Julian Kyula is an entrepreneur, thought leader and pastor. In all these undertakings, he says, he is obsessed with building people—through faith and business.
In 2010 he founded the MODE Group — a multi-million dollar international fintech company that won the IBM Global Entrepreneur of the Year (2012) award.
In July, he unveiled EDOMx Ltd, which allows people to pay for goods and services at zero interest. He also runs Beulah City, a real estate firm.
Away from business, he is the senior pastor at The Purpose Centre Church. He describes himself as a human being who happens to love Jesus and also works with his own hands.
But putting faith in the equation has meant drawing boundaries on business deals he can or cannot do, at times allowing millions of shillings to slip by.
He spoke to the BD Life at The Address, Muthangari Drive, Westlands in Nairobi about what it looks like to mix business with church, his belief in people and how this has shaped his leadership style. When I walked in, the first thing the receptionist asked when I said I was going to Kyula Capital was: “Are you going to church?”
How do you manage swinging your personalities between Kyula the churchman and Kyula the businessman?
[Laughter] Both of them have people. I just believe in developing people and I have been very big on this since I was young. So I guess they asked you that because sometimes pastors come here for some of the meetings from our churches.
But everything is separated. We have the real estate side, the EDOMx side and then the church has an office here as well. So I don’t have to keep going around in different buildings in different places.
It is about developing people who can run activities without me.
You have all these offices in the same building. How do you transition from, say, being a pastor to a business person?
The only time I get involved is when we are having our weekly meetings to review our progress and also have some prayers. The philosophy I have is that the members we have in church on Sunday are not different people on Monday or any other day of the week.
That has been my philosophy. We should not separate them. The people we are talking to are going to the market and we are in this same market and we understand their challenges and aspirations. We understand what they are thinking about taxes and their salvation and lives.
I don’t really think I can ever separate and say now I am a pastor and now I am a businessman. I am a human being who happens to love Jesus and also works with my hands. So I work hard and I think that has drawn people into that direction.
Having faith in the equation, how does that shape the businesses you decide to venture into and the decisions you make along the way?
It really brings out the values we believe in. So if you look at what we do in real estate, it shapes how we think about how people will own homes. It doesn’t think about the bottom line only. It also thinks about how, say, a waiter can own a home.
I looked around and looked at my three boys and said, the way things are going, these children will never be able to afford houses in Nairobi. So we built into the value system of how a community can use its numbers and strength to find solutions for the community.
Our faith has played a very big role in why we build what we build and how we do the things we do.
Are there businesses or business ideas that along the way you have had to drop or resist growing into because of your faith?
Yes. Oh my goodness! Very many. There have been challenges we have had because of taking a stand between faith and the type of opportunities that come to us. So we decide not to touch what would compromise our faith.
Give some details on some of these business opportunities you have walked away from…
[Laughing]. I don’t want to impose my faith on others because they might say I have a bias against this or that kind of company or companies. They are doing what they set out to do and I wouldn’t want to decide for them.
But you can use some logic to know that there are some things that I won’t invest in because they might affect even our own children in terms of how they think about life.
There are things we won’t support such as those that will bring wrong patterns of living to our children. We just follow our faith to make decisions about the things we can or cannot do.
EDOMx ltd Founder Julian Kyula during the interview at his office in Nairobi. FILE PHOTO | LUCY WANJIRU | NMG
How has church and business shaped how you look at people?
When I look at the church, what I see are people. When I look at EDOMx and other businesses we venture into, it is about ‘How do I help these people?’ Life is tough and people are going through a lot, which is what church has opened my eyes to.
Sometimes we can be ignorant in our corporate offices but in a church, you receive someone from Mukuru kwa Njenga and in the same service you get another one from Muthaiga. When they come, they all must hear something that works for both their worlds.
A church is not a place where you interview people to find out who is to come or not. You can’t create a corporate culture. You welcome people and you can tell what they are going through when you interact with them.
That has opened me to saying that in all our small ways, we have to contribute to society. For example, when everyone is complaining about expensive loans, we have to do something, I don’t think of our product as a loan but as a convenience.
Looking at the many things you have put your hands on, on average, how long does it take you to think of an idea and start implementing it?
Oh! That is a great question. First, I am a big believer in people. The real estate business is, for instance, being run by my brother and he is doing an amazing job. Much better than I would have ever done. Even with EDOMx, two people have become key.
EDOMx has taken us about two years to get to this point. Beulah City has taken us four years. We have been doing church for 16 years. Humanity-centred thinking takes time. For quick profit thinking, give me eight months and I can start making money.
The things you need to do with humanity at the centre of your thinking take time. You have to get the right funding structures.
For example, by the time we got to [James] Mwangi (Equity Group CEO whose bank is backing up EDOMx), we had tried to talk to almost 10 banks. For him to believe in our idea was a big deal. New thinking takes time.
With church and businesses to run, how do you juggle all these to achieve and sustain success?
What has become key for me is: Can I find the right people? I never hire below me. If you find most of the people I hire, they are smarter than me. And better than me.
So I had to, at some point in my life, deal with stopping to bring in people that are not as good as me because I discovered a secret: When you hire above you, you start to release yourself from the daily nuances or the nitty-gritty and focus on the real job.
Fintech and housing seem to be the two things that you are passionate about. How did this come into being?
I am passionate about quite a few things including food [laughs]. But when you look at where the world is and how businesses have been built, they talk about unbundling.
So when you unbundle a tech company you can get 1,800 companies there. When you unbundle a car, you get different parts too and so is the case with unbundling a human being. How many businesses have been created just from the position of ears alone?
That is how I look at my world. We have unbundled finance and we think there is a space of people who would like to do finance differently and we use technology to achieve that.
So l like imagining, then building. So for example, I am not doing this now, but I imagine you have gone for a holiday with your family and haven’t paid your electricity bill or rent. Could it be that you have allowed me to sort that for you at no interest for giving you convenience?
We think there is a world for that, for people who do not want to abuse credit but all they are looking for is convenience. Such is a world I think we can create. And that is how EDOMx was born.
