"The best advice I’ve heard is that you can’t do everything on your own"
Meet Sean Adler, a scholar turned entrepreneur. While pursuing a clinical program in China during 2018, he began to sense a significant divide between academic and functional knowledge. This influenced the decision to give up his scholarship from the Chinese government in spite of their generosity, so he could pursue an entrepreneurial career. Sean started GZI during his time as a graduate student in biotechnology at Johns Hopkins while he gained experience with the investing side of entrepreneurship by screening ventures for a number of groups across the United States.
Sean outperformed some of the largest hedge funds in the world during the coronavirus crash of 2020 after the initial development of quantitative trading strategies for international biotechnology companies during the coronavirus crash of 2020, which led to GZI becoming a top-ranked Founder Institute portfolio company with a multimillion-dollar valuation. In addition to his tenure as CEO of GZI, he sporadically participates in startup mentorship programs with the NASDAQ Entrepreneurial Center and Founder Institute.
Sean’s professional background is versatile across domains in startups and investments but is most concentrated in international tech startups, biotech, and fintech. This includes skills like data science, statistical programming, managerial business, genomic data science, and Mandarin Chinese. He is generally very busy, though, nevertheless, feel free to hit him up if you think you’d get along or if something about his profile speaks to you.
Check out more interviews with entrepreneurs here.
WOULD YOU LIKE TO GET FEATURED?
All interviews are 100% FREE OF CHARGE
Table of Contents
Thank you for joining us today! Let’s start off with a little introduction. Please introduce yourself to our readers by sharing your story.
Sean Adler: I declined an offer to pursue a PHD in biotechnology from Johns Hopkins to launch GZI at the height of COVID in 2020. My personal brand is inseparable from the company. I was attending life science venture capital events in China in 2018 before COVID existed. GZI was one of the first companies to algorithmically trade biotech stocks, which was the foundation for alternative data.
This resulted in my nomination as one of the Top 10 Most Influential Leaders in Biotechnology 2021 and pushed GZI to a multimillion dollar valuation by the time I was 28 years old.
I mentor at Founder Institute and participate in the NASDAQ Entrepreneurial Center in addition to advising Fortune 500 companies at GLG.
2020-2021 was unlike any other year. What is your favorite item you’ve bought in the past months and why?
Sean Adler: It’s got to be the red leather biker jacket. Someone looked at me in the elevator at a friend’s apartment complex and said, “That jacket looks like something out of a movie, but I can’t remember which one.” Fight Club is one of my all time favorite movies and the jacket looks like the one worn by Tylor Durden, so I love it to death. It’s edgy and stylish but improves with wear and tear.
Life is like a box of chocolates…What unexpected surprises did life grant you that contributed to your success?
Sean Adler: 2020-2021 was like having my face shoved in a box of chocolates so I could lick off the sweet remains in 2022. Founding GZI in Washington, DC at the height of COVID in 2020 actually gave us status as a cult classic. The medical, political, and economic turmoil amplified the company’s struggles. It also made our brand unique because everyone could identify with it. That’s why readers first began telling us how inspiring our story was when I wrote our first interview at the end of 2021.
Tell us about the job. Is there any exciting project you’re currently working on?
Sean Adler: There’s a lot to know. Our investor panel with a former Olympic gold medalist on Forbes 30 Under 30 is up WeFunder. Watch it for more details.
Our most important project is staying original as we become popular. The process of a startup going from a moonshot to an actual career is more exciting than when things are actually built out. GZI’s initial goal was to develop something completely unheard of and we’ve done it with alternative data. Our focus is now on expansion and coordinating with our partners to ensure everyone has access.
Sir Richard Branson famously stated that “Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients.” As a CEO/leader how do you feel about this philosophy and if you agree with it, how do you implement that in your company? Conversely, if you disagree, explain why and how do you do things differently?
Sean Adler: Employees can be tricky at startups because the relationship is both personal and professional. They become more professional as companies grow, which complicates things. Executives need to be “Tender Defenders” by standing their ground while being selfless on behalf of their team. That is the perfect balance for executives to strike with employees. Hiring slowly and firing quickly is still important in startups, but so is humanitarianism.
There is an effect of company politics influencing customer dynamics and the downpour will hit operations hard. Like all things, there is a balance.
According to a breakthrough study conducted by Weber Shandwick, leaders worldwide believe that 45% of a business’ market value is dependent on a CEO’s branding and reputation. We would love to know your thoughts about this. How important are CEO’s personal branding and reputation for the business itself?
Sean Adler: If 45% of our market value is my brand, then we have it made. It’s true at the early stages but is a different story when companies grow. The CEO’s branding and reputation will get it to launch. The success of an entire company is far more than anything the CEO does alone when it begins to grow. What they are referring to is how the personality behind a CEO’s branding and reputation influences market value.
Do you have a specific anecdote that comes to mind or a news story that helped you realize how critical it is to be mindful of branding and reputation, on a personal or company level? Please share how it “opened your eyes”
Sean Adler: The war between Russia and Ukraine brought a lot to mind. People often get caught in the crossfire of other people’s battles. Imagine Zolensky and Putin as two executives on different sides of a justifiable spectrum. Russia believes in the Nazi presence in Ukraine because of the iron curtain, but the rest of the world sees it.
CEO’s are expected to do a lot of PR when companies grow. You have to walk a fine line when thousands or millions of people listen. It changes how the public perceives someone, not to mention their actions. This is tricky in entrepreneurship since publicity is a tool and it can turn against you. People will use media stunts to enhance their image and throw hints at competitors. The higher someone’s status is, the more they become trapped by it.
Do you have a set of principles and strategic actions that you and your management team abide by to maintain a good online reputation and positioning? What are they and how effective have they been?
Sean Adler: Play chess, not checkers. Every move you make has to position the company in a way that opens up maneuverability. You can’t jump pieces without a defensive position. Oversimplifying your moves by playing a different game on the same board may spell the end of it. Putting the wrong pieces in the right position backfires, even with perfect execution. Everything works together.
The principals have worked reasonably well. Principals will change every two years if your company is growing. Tactics for a single person LLC won’t work for a company managing 20-30 people across the globe.
The COVID-19 pandemic turned the world upside down, in many cases, it pushed the employees and the consumers to critical stress points. How did you lead your team through these difficult times and maintain a good reputation?
Sean Adler: Most of my story is covered in the first few interviews. I recommend reading the entire series for a more interesting picture of how we got to where we are. We could adapt for the best by making a point not to fight external trends. This led to building out a remote team from across the globe at the height of COVID. 2020 and 2021 ushered in the death of normalcy so a remote workforce became the norm and not the exception.
By the end of 2021, GZI had filed with the SEC and partnered with organizations around the globe. They include top accelerators in Silicon Valley, NASDAQ Entrepreneurial Center, and elite consulting groups like GLG. GZI didn’t have much of a reputation until rapid expansion in 2021.
The COVID pandemic raised a lot of polarizing politically charged issues. According to ‘The Harris Poll’, 75% of Americans said that they would avoid taking a position on political issues if they were CEOs. We would love to know your thoughts about this. Is it better to take a political position or to avoid it completely When it comes to being a great CEO/Leader, do you have one name that comes to mind, please share with us how they influence the CEO you are today? What lessons did they teach you over the years?
Sean Adler: It’s best to be apolitical in business. Align your company with resources that provide the best results. Everyone cares about the numbers. Focus on getting results with your partners and nobody will hold it against you. The only politics I discuss are that of the company. There’s no need for politics or religion in business unless you are a lobbyist or house of worship.
For politics, Elon Musk. Take the Tesla ‘Short Shorts’ as an example. Everyone knew he wasn’t thrilled with short sellers hurting the stock price. He released a Tesla Short Shorts: a pair of short red underpants with the word ‘S3XY’ on the backside when the short sellers closed their positions. That is guerilla marketing and sending a message at its finest.
You have been very generous with your time and knowledge. Our readers would also love to know, What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given? and what is the advice you give the most often to new team members?
Sean Adler: Valiant CEO has been generous with the number of magazine interviews they’ve given us. The best advice I’ve heard is that you can’t do everything on your own. We make a point to guide new members through the process and rarely give advice unless requested.
What is one key thing you want to achieve at this moment, and what do you need to overcome to reach your goal?
Sean Adler: Onboard customers who like our product. All Valiant CEO readers will get a free trial. That will help since it was the readers inspired by our story in the first place. Send an email request to [email protected]. Let’s see if we can inspire them a second time.
Thank you so much for your time but before we say goodbye, we do have one more unusual question. If you ask yourself any question what would it be and how would you answer it?
Sean Adler: Given my backstory of riding a black swan to success, I’ll pull it from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
Q: What is the answer to the great Question of Life, the Universe and everything?
A: The answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything is 42.
Jed Morley, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Sean Adler 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 Sean Adler or his company, you can do it through his – Linkedin Page
Disclaimer: The ValiantCEO Community welcomes voices from many spheres on our open platform. We publish pieces as written by outside contributors with a wide range of opinions, which don’t necessarily reflect our own. Community stories are not commissioned by our editorial team and must meet our guidelines prior to being published.
