Entrepreneur mastermind groups are skillfully facilitated environments enabling business owners to become appreciably more knowledgeable and substantially more capable, as well as accelerate new or expanding business opportunities. The core of high-quality entrepreneur mastermind groups is that they are potentially transformative for entrepreneurs and their businesses.
While there are many entrepreneur mastermind groups, as most anyone can set one up and run it, the more effective groups do an exceptional job of helping entrepreneurs fast-track to significant success, they are well-managed operations with a very strong focus on assisting entrepreneurs in accelerating their performance and, consequently, the performance of their companies.
A 2019 survey of 356 single-family office senior executives showed that about one-fifth are participating in high-end mastermind groups The appeal of these groups for these participants is strong. About 60% of the family members or senior executives are in more than one group.
“The appeal of entrepreneur mastermind groups is clear,” According to Angelo Robles, founder and CEO of Family Office Masterclass, “Over the last decade, many single-family offices are investing in private companies. They make direct corporate investments in several ways. These include independently buying portions of companies, working with consortiums of other single-family offices and ultra-wealthy families, and working side-by-side with institutional investors. For a large percentage of these single-family offices, the key is to find high-potential companies early. This leads many to join and actively participate in entrepreneur mastermind groups.”
Rarely, however, do these single-family offices and senior executives disclose their investment intentions. According to Cliff Oberlin, chairman and CEO of Oberlin Wealth Partners and co-author of Family Fortunes: How Family Enterprises Thrive Across Generations, “Single-family offices don’t talk about their desire to find investment opportunities because they don’t want to be pitched by the entrepreneurs. They prefer to develop relationships where they can better judge the entrepreneurs and evaluate their businesses. When they find promising investment prospects looking for capital to grow, they discuss the possibility of funding them.”
Entrepreneur mastermind groups provide a rich environment where entrepreneurs can share and learn from the insights and experiences of fellow members and from the many speakers who make presentations to it. At the same time, such groups are proving to be an effective way for single-family office executives and family members to connect with potential investments and, for these entrepreneurs, a powerful way to access and raise capital.
Russ Alan Prince is the executive director of Private Wealth magazine and chief content officer for High-Net-Worth Genius. He consults with family offices, the wealthy, fast-tracking entrepreneurs and select professionals.
