I’ve spent a lot of time reflecting on my experience as a part of the Techstars/Barclays Accelerator in London. Without throwing shade on those who have, I am going to resist the urge to (1) provide an overview of the key “take-aways” from the program, and (2) meddle with poetic expression to best represent the magic of the program. The first point doesn't provide much substance for the reader without having had the same experience, and to the second point, I’m not a poet…
Instead I am going to briefly discuss a realization that came out of my experience. Something that I see dominating the landscape of entrepreneurship today, but not frequently discussed. The cause of this realization I’m going to push on the reader to decipher. Good authors cover the tracks of their intent well enough to shift the focus to their content...
In the era of mass communications and information sharing, there is a widening gap between knowledge and experience.
Why?
The era of information has spread awareness of industry best practices, produced a “how-to” for everything, and cultivated communities that openly share and converse about their high’s and low’s. The experiences of a relatively small group of individuals is pushed through media channels and digested as information/data/knowledge by a much broader audience.
My contention is that entrepreneurs, VC’s, aspiring entrepreneurs, and everyone in between, confuse this difference between experience and knowledge. Such widespread information sharing has not increased the collective intelligence of individuals. Rather it has increased the ability of individuals to “speak the part fluently,” without acting the part fluidly.
The line between entrepreneurs and con artists has always been very thin. As a Techstars MD once said in a masterclass from the program, the only difference between the two is that an entrepreneur takes your money and INTENDS to make it back. Today, that line may be further blurred when the experienced and inexperienced can readily appear the same by mimicking the language of a small group of experienced thought leaders.
Food for thought…
Cheers.