Bassam Gilini is an entrepreneur and investor with more than two decades of experience building businesses, investing in opportunities and developing long-term commercial partnerships. He is the Founder of the Gilini Group, a diversified investment company with interests spanning property and real estate, technology, wellness, infrastructure and private markets.
Bassam began his career in East London’s property market, where he built his experience through identifying opportunities, understanding value and developing relationships that last through market cycles. Over time, he expanded beyond real estate, applying the same mindset to a broader range of sectors and investment opportunities in the UK and internationally.
Today, his approach combines instinct with a long-term investment perspective. Projects such as the Tram Depot development in Clapton, a neglected Victorian building twice threatened with demolition, reflect a preference for building around what already exists rather than clearing it away.
In 2025, Bassam established the Gilini Foundation out of a belief that opportunity should not be determined by background or access. The Foundation supports aspiring entrepreneurs from underserved and overlooked communities, providing practical business skills, mentorship and access to early-stage funding. Bassam remains closely involved in its work and focuses on helping ambitious individuals turn ideas into viable businesses.
What is your typical day, and how do you make it productive?
As a founder, I work for myself, which means there is no such thing as a typical day.
Because our investments span property, technology, wellness, infrastructure and private markets, different parts of the portfolio are often moving at very different speeds. One morning I might be reviewing a property acquisition or a development decision, the next discussing strategy with the management team of one of our operating businesses, meeting a founder looking for investment, or working through a new opportunity with the investment team.
A large part of my morning is therefore about triage: what actually needs my attention today, where can I add value, and what should I leave to the team. I have learnt that being busy and being useful are not always the same thing.
I also try to protect some time during the day simply to think. When you are working across several businesses, it is very easy to spend the entire day reacting. Some of the best decisions come when you create enough space to step away from the immediate issue and ask whether you are actually solving the right problem.
How do you bring ideas to life?
Very few ideas start and finish with me. I have built a close-knit team that I trust enough to challenge me, argue with me and improve an idea, and that process usually determines whether it survives or falls away.
Investment is often about seeing potential where others do not and then having the conviction to act. One of our strengths is that, when we spot something interesting, we are prepared to move quickly rather than analyse it until the opportunity disappears.
What’s one trend that excites you?
One trend that really excites me is the rise of long-form podcasting and video, particularly founders and creators telling their own stories directly. Podcasting gives founders, businesses and creators the ability to speak directly to people, in their own voice and on their own terms. What I find particularly interesting is the openness that developed before success. People are increasingly willing to talk about the mistakes, failures and difficult decisions that came before it. That honesty is far more useful than a polished corporate narrative.
We are backing that trend ourselves. At the Tram Depot, our Clapton development, we are creating a dedicated production space designed particularly for start-ups and growing businesses. We are also developing CTRL Studios, another venture focused on removing the traditional barriers to producing high-quality content.
What is one habit that helps you be productive?
I protect the first part of my day before everything else starts competing for my attention. That usually means some exercise or a walk, time with my children, and a few quiet minutes over coffee to think before the working day begins.
It is less about having a rigid routine and more about creating a small amount of space every morning for family, health and clear thinking. I find that if I get those things right early, I make better decisions for the rest of the day.
What advice would you give your younger self?
I would tell my younger self three things: build a team you trust, understand the numbers, and diversify earlier.
When you’re building a business, there is a temptation to be involved in every decision because you believe nobody will care about it quite as much as you do. That may be true, but it can also become a limitation. A business can only grow so far if everything depends on one person. Finding capable people and giving them real responsibility earlier is one of the most important parts of scaling, provided you put proper structure around it rather than simply handing things over.
I would also have learnt to read the numbers in more depth, earlier. Management accounts, cash flow, margins and working capital tell you far more than whether a business is profitable, and the better you understand them, the faster and more confidently you can make decisions.
On diversification, I used to think you had to establish yourself completely in one sector before earning the right to explore another. I no longer believe that.
I started in East London property, but everything that followed has broadened my perspective and made the wider business stronger. Different industries teach you different disciplines: property teaches patience and the value of assets; engineering teaches precision and systems; hospitality teaches service; wellness teaches community; and creative businesses teach you about attention, brand and communication.
The real advantage comes from taking what works in one sector and applying it somewhere others may not have thought to.
Tell us something you believe almost nobody agrees with you on?
I would rather back someone with real hunger, judgement and drive but very little track record than someone with the perfect CV who has lost the desire to prove themselves.
I think ambition and hunger are incredibly difficult to teach. Experience matters, of course, but skills can be developed, knowledge can be acquired, and people can grow into roles surprisingly quickly if they have the right mindset.
One of the best examples is our Head of Property. I first met him in the gym, where he was my personal trainer. He had no conventional route into property beyond a real interest in it, but I recognised the work ethic, discipline and hunger in him. I felt that, given the right opportunity and responsibility, he could become a real asset to the business, and that is exactly what happened.
What is the one thing you repeatedly do and recommend everyone else do?
Find a way to give back. I say that to my team as much as I remind myself of it. It is part of why I started the Gilini Foundation and why mentorship matters so much to me.
Giving back does not have to mean doing something grand. Sometimes it is as simple as taking someone seriously when they bring you an idea, opening a door, sharing something you have learnt, or allowing someone to prove themselves before they have the track record that would ordinarily earn them that chance.
There is so much talent out there, but good opportunities are few and far between. A lot of what we try to do through the Foundation is about closing that gap: helping people with ability, ambition, and ideas access the support, network or capital they might otherwise struggle to find.
If you are fortunate enough to build successful businesses, I think you should use some of what you have learnt and some of the opportunities you have been given to create opportunities for other people.
When you feel overwhelmed or unfocused, what do you do?
If I have been staring at the same problem for too long, I will usually change pace: switch to something else, go for a walk, leave the office for a while or simply create some distance from it. I find that grinding away at the same issue when your thinking has become stuck rarely produces a better answer.
I also talk things through with the team. A fresh perspective can often unlock something very quickly, particularly when someone challenges the assumption you have been working from.
What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business or advance in your career?
A bias toward action. I have never believed in waiting for the perfect deal, perfect information or perfect moment. In business, opportunities rarely arrive completely de-risked. You have to do the work, form a view and then have the conviction to act when you see something others may have missed.
The Tram Depot in Clapton is a good example. It is an amazing Victorian building that had been neglected for well over a decade and had already faced two demolition attempts. Most people looking at it could understandably have seen a complicated development site. We saw an irreplaceable building and an opportunity to create something successful while nurturing the character that made the place special.
Rather than following the traditional development route, our approach has been to preserve the historic structure and build around what was already there, creating workspace for creative businesses alongside new homes. It required us to take a view on the potential of both the building and the area and then move with conviction.
That principle extends beyond property. When I invest in a business, I look closely at the people leading it, and once we invest, I prefer to stay close to the management team and help build the business rather than behave as a passive shareholder.
What is one failure in your career, how did you overcome it, and what lessons did you take away from it?
One mistake I have made more than once is handing something over to an operational team too quickly and assuming that delegation meant I could step away from it.
The lesson for me was that good delegation still requires structure. You need clear ownership, agreed milestones, good reporting and an understanding of when something should come back to you for a decision.
I have also learnt that staying close to a business does not mean micromanaging it. It means knowing where the pressure points are, asking the right questions and making sure the people you have trusted have the support and information they need to succeed.
That experience changed the way I operate. I still believe strongly in giving people real responsibility, but I am much more deliberate now about how that responsibility is handed over.
What is one business idea you’re willing to give away to our readers?
Look for wellness and leisure concepts that are already proven in major cities, then ask where the infrastructure is still missing just outside them.
That is exactly what we saw with padel. Demand was growing quickly, but the quality and availability of facilities outside the obvious urban locations had not kept pace. That gap helped shape our investment in Rulo, our padel business in Chesham.
I think there is a broader opportunity there. Consumers outside major cities increasingly want the same quality of fitness, wellness, hospitality and social experiences that they can access in London, but supply is often fragmented or underdeveloped.
What is one piece of software that helps you be productive? How do you use it?
Claude is probably the piece of software I use most consistently.
It is very useful for taking a large amount of information, distilling what matters and helping me get quickly to the questions I should be asking. The ability to stress-test an investment thesis and turn rough thinking into something the team can properly interrogate has been invaluable.
I am also a very visual person. If I am working on a concept, I want to see it brought to life quickly so I can react to it, iterate and improve it. That is especially useful when working with technology teams. Rather than spending a long time trying to explain exactly what I mean, I can often show them a much clearer representation of the outcome I am looking for, which removes a lot of ambiguity and makes the development process far more efficient.
What is the best $100 you recently spent? What and why?
A chessboard for my children.
I bought it to teach them the game, but it’s become as much about the time we spend together as the chess itself. There are so many dynamics at play. While you nurture the logical side of your brain, you’re also mastering patience. But most importantly, it’s about winning with grace and understanding that every time you lose, there are many opportunities to learn and improve, and not lose your temper.
For less than $100, anything that gets us around a table together, away from screens, while teaching them something they will hopefully carry with them for life, feels like money very well spent.
Do you have a favorite book or podcast you’ve gotten a ton of value from and why?
One podcast I get a lot from is Acquired.
They look at how companies are built: the decisions that shaped them, the mistakes, the turning points and the competitive advantages that compounded over many years. You start to see how capital allocation, leadership, timing, distribution and culture all interact to create a great business.
I also like how transferable it is. You can listen to an episode on a technology company, a luxury brand or a retailer and still come away with something relevant to property, investing or an operating business. The value is in going beyond just admiring the result and instead unpacking the complex processes behind how these exceptional businesses are actually built.
What’s a movie or series you recently enjoyed and why?
I recently watched Toy Story 5. I liked the underlying message about what happens when technology begins to compete with traditional play, imagination and real human connection. Bonnie is drawn towards a new tablet, while the toys are suddenly forced to question where they fit in a world increasingly dominated by screens.
That resonated with me. Technology is incredibly powerful, and I use AI extensively in my own working life, but there is a balance to strike.
There’s also a more nuanced message than technology simply being the villain. Progress is inevitable and we should be careful not to lose the things that make us human in the process. Having young children, the growing role of technology in their lives is something I think about a lot.
It is quite a sophisticated idea for a children’s film, and probably one that lands just as strongly with the parents watching it.
Key learnings
- Act before conditions are perfect. A bias toward action can create an edge, particularly when others are waiting for certainty that may never come.
- Delegate early, but with structure. Giving people responsibility works best when ownership, reporting and decision points are clear; delegation should not mean disengagement.
- Use AI to shorten the distance between idea and execution. The biggest productivity gain comes from making concepts tangible quickly, so teams can react, iterate and build with less ambiguity.
- Look beyond conventional credentials. Hunger, judgement and potential can be more valuable than a polished track record, especially when people are given the right opportunity and support.
- Own the relationship with your audience. Long-form media, podcasting and video allow businesses to communicate directly and build trust.