Adam Torres and Jean-Pierre Aramouni discuss FII PRIORITY.
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Show Notes:
Listen to FII PRIORITY coverage. In this episode, Adam Torres and Jean-Pierre Aramouni, Founder at LaunchX Ventures & Plaey, explore scaling ventures and FII PRIORITY.
About Jean-Pierre Aramouni
Jean-Pierre Aramouni is a serial entrepreneur, operator, and strategic advisor with 18 years of global experience driving innovation at the crossroads of technology, sustainability, and wellbeing.
He was an early member of Uber’s growth team, contributing to its rapid expansion from 50 to 500 cities worldwide. Jean-Pierre later spearheaded market expansion and global operations at REEF Technology, redefining urban infrastructure for the on-demand economy, and at Tink Labs, where he played a key role in scaling a hospitality-tech platform across more than 80 countries.
With a proven track record of building and scaling ventures, he brings a deep operational mindset and a visionary approach to transformative business growth.
About LaunchX Ventures
LaunchX Ventures is a bespoke advisory and investment group helping startups, scale-ups and business leaders on the journey from 0 to 1. We work directly with Founders, CEOs and leadership teams in a fractional (and sometimes full time) capacity
to build operational excellence, and serve as thought leaders to unlock the next phase of their company’s growth.
About Plaey
Plaey is a transformative platform at the intersection of technology, psychology, and community, designed to redefine human potential and performance. Utilizing an AI-powered human flourishing algorithm, Plaey assesses users’ mental, emotional, and social well-being to deliver personalized plans of peak experiences that foster mindset shifts and performance optimization.
These customized plans combine bite-sized educational content, science-backed group experiences, and guided discussions—crafted to help individuals unlock their inner potential through exploration, symbolized by the “e” in Plaey.
Supported by prominent investors and advisors such as VF Corp (The North Face, Vans, Supreme) and The Flow Research Collective, Plaey is on a mission to ignite the force within and elevate the way humans thrive.
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres, and if you’d like to apply to be a guest in the show, just head on over to mission matters.com and click on be Our Guest to Apply. Hey, I Jean-Pierre Aramouni on the line today. He’s the founder at Launch XVentures and Plaey, and he’s an advisor.
He’s also an operator and he also participated in the FII priority event. in Miami where I went out for the first time to an FII Institute event. And , I was just pleasantly surprised, which led to this entire interview series, which JP is a part of. Jp. First off, I want to say thanks for making some time for us and welcome to the show.
Of course. Nice to meet you, Adam. So launch X Ventures and Plaey, I mean, one of the things is I’ve looked into your background that you’re known for is building and scaling purpose-driven ventures and specifically talking as well about, you know, the, slant or the angu and planetary wellbeing.
So, I guess just to get us kicked off here, how did you get started in business? Like, where did this begin for you? It’s an interesting question. So I started my career in strategy consulting. Almost 20 years ago. Mm-hmm. And I think that gave me a pretty interesting and broad skill set across different sectors.
I lived out of a suitcase for a couple years traveling the world, working a lot of impact, impact driven strategies most of the time with ministries of foreign governments like for example, putting together their economic growth strategies, their agriculture development strategies. It was a really interesting way to start my career.
It gave me exposure to a lot of sectors and different countries and cultures. What was that like? Like, and I wanna stay in those early days just a little bit longer, like advising, you know, ministries, countries. And as you said, you know, living out, living outta the suitcase, what was that like?
Like being on the road all the time and having that vantage point? Like what was that like? I. I mean, it was the best form of education for me. You know, I, went straight from from grad school into this job. Mm-hmm. And I learned so much just from doing the work and being on the ground in the field with clients with my colleagues at the time.
So I would say it was like the, biggest accelerator for both the personal and professional growth for me. Yeah. Did it so during that time, I don’t know if you started with this focus or if it kind of like there was an epiphany moment, or maybe it was a progression, so whatever the story is like , how did this focus and how did this journey lead to your focus, your current focus on regenerative ventures?
Like how’d that take place? Yeah, I mean, after how my, I kicked off my career in consulting actually the second half of my career. I would say the last, 12 years or so has been in tech. Mm-hmm. Working for a high, growth tech ventures. I started off on the early growth team at Uber. This was a team that scaled the company from 50 to 500 cities.
And I would say you know, the skills, the skillset that I got from my time at Uber and other venture back. Tech companies really complimented my background in strategy consulting. It allowed me to not only put together nice strategies and visions, but also like learn, learn how to get things done, and how to be a true operator on the ground.
And that’s a skill set that stayed with me up until now, you know, with my current focus as an entrepreneur and an advisor. And you know, the more I, focus on scaling tech companies and understanding. How impactful scalable companies could be. The more I realized that it’s not only about being efficient, but also leaving a mark on this, on this planet and, impact.
Mm-hmm. So I, it coincided with a big, pivotal shift in my personal life when I was, doing a lot of inner work and understanding my bigger purpose in life and what I wanted to contribute to this world. That inner journey coincided with, my kind of story scaling Uber and, other companies, and understanding how I could transfer that skillset into something a little more impactful.
Hmm. Any, any learnings? I mean, I know now, you know, that’s been many years ago and like kind of just juxtaposing when you were getting started there and you know where you’re at now today, like, anything that you kind of learned like along that way that, that just kind of surprised you, like, like you’re like, wow, I, I wasn’t expecting that.
As you got further and further along, like, did any, any surprises? Quite a few, you know? Mm-hmm. I would say the main one is when you think of scale and speed that comes with it, and if the efficiency often doesn’t always equate to sustainability. And that’s kind of something I picked up along the way.
And, you know, I’m super grateful for my experience in working for high growth tech ventures. I learned a lot. But oftentimes when you’re thinking long term sustainability and regeneration there’s a tension there. And they, they often contradict, I. And so I think where we are in the world today, the last couple years, there’s a big shift in human consciousness and people are becoming more aware of their, not only their inner wellbeing, but also how they’re connected to the outer world and everything that’s happening with the planet.
And I think when you take that view, that perspective, and you, layer it on top of how we build businesses, ultimately our, our whole perspective and approach to building businesses shifts as a result. And that’s kind of the transformation that I went through personally. And the shift in my, the focus of my career more recently.
Hmm. And actually, this is a great, great, great segue. So let’s get, maybe the, recent side of what you’re doing. What kind of ex opportunities are seeing, like, well, what excites you? I mean, you’re at the intersection of, transformation and planetary impact. What, excites JP right now, you’ve been doing this for a while.
It’s a good question. A lot of things excite me is the answer, but I would say the most exciting opportunities for me right now are those that kind of dissolve disillusion of separation between what we call personal healing and wellbeing and planetary healing or planetary regeneration. Mm-hmm. You know, I’ve come to see that the same disconnection that leads to human burnout, anxiety, emotional fragmentation, is exactly what drives some of our environment, environmental crisis.
And when people begin to reconnect with their bodies, with each other, with nature, they start to move differently in this world. You know, they make different choices. That’s the real transformation that I was referring to earlier. Yeah. Yeah. So in terms of opportunities, I mean, maybe I can mention one specific.
Deeply excited about. It’s biochar. Biochar is really the transformation of organic waste into a a new byproduct. Mm-hmm. So on the surface, it’s considered a soil amendment, but essentially it’s a stable form of carbon that’s created by, burning organic waste and low oxygen environment. And then when you zoom out, it becomes a really, really, what it becomes is a powerful metaphor.
You take what is considered waste in this case, food waste, agriculture waste, you apply heat to it. Then what happens? That it transforms, it transforms it into something that really restores life, right? You put it back in the soil, it regenerates the soil. I like to refer to it as a super food for the earth.
You know, and it’s really, it’s an incredible solution that, that is derived from waste. So these are the kind of solutions that I’m focused on right now. And this solution biochar in particular is one that truly excites me. Hmm. And so I wanna spend a little bit of the time we have here too, going into, your firms too.
So Launch X Ventures and Plaey like, whichever you wanna start with. Maybe tell us a little bit more about the companies. Yeah. So Launch X Ventures is a boutique advisory firm. That I’ve had for over six years now. I started after I left Uber, and, sometimes I go in full-time.
Sometimes I go in on a fractional basis depending on my entrepreneurial ventures. But basically what I do is I, advise companies on the journey from zero to one. That’s what I call it. It could be launching new verticals, launching new markets, and often work with early stage. Founders executives are considering new lines of businesses.
And more recently, a lot of my focus has been on regeneration whether it’s focused on human wellbeing or planetary wellbeing, working with different companies and helping, helping them think about their next stage of growth. So particularly biochar companies that I mentioned before and companies around the human mental health and wellbeing space.
Hmm. And I’m curious, John, so you, attended, as you mentioned, the, the FI mi in Miami we’re one of, of the reasons I’m doing this series is just because I’m in, I mean, I just had such a great time. as I was there, the, networking that like I was, surprised on many different levels.
what was your experience with fi like, like when the Miami or any other events you may have attended, like, and how and how did you originally get introduced to the institute? That’s a great question. So my first experience attending FII was actually the inaugural one in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia.
Back in, I wanna say 2017. Oh, was, wow. Hold on. So that makes you old school. That’s awesome. So there was probably, there was, there wasn’t. Tell me more. That’s awesome. I got, I got a legacy on the line. Yeah, I’ve seen that evolution. No. At the time I was actually based in Hong Kong. And I was on the executive team of Tin Labs as a startup in the travel, tech and hospitality tech space.
Mm-hmm. And I was working directly with our CEO to help him fundraise for our next round. So I joined them on the first trip to Saudi Arabia for our fundraise fundraising activities. And that was my first exposure to FII. And it was honestly an incredible experience for me. Blew me away. We met with so many high profile investors and family offices and LPs that eventually invested in our company.
For me, it was one, it was incredible and that fun to meet different capital allocators and investors. And second, it was honestly a surprising reunion of friends and colleagues from different parts of the world and different, you know, networks and communities I’ve been involved in that were somehow reunited at what people call DA in the desert.
Yeah. The Davos in the desert. What? Good branding, by the way. Every time I heard that, I’m like, come on. I’m like, I that, that’s, that’s great. Branding. I’m a sucker for alliteration and I have not been to the one in Riyadh yet. I know that one. I think it’s coming up in, ah, I don’t quote me on this.
Whoever’s October. It’s in October. October, okay. Okay. In October. Yeah. I’m thinking about making it out there. I’m like, wow, that’d be amazing. I’ve never been to Riyadh in general, but it would. Be like, to go to something like this and to you know, do what do what we do in terms of coverage would be awesome.
So, working on it. Working on it. But I know next year the Miami one, that’s gonna be a mainstay. Like that’s already, like I cover a lot of large conferences. I’ll be at Milken. Well re well, for everybody listening, we’re recording this in April of. 2025 and the Milken Conference is normally in the beginning of May, so I’ll be at Milken in May, early May.
It’s not coming up in two weeks already. It’s one of my favorites. And so I know I’ll be back out at FII so excited about that. But jp, first off, man, I know, your, time is short here. I appreciate you making some time for us. But I do wanna give you the opportunity to, I know we just kind of scratched the surface on some of the work that you’re doing.
At your firms and for those that are interested and like to connect with you or your team, how do people get, how do people follow up? How do they follow your journey? Thanks for that, Adam. I’d say the best way is to connect with me on LinkedIn. You can find me JP r Mooney. Happy to connect on either of the ventures I’m involved in, whether it’s my advisory firm.
Mm-hmm. You know, anything across regeneration, as I mentioned, planetary regeneration or human regeneration any work that could be useful for there, whether as an advisor or as an operator. And then also I’m an entrepreneur at heart, so I’m always looking at the most innovative, creative ideas at this intersection of human and planetary wellbeing.
Working on a few ideas right now that I’m not quite ready to share, but if anyone would like to reach out, discuss some ideas or potentially collaborate feel free to ping me on LinkedIn and we’ll take it from there. Wonderful. And for everybody listening, we’ll definitely put the links to LinkedIn and all that in the show notes so that you can connect with JP.
And speaking of the audience, if this is your first time with Mission Matters and you haven’t done it yet, hit that subscribe or follow button. This is a daily show. Each and every day we’re bringing you new content, new ideas, and hopefully new inspiration to help you along the way on your journey as well.
So again, hit that subscribe or follow button. And JP man, thanks again for coming on the show and look. Forward to seeing you in Miami next year. I have a feeling we’re both gonna be there and break bread. So thanks for coming on. Of course. Thanks so much Adam. Have a great one.
