From Council House To Company Builder: Lessons In Learning, Leadership, And Curiosity. PART 1.

This is not a story about a perfect leader. It’s a story about a rare one.

Julian doesn’t lead through theory, hierarchy, or polished management frameworks. He leads through lived experience, pattern recognition, and an instinctive understanding of people. That combination is uncommon. And it’s one of the reasons Alunafi exists in the way it does today.

This blog series focuses deliberately on Julian as a one-of-a-kind leader – not to mythologise him, but to show how unconventional paths often produce the most grounded, effective leadership styles in fintech.

An Entrepreneur Before He Had the Word

“From 11 years old, I was already figuring out how systems worked.”

Long before Julian ran companies, teams, or financial infrastructure, he was learning how systems really worked. Not in classrooms, but in daily life.

Growing up in a working household where both parents held multiple jobs, money was never abstract. It was visible, finite, and directly linked to effort. Pocket money wasn’t a given. It was earned. Every task had value; every decision had consequences.

That environment quietly trained Julian to think in systems: inputs, outputs, trade-offs, optimisation.

“Money was never free. If you wanted it, you worked for it.”

Seeing What Others Missed

At school, Julian noticed something most children didn’t.

Some students had certainty built in: government-backed dinner tokens, predictable meals, guaranteed support. He didn’t. So he created certainty himself.

“It wasn’t about being clever. It was about making sure I had certainty.”

By understanding incentives, behaviour, and exchange, he found a way to secure what he needed for the entire week ahead. No guesswork. No daily stress.

It sure wasn’t rebellion, but more early entrepreneurship. And more importantly, it was risk management.

That same instinct shows up today in how Julian approaches business: reduce uncertainty, understand incentives, design for continuity.

[Stay tuned for part 2: we’ll get to why Julian trusts experience, curiosity, and first-principle thinking over formal credentials.]