Balancing the Grind with Marco Logiudice, Co-Founder at prograd

Marco Logiudice is the co-founder of prograd, a company on a mission to help people understand and stay in control of credit after uni.

1) To kick things off, could you tell us a little about your career background and current role? 

I was born and raised in Italy but I was lucky to have my aunt living in London. Every summer, when I had a break from school, I used to come to the UK to visit my aunt and when I turned 15 years old, I started using this time to also work, serving as a waiter at weddings in London. Each summer I used to do a different job from cooking to stewarding, warehousing, street cleaning and retail.

Eventually, when I turned 18, I ended up reading Economics at university and committed to the “traditional” finance career path. After working part-time in Private Equity at Macquarie Bank during my second and third year of uni, I went into investment banking at Citi for a summer and eventually to private equity in Bain Capital after graduating from my master’s.

Then, a year into my analyst stint, I quit and co-founded Prograd – a start-up focused on educating young people on personal finance and supporting them to earn, save or sustainably borrow the money they need as they grow. Here I act as the Chief Product Officer.

2) What does a day in your life look like for you? Can you take us through a recent workday? 

Cliche’ warning: every day is different. I know many people say this but as a founder, you are really hit from different sides every day. My main focus in the company is product management which, in practice, means translating what our customers want into something tangible which these users can leverage to solve their problem.

This role requires me to speak to customers, understand their pain points through interviews, work with designers to draft a solution to address this pain point (e.g. a new feature) and then with developers to implement it within our site.

Nevertheless, throughout the span of one day as a founder, I may also pitch our platform to potential clients, brainstorm with our marketing team about new content and new customer acquisition channels, develop new algorithms with our data science teams and speak with our investors. 

3) What does work-life balance mean to you and how do you work to achieve that goal? 

I have asked myself this question so many times and I ask this to all of my mentors. My humble opinion is that there is no fixed definition of work-life balance. The only factor one should really care about is life balance or fulfilment.

Each one of us should have an honest conversation with ourselves and define what it is that makes them feel fulfilled. This is the most incredibly difficult part about figuring out work-life balance and it is a question that many people do not have an answer for. I, myself, am still working on it.

Whatever fulfils you, that is exactly what you are optimising “work-life” balance on. If career achievements are all that matters to someone, I see balance in working incredibly hard and nearly exclusively on career-stuff as that is going to bring the most satisfaction.

Equally, if waking up in the morning and just sleeping all day is what makes you happy, there is a balance for you. Work-life balance is nothing more than a function of what you want to achieve and what you will need to sacrifice (there is lots of it) to get there – I truly believe that this is a zero-sum game and that no win can be achieved without sacrifice.

As you progress through life, what you want to achieve and what you are willing to sacrifice to get there will change, and you will notice it immediately because the level of fulfilment you are getting from life also changes, which indicates that something has got to change to restore balance.

In my case, at the moment, I am obsessed with business, social impact and relationship with my family. This is what I optimise my life on, which often translates to having “poor” work-life balance for many’s definition.

4) In the past 12 months, have you started or stopped any routines or habits to change your life? 

In the past 12 months, I have started a few routines that are helping me push through life. I have started actively playing football and going to the gym 3 times a week which is something I never used to do before, as I was eating unhealthy, gaining weight and feeling unbalanced.

I’d say the most important additions to my routine are also praying and keeping a diary/video recorder of myself where I document the days where I feel far from my best.

5) Do you have any favourite books, podcasts or newsletters that you’d like to recommend? 

I am big fan of Fintech Food by Simon Taylor (newsletter), the Diary of A CEO by Steven Bartlett (podcast) and Meditations by Marcus Aurelius (book).

6) If you could read an interview about work-life balance by anyone, who would that be? 

Socrates.

7) Do you have any last thoughts on work, life or balance that you’d like to share with our readers?

Don’t get too high on the highs or too low on the lows, everything is temporary. Trust the process and remember: nobody knows.

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