3/ In the meantime, let me explain how this fits into my work at The Family. First of all, I’m already doing some executive sparring with three groups of people:

My colleagues at The Family. What happened with Oussama during those early lunches at Les Éditeurs now happens at the scale of our entire firm. I’m the one everyone comes to when they’re confronted with a tough question or specific challenge. We exchange ideas, we spar a bit, I go explore my database, and we usually end up with a satisfying answer after 2 or 3 iterations. It’s an easy process because we share the same work culture, but it’s quite distinctive—and it has earned me the nickname “brain on demand”.
Entrepreneurs in our portfolio. I do the same with founders of startups in which we’re a shareholder. All of them can get in touch with me directly and then we’ll spar either over Slack, the phone, or meetings. Founders usually approach me in three cases: either we have built a strong relationship from the start (as with Guillaume Fourdinier, CEO of Agricool); or they’re sent to me by one of my colleagues who thinks a few sparring sessions are in order; or they simply reach out because they read this newsletter or have heard me speak at an event.
A few clients on the side. I’ve also been doing some outside executive sparring over the years, for two reasons. First, I get better at thinking about corporate strategy when I root my ideas in actual practice. And it’s always useful, working as I do in European tech, to be reminded of the scale and strength of legacy corporations. I’ve had a frequent glimpse of that since I joined the board of directors of Radio France, the French national radio broadcaster, in 2017. But I find it important to complement that with 1-on-1 sparring sessions with business leaders.

A Forty-Year Career.

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