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John Lazar

John Lazar

British investor and engineer

Sep 28, 2026

14:03
Could you just give me one or two examples of companies in your portfolio that demonstrate your thesis? Companies that you think are great examples of what's possible when EMSA gets involved?
14:15
Yeah, I mean, we've got 47 companies in the portfolio, and I think, I mean, I love all of them.
14:21
So, you know, they're all unbelievably powerful, brilliant companies.
14:26
I'll give you a couple of examples of companies, particularly in the AI space, that I think are interesting.
14:30
So, you know, we invested out of a second fund into Turaco in East Africa.
14:35
This is a really, really functional insurtech company.
14:39
This is a company where they've developed interesting distribution models, very good unit economics.

9 MINS LATER

23:25
What's your approach? How do you think about exits within the ENZA universe?
2:04
So, Sir John Lazar, what does it take to be a CEO? [upbeat music]
2:13
I think there's lots of different ways you can come at it.
2:16
I think the obvious one that most CEOs will point to is it does take an extraordinary amount of resilience.
2:24
So you as a CEO will just deal with an enormous amount of perturbation and uncertainty, and your ability to really, really deal with uncertainty and manage your way through it and inspire other people to manage their way through it is just a key determinant.
2:44
So I think the resilience one, and, uh, and I don't think you know this till you're in a job because, you know, people say it's lonely at the top and blah, blah, blah.
2:52
There is this moment where you suddenly realize that you thought you had a strategy, something's just changed.
2:58
As a company, you need to work your way through it, and despite all the help and support that you get, ultimately, you, you are the person who's in charge and has to, uh, sign off on the decision.

25 MINS LATER

27:41
[chuckles] I imagine a world of guardrails emerging sooner rather than later in terms of where and what AI is able to get up to.

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