Artificial intelligence
aging
If AI is going to matter in our economy, it must first matter to small businesses.
As a search fund businessman, I have met and worked with more than 300 CEOs and founders in cities in all the US from New York in Las Vegas, Sunnyvale in Maryland. In every discussion, the same concerns: AI models on our smartphones are more advanced than technology stacks that perform our businesses. While our pockets are updated every month, most business systems remain unchanged for years. And nowhere is it more obvious than in small businesses.
This matters because small businesses employ more than 61 million people, almost Half of the private workforce. But only a fraction of 1% They create the types of technology companies that attract institutional capital.
Thus, this means that the overwhelming majority of small businesses are self -funded and family. They are bootstrapped by owners who throw their own savings to businesses that anchor the communities they are interested in. These are businesses that still perform payroll in technology built a decade ago.
Family businesses meet the newly established AI companies
Reliable relationships create businesses.
aging
The next day, I entered a lunch meeting with 80 small business owners leading family companies of multinational generations. This concentration was a masterclass on human networks. However, there was no technology mentioned throughout the meeting.
Every three weeks, all 80 members gather in a private club on Park Avenue for a three -course meal. The aim was to share business priorities and make references and imports for each member. There were green pens and notebooks on the tables embossed with the slogan: “Reliable relationships create businesses. ” During the meal, if each of the 80 members received just five new client imports, this is over 400 new channels that opened before the dessert.
Four hours later, I was in the city center at the city’s newest restaurant for a boot forum. Here, every discussion concerned AI and technology, from the roll-ups and cyberspace to the founders who transform New York’s empty warehouses into pop-ups sushi.
Starter forum at New York Restaurant
New York, New York
Two worlds in a city
In every city I have traveled, these two business communities live side by side, but rarely meet. One is driven by families built through reliable imports and intellectual property developed for decades. The other is driven by newly established businesses fueled by the struggle for the development of modern technology on a scale.
What happens when these two worlds are connected? Imagine today’s most advanced technology that feeds on small family businesses.
For the last 40 years, a business model has created more than 10 billion $ In value doing just that: investing in established small businesses and building them with new technology and leadership. The search fund model, which began for the first time in Stanford in 1984, was designed to bring innovation to established businesses. One of the first search chapters invested in a 50 -person help company and built it WirelessNow a global technology business with 23,000 employees and 300 million customers. Another one converted a compliance service company into Ria-in-a-boxA top SAAS platform used by over 2,600 businesses at national level.
What once needed and significant capital investments can now be done in months. Today, business tools intended by Fortune 500 companies are in relation to almost every business. Playbooks supported by small businesses for decades to create value -based businesses when combined with AI, the scale impact on weeks instead of years.
In all basic functions, genetic AI cuts work times than more than 60%. If you can design an idea on a napkin, it can be built in hours, not weeks. Supply chains, compliance, document processing and technical work flows already show two -digit productivity improvements. In some cases, technical duties have been reduced by 70%.
Search chapters are a proven path to attracting technology to old -fashioned businesses. Others also emerge, including AI consulting companies, AI Studios and Roll-up strategies, with their own strategies to rebuild established businesses with the most advanced technology available today.
The tools are here, the cost has never been lower, and the door is open – for now.
If AI is going to matter, it must first matter to small businesses. Once put into operation, it will fuel grow on Main Street and supply an economy that directly supports half of the workforce.
