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Starting as a snack business and evolving into a business course before becoming a yearly summit, millennial-founded organization Concordia has come far from its unexpected origins.
Concordia
Speaking about his venture, co-founder, chairman and CEO Matthew Swift says that due to both his and co-founder Nicholas Logothetis’ interests in news, politics and global affairs, the two founded the current rendition of Concordia as a meeting held during the United Nations General Assembly. Now, in his words, they’re the biggest “convening forum on the sidelines” of the event, consisting of “over 3,000 people representing 70 countries.” In addition to that meeting, Concordia holds events all over the world.
According to their website, Concordia is a nonpartisan organization whose interests lie in bringing together the private and public sector for “partnerships for social impact.” Topics of interest include combating extremism, structural violence, developing countries and other social issues.
Takeaway
Swift’s advice to would-be entrepreneurs is to follow his model. He and his partner initially wrote a business plan and pitched it to people, all of whom disliked it. So they shifted gears and decided to carry out their idea regardless — they just wanted do it. That way, people would understand exactly what Concordia had to offer.
To undertake this, Swift suggests you know what you’re getting into. Being an entrepreneur requires you to deal with uncertainty, as well as the distinct possibility that things may not go your way. “You can only plan so much,” Swift says. As risky as it sounds, this also means your impact could wildly surpass your expectations.
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