Change your mind.
I used to look down on entrepreneurs.
When you were a teenager, did you really admire any business leader?
I didn’t. I knew Henry Ford and that’s pretty much it. I used to have a caricature in my head of who entrepreneurs were: smoking cigars, exploiting the workers, only caring about profits. Then I studied and traveled the world, and came across some communities of Internet makers. I met lots of geeks solving real problems, and they were calling themselves entrepreneurs. I changed my mind.
I used to think that genius ideas just need to be executed to work.
I saw how smart the “accelerator” model was in Silicon Valley. So I decided to copy/paste that idea in Paris. I managed to gather amazing founders, facilitated peer-to-peer learning, and introduced them to seed investors.
Unfortunately, that never produced any Airbnb- or Dropbox-like startups. Why? Because context wins over ideas. I changed my mind.
I used to tell everyone: “Acceleration programs can’t work outside of Silicon Valley.”
Mentors, business angels and startup experience were too rare outside of Silicon Valley to produce any kind of virtuous tech ecosystem elsewhere. That’s why with my cofounders, Nicolas and Oussama, we decided to focus The Family on education. Then COVID hit. And suddenly, accessing amazing mentors and investors online became an option. I changed my mind.
I used to believe that only physical interactions could create deep bonds.
That’s why I invested most of my time in traveling, organizing events with local tech communities, putting on delicious dinners and marvelous parties. Then, again, COVID hit. We started supporting founders wherever they are based and I’ve spent hours on Zoom calls with many of them, creating trusting relationships that will last. I changed my mind.
I used to separate political matters from entrepreneurship.
I was struggling hard to create that distance, especially in a French environment where every incubator is backed by a public institution with so-called mentors who’ve never been entrepreneurs themselves. Then I saw the rise of populism, the environmental disasters, and the role tech can play in them. And I started helping entrepreneurs write out their manifestos as true activists. I changed my mind.
I used to think that minority-centric communities were backward ideas.
Then I saw that no women, no black people dared to walk through our doors at The Family. So I started testing a female-based community for entrepreneurs, and I’ve learned how empowering it is. I changed my mind.
I still have plenty of beliefs that need to be proven wrong.
The only thing I’m sure of is that I’m OK with changing my mind. And I feel like it’s an important aspect of entrepreneurship. Don’t you?
Want to be part of changing people’s minds for the better? Join our next batch, starting in September 💖