5 Questions With… Jindou Lee from HappyCo

HappyCo is a proptech company providing real-time operations software for property portfolios. Founded in Adelaide, the company is now global, with headquarters in San Francisco.

What was your first full time / paid job?

Unofficially, I worked as a kitchen hand at a Japanese teppanyaki restaurant in Darwin. The owner, a family friend, said he desperately needed help and brought me in to start work on a Friday. On Saturday, he said he no longer desperately needed help.

Officially, my first job was working for an all you can eat Buffet restaurant called Function at the Mirage in Adelaide. I quickly learned how hard it was to earn money and how wasteful I was as a kid.

What is your superpower?

I have the ability to visualise a problem and turn it into a piece of software with incredible UI/UX. I’m really great at being able to “think like the end-user” and put myself in their shoes (especially if it’s a user with very low computer literacy). I think this is a result of growing up in a household where my parents were constantly asking me to “fix the internet” or any computer technologies.

What technology seems like magic to you?

Speaking of the internet. I think that having access to the internet on airplanes is mind-blasting!

I mean, I remember a time not that long ago where I had dial up internet and it was so bad that if someone tried to use the telephone it would disconnect the internet!!!

What investment (money, professional, personal, whatever!) have you made that’s had the greatest impact on your life?

I picked up a book called “Rich Dad Poor Dad” in my early twenties. And I read it from cover to cover in a day. I did not completely understand all the concepts it was teaching at the time but I did realize that building wealth was something that was not “taught” in my household. Coming from a blue-collar, working-class family, financial literacy was such a foreign concept.

After reading that book it sparked a journey of trying to understand and learn as much as I could about wealth and led me to invest in Real Estate. Which eventually led me to start HappyCo.

If you could encourage someone to read/listen/watch one thing what would it be?

If I said “Rich Dad Poor Dad” would that be cheating? Okay, how about Ray Dalio’s How The Economic Machine Works in 30 minutes video.

It provides great insight into a complex concept such as how the world works. And for simple minds like mine, I need people to dumb it down for me.