Invited by Stelios at 1BusinessWorld, for around the seventh time, to open its Global Entrepreneur Summit, normally held in New York but online for the third year running.
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Stelios at 1BusinessWorld asked Matthew, for what he thinks is the seventh time, to give the opening keynote at 1BW's Global Entrepreneur Summit. Normally held in New York, the summit ran online for the third year in a row.
His brief was the future of entrepreneurship in an exponential world. As a serial entrepreneur with some failures and a growing number of successes, it was a subject he was glad to take on, and one close to the 311 Institute's mission of helping more people around the world build their own start ups and launch their own futures.
"The myth is that to start, grow, and succeed in today's world you need money, when in fact what you really need is resource, which is a completely different problem to tackle."Matthew Griffin, Virtual, May 2022
The keynote was aimed at younger entrepreneurs, but more than 3,000 people from all sorts of backgrounds watched online. Matthew stressed the importance of identifying problems worth solving and being able to build products. He also talked about support and mental health, and took on the myth that you need money to start, grow and succeed. What you really need, he argued, is resource, which is a completely different problem to tackle.
He also covered what entrepreneurs need to think about as they board the plane, so to speak, and again when they are rebuilding the aircraft in mid flight and pivoting at speed, which happens more often than people think. The audience left with a practical, honest view of what it takes to build a business when the old rules no longer apply.
311 Intelligence
What this means for your leadership team
Resource is the real constraint.
The keynote challenged the habit of treating cash as the gate to starting and growing. Resource is a different problem, and it needs a different plan. Leaders who fund or mentor founders should ask what a team can actually get hold of, not only what it can raise.
Pivoting is normal, not failure.
Matthew described rebuilding the aircraft in mid flight and pivoting at speed as something that happens more often than people think. Organisations should plan for change after launch as carefully as they plan the launch itself. That means decisions made early must be easy to revisit.
People are part of the plan.
Support and mental health sat beside product building and problem choice in the session. A business is only as steady as the people running it. Exponential technologies keep reshaping the economy, so the pressure on founders and staff is unlikely to ease.
Three questions for your next leadership meeting
Do we back founders with money alone, or with resource too?
Which problems are we solving that are truly worth solving?
How quickly can our teams pivot once a product is live?
The trends and technologies behind this session
From the 311 Starburst, the 311 Strategic Intelligence Unit’s map of the technologies and trends shaping the next 50 years.
It means treating resource, not money, as the first question when starting or growing something new. Exponential technologies keep reshaping the economy, so rules that worked before no longer hold. Teams need clear problems, the ability to build products and room to pivot quickly.
How does Resource Scarcity relate to the keynote?
The trend concerns raw materials, whose global use has tripled since 1970, so it is a different matter from the founder resource Matthew described. The link is the lesson that cash is not the only limit. Leaders should map what they can truly secure before they commit to a plan.
How does the Global Mental Health Crisis relate to entrepreneurship?
More than a billion people live with mental health conditions while care and funding lag far behind. Matthew put support and mental health on the founder agenda for this reason. Organisations that back start-ups should build support into their programmes from the start.
How can 311 brief our leadership team on this?
311 offers a private executive briefing or leadership workshop, tailored to your sector, in person first.
Bring this to your leadership teamA private executive briefing or leadership workshop, tailored to your sector. In person first, anywhere in the world.
Analysis by the 311 Strategic Intelligence Unit, from Matthew Griffin’s session and 311 data.
If Matthew gave this session today
Grow at the speed of change.
How to Build Exponential Enterprises re-invents innovation for the exponential era and sets out what it takes to build an organisation that grows at the speed of change. It is a natural follow on for founders building in a world where the old rules no longer apply.
