Parpera
Entrepreneurial Journey told by two students
Story written by Hongyang Li
“I’m the type of person that never gives up on their dreams. No matter what it takes. Some people spend their whole life looking for a dream, I mean the kind you would do anything for to make it a reality. Maybe in their twenties, thirties, or forties, or never. Fortunately for me, the seeds of my dream began to take root early on. Born to an Italian migrant family, I was encouraged to support my father’s accounting business from age 11.Thesesimple “business assistant” work inspired me to start my own IT services business out of his office at age 17 to support myself throughout my study at the University of Melbourne. See, my love for business started early. Since then, I’ve always dreamed of running my own global business. On my quest to achieve my dream, I tried to take in all the knowledge and experience I could: whether it was internships at EY and Kearney London, or an exchange termat Columbia Business School, among others. Truth be told, I secured an offer for almost every role I interviewed after my graduation, which included some very prestigious Wall Street firms. Finally, I had resided to return to EY and obtained a very attractive offer for a promotion. However, I realized that I wasn’t really fulfilled because it wasn’t quite the same as the dream I was pursuing. None of them excited me or gave me a sense of achievement or happiness. I just want to say that before doing what you really want to do, you will find that everything before is a wonderful pavement. I think you’ve probably guessed where this is going to end up, after trying to fail and frustrating more than I can say, I started my own company last year – Parpera. My journey has led me to my purpose, and I believe that by founding Parpera, I can deliver real meaningful change in not only how people manage their money but also how they live their lives. There has always been a time in my life where I thought something wasn’t possible until it was done. Nothing good is ever easy but nothing is impossible if you truly believe you can do it.”
Story written by Richard Murray
“I’ve always dreamt of running a global business. I grew up in a family where I was taught to study hard, work hard and build a good life. And under the influence of my father’s accounting business and my love for technology, I knew at the time that finance and technology is where I will put my attention to. So I started a web design business when I was 17, then I landed an internship at Ernst & Young when I was 19, where my experiences working there inspired me to embark on the ambitious idea of starting a digital bank- Parpera. It was a long journey before I finally launched this business. In fact, when I was completing my MBA I was told my an entrepreneur in residence –‘you’ll never make any money’. However, I’m the type of person that never gives up on their dreams. No matter what it takes. I continued onto a MBA intern at Kearney London and performed a $10B cost reduction of HSBC global. I recalled leaving the internship feeling deflated, I really wanted to become an entrepreneur and build a global business. Just as I was graduating and turning 30, an opportunity came up to become the COO and EiR of a WealthTech proposition for a founder who was amongst the top 50 women in hedge funds. Despite this being an opportunity to transition out of London student share-housing life and recoup my investment, I wasn’t satisfied. I came to me then that people kept hiring me and paying me well to build their businesses. They entrusted me with delivering on their dreams, operating effectively in high-pressure situations, navigating ambiguous environments and ensuring efficient use of their funds to deliver on the desired outcomes. And it turns out that I was good at it. Looking back home at Australia, I identified that the fintech revolution was yet to occur and took the leap to pack up my London life and return home to build my dream. I spent most of 2019 suffering a series of re-starts and setbacks. I wasn’t able to find any potential co-founders who share the same ambition and values as mine, and I was still scared of failure. Based on my previous failed attempts, I knew persistence and resilience, and learning from these failures are key to success. It was not until early 2020 when I successfully launched Parpera. My journey has led me to my purpose, and I believe that by founding Parpera, we can deliver real meaningful change in not only how people manage their money but also how they live their lives.”