Charles Owen, Founder & Director, CoInvestor

In addition to keeping you updated about all the great things that are going on at The Clubhouse, we thought we would turn the tables and put the focus on all the exciting things our fantastic members are achieving!

For this month’s ‘Member in the Spotlight’ feature we spoke to Charles Owen, Founder & Director, CoInvestor.

1. Tell us about your company.

CoInvestor is an alternative assets investment platform. A combination of changing legislation, an ageing demographic and the ongoing adoption of technology is driving investors online and increasing investment allocation to alternative asset investments. The CoInvestor platform connects fund managers, private investors and their advisers to make it easier to invest in high-quality alternative assets providing capital growth, tax efficiency and yield. We work closely with a number of leading fund managers who provide our investors with easy access to their funds and to opportunities to co-invest alongside them in individual deals in which they are investing, on the same terms.

2. What has been your biggest success?

Launching the v1 CoInvestor platform in late 2015 was an amazing moment and the result of two years planning and hard work. For most of this time I was acting entirely alone and needing to validate the theoretical business model, specify and build the platform so that fund managers and investors would engage with us from the very start. It was a very satisfying achievement.

3. What project are you most excited about right now?

We are just in the process of bringing our white label product to market and this will see the platform installed and in use by some very large wealth management businesses under a licence agreement. Each licensee firm will then be able to provide their clients with an own branded alternative assets platform as these assets become increasingly important for their clients.

4. How has being a member of The Clubhouse contributed to the success of your business?

The flexibility of The Clubhouse has been invaluable to us as a business as we steadily increased our team from just me initially to a staff which now numbers fifteen. Whilst we have an office in Canterbury, having a flexible London base really helped during this period of rapid growth.

5. Where can members find you?

At The Clubhouse Mayfair but I’d be delighted to hear from any members and can be emailed at charles@coinvestor.co.uk

Quick Fire Round:

Favourite place to go in London?

St Pancras station on my way home each evening.

Who inspires you and why?

I’m inspired by hearing the true stories of other entrepreneurs, whether they have succeeded or failed, as its always a tough journey and too easily glamourised.

Best bit of advice you’ve been given?

If in doubt – ask.

If you were on a desert island, what would you bring?

A high quality tent, mattress, cotton sheets and a pillow. Might as well be comfortable if I’m going to be there a while.

Which super power would you like to have?

The ability to slow down time.

What is the worst business ‘faux-pas’ you’ve committed?

Too many to count, mainly centred on naivety when I first started out building businesses over 27 years ago. This was a long time before the word ‘entrepreneur’ became a buzz word.