AN INVESTMENT WITH LASTING POWER.
Culture as a Competitive Advantage
The pace of change is rapid. Products and features can be readily cloned, your services disrupted or quickly outdated, and your talent poached for new opportunities.
To compete for the future, your company must create a culture that attracts and retains the best talent; that liberates the full potential of every employee; that solves for the customer; and that is resilient in weathering changes whilst pursuing its purpose with a clear focus.
This isn’t rocket science, it’s just hard work and takes leaders with courage, intention, and rigor to make it happen. Doing so will pay dividends; we mean this both literally and figuratively.
Refreshingly Different
Folly Ventures exists to foment real change in people and organizations who dare to transform our world for the better.
We adapt to every organizations’ unique realities and challenges, but we’ve learned there are a few conditions that are essential to bringing about change in all our engagements:
Leadership Dive-in: change begins at the top, and our work expects founders & senior-most leaders to be fully engaged in putting in the work and adapting their own behaviors before expecting their teams to do so. It’s about modeling the desired outcomes, otherwise what’s the point?
Embedded Support: leveraging empathy and agility, we eliminate the boundaries of typical consultants and work alongside our clients in their own environments — learning & observing, whilst coaching & advising each step of the way. We seek to earn the trust of all stakeholders.
Rewrite the Rules: leaders must be willing to let go of existing restrictions and old paradigms in order to foster higher engagement. It’s not always comfortable at first, but most often necessary to catalyze change and leap ahead.
Growth Cultures Beget Performance Cultures
Squeezing value out of every employee, heirarchical structures, and mistake-free environments are outdated (and don’t work!). We prefer designing organizations that liberate the energy & talents of the team; that are not afraid of change or stepping out with bold bets; where every employee has an ‘owner’s mindset’; and where leadership has a relentless focus whilst integrating their company DNA in everything they do.
Growth cultures lead to more creative, collaborative, and innovative organizations, which ultimate creates enhanced value for employees, customers, and the company.
Leadership
Matthew Guidarelli
Founder & Managing Partner
Passionate about bringing out the best in others and developing world-positive organizations, Matthew created Folly Ventures in the Spring of 2018. For over 18 years Matthew has been at the helm or part of leadership teams daring to do things differently. He was most recently the General Manager of EMEA & APAC at Techstars - leading the region to its highest performance in the company’s 16 year history. Prior to that, Matthew was a member of the original leadership team at the Harvard Innovation Labs where he co-developed and rapidly scaled the organization whilst supporting & advising founders across all industries in building transformative companies. Matthew also helped shape one of the first & leading impact investing affinity groups in the US, as well as launched a healthcare venture supporting pediatric patients.
He’s humbled by the opportunities to work with, learn from, and advise audacious leaders in the US & Europe aspiring to bring their organizations and teams to greatness. He also counts himself a lucky husband and dad.
Why “Folly”?
Folly: (n.) foolishness; a lack of good sense or normal prudence; imbecility of the mind.
Many of our world’s biggest innovators were once told they had no place. That’s because innovation and challenging the status-quo requires thinking beyond established norms, and demands courage & vulnerability in the face of doubt from those who may not see the opportunity or even have the guts to try.
We believe folly is freeing. Our namesake is a reminder to ourselves and our clients that the only critics who count are the ones joining you in the arena: your team and your customers.