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JIMMY MOYAHA: The Founders at Work Masterclass is set to take place in Durban on 24 March this year. For more on this, I’m joined on the line by the co-founder of Art of Scale, Jason Goldberg, to take a look at this event and understand more about it.
Jason, lovely having you on the show. Thanks so much for taking the time. Tell us about Founders at Work and the masterclass series you host. What is it that you do here?
JASON GOLDBERG: Jimmy, thanks for having me. Really great to be on the show.
Founders at Work is a national initiative in partnership with FNB [First National Bank] and Art of Scale, designed specifically for founders and CEOs who are in the thick of growing their businesses.
Typically, these are companies with between 10 to 100 or 200 staff, [generating] anywhere between R8 million and R150 million in revenue, and grappling with the growing pains, predictable pains that come with growth.
The Durban masterclass is the next stop in the national series. We’ve run two before, in Johannesburg and Cape Town.
This one is very specifically focused on scaling your team, because [the way] you build a leadership team – and the broader team – ultimately determines success or failure in how you scale, so that’s the focus.
Now it happens in a particular context, which is the artificial intelligence [AI] revolution happening all around us at the moment. That really does have profound implications for how you think about the kind of team that you’re scaling.
It’s good news and it’s bad news. It’s more good news – but it’s bad news if you ignore the trend.
So we’re going to be helping founders learn how to harness the power of AI to build the teams they need to scale.
JIMMY MOYAHA: Jason, we’ll come into the role of AI in a second in this masterclass. Perhaps give us an idea of the importance of being able to scale a business properly. Many entrepreneurs build businesses not with the intention to scale, but with the intention to solve immediate problems or to solve immediate needs.
Take us through the importance of being able to understand when and how to scale your business.
JASON GOLDBERG: Every successful business leader, by dint of their success, is going to grow their headcount, and the business is going to get more complicated, and at some point, the wheels come off the bus.
This happens when there’s just too much going on for the way you’re used to running the business. It typically happens around 20 headcount, maybe 15, maybe 25, and founders start finding that, no matter how hard they run, they’re just further behind every single day.
It’s overwhelming. It leads to burnout. It’s a horrible feeling. The irony is it comes because of success.
What business owners then need to learn is that the system is breaking because they are the system, and they need to replace themselves with a scalable system to run the business.
That’s what we call scaling. It’s putting in place a scalable approach to [managing] the company so that growing the business further doesn’t break you as a founder.
When you start putting in place a scalable management team, systems, processes and structures, that’s when you get your life back – and often your health – as a business owner.
So that’s what scaling is all about, Jimmy.
JIMMY MOYAHA: Jason, when we look at the role of AI, take us through how you’ve been able to incorporate [it] into the masterclass and why it’s such an important factor. You touched on the fact that we live in a digital age where the use of AI can be a key difference maker.
And as you mentioned [and] that I thought to myself, for businesses where you might not necessarily have the ability to employ 600, 700 people, the use of AI could be very beneficial. Take us through how you’ve integrated this into the masterclass.
JASON GOLDBERG: AI is probably the single most empowering new technology of our lifetime for business owners, [helping] to solve the constraints they face in growing [their businesses].
Every business owner knows the feeling of needing that R1.5 million manager but only being able to afford the R800 000 manager and making do, and feeling the gap every single day.
AI enables that R800 000 manager to deliver even more than that R1.5 million manager. But that’s only if they are [properly] empowered to use it.
So what we’re [seeing] is that the R800 000 manager plus AI is now worth a lot more than the R1.5 million manager without AI. Understanding this, and understanding how to turn that R800 000 leader into the R1.5 million leader-plus, is critical for business owners [who want] to scale in this AI era.
So what we will be taking business owners through is: how does AI change the role of people and the role of leaders, and how do you harness this technology in order to get its benefits as you build out your team.
JIMMY MOYAHA: Jason, I understand that the masterclass itself is free to attend for qualifying entrepreneurs.
Please provide us with a bit more colour around what “qualifying entrepreneurs” look like and how you’re measuring that for this particular masterclass? And perhaps give us an idea of whether there will be similar masterclasses you’ll be hosting as Art of Scale.
JASON GOLDBERG: The masterclass events [are] generously fully sponsored by FNB. So despite it being a high-quality event, it’s free to attend for qualifying businesses.
The criteria for qualification – you have to be a team of 10-plus, with at least a turnover of R8 million, and your business must have been operating for at least two years. You also need to be either an owner-operator or a senior leader within the business – a C-suite leader.
If you meet these criteria, you’re welcome to register on the Founders at Work website at www.foundersatwork.co.za, go to events, look for the masterclass taking place in Durban on 24 March, and come and join us.
Yes, there will be future events. These are going to be rolling monthly, taking place nationwide. The next event won’t be in Durban; it will be in Polokwane.
So if you aren’t able to attend in the city, you can still sign up and participate in the livestream event.
JIMMY MOYAHA: Understanding the importance of scaling your business and ensuring that you scale correctly. This is what sets the really great businesses from the really good ones.
That’s where we’re going to leave the conversation today. Thanks so much to the co-founder of Art of Scale, Jason Goldberg, for joining us to [discuss] the Founders at Work Masterclass, in partnership with FNB, that will be taking place in Durban next week.
Founders at Work, in partnership with FNB and Art of Scale, invites founders, CEOs and business leaders to a March Masterclass on building An AI-Augmented Team That Scales Without You. Join us in Durban or online on 24 March.
Visit us at foundersatwork.co.za to book your place at this event and get access to podcasts, tools and more.
Brought to you by Founders at Work, in partnership with FNB and Art of Scale.
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