growth while building an efficient business. This is why early-stage companies that survive downturns are much more resilient in the long run.
In your experience, what tends to be the most underestimated part of running a company? Can you share an example?
Davide Pisanu: There is solitude in running a company. Yes, you have co-founders and a Board – but in the end, the accountability mainly falls on you. It’s important to recognize that you can’t do it all, therefore, you must learn to work as a team while being accountable for the outcome.
That’s a hard reality to accept while running a company.
What does “success” in the year to come mean to you? It could be on a personal or business level, please share your vision.
Davide Pisanu: I’d define success in 2023 as seeing new partnerships bloom this year.
Our business is highly dependent on the success of some of the partnerships we have been putting in place all of 2022 – I want to see those partnerships blossom and become the foundation of new conversations for ClearEstate.
George Wright III, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Davide Pisanu for taking the time to do this interview and share his knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Davide Pisanu or his company, you can do it through his – Linkedin Page
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