Michael is a lifelong entrepreneur, leader and educator with multiple venture starts over a distinguished career.
Company: Ivy Entrepreneurs
We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start off with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company.
Michael McGuire: Since 2018, I have been teaching Entrepreneurship at Columbia University. I began teaching international business and entrepreneurship at Oxbridge Academic Programs in 2015. I serve as an Advisor for the Dean’s Challenge Grant at the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) at Columbia, a Judge for the Columbia Venture Competition, and a Mentor for the Lab to Market Accelerator Network at Columbia Tech Ventures. I also coach for Babson’s Coaching for Leadership and Teamwork Program and have served as a mentor for Goldman Sachs’ “10KSB” program and as a tutor at Columbia’s Community Impact. I earned my MIA from SIPA at Columbia University, a BA from Columbia University, and a BS in Entrepreneurial Studies from Babson College.
I started my career at Manufacturers Hanover Trust (now JPMorgan Chase) but quickly followed my passion for startups. I founded ARIA Worldwide, Inc., a global commodity trade and structured finance company. My second startup was ARIASYS Inc., an offshore software development company with teams in the US and Europe that focused on building high-availability, scalable trading systems. Leveraging that team, I launched ARIA TV, a streaming media platform that provided European television and cycling content to global viewers in a pre-YouTube world. I also launched a non-profit startup, the ITP Foundation, which raised over $500,000 to fund research on ITP, a rare bleeding disorder.
I have been on the boards of Stillwater Mining (NYSE) and Plug Power (NASDAQ) and managed a venture fund, Twelve22 Capital Management LLC. Until November 2022, I was the GP of a partnership that was the majority investor in Symbridge, a digital asset exchange and broker-dealer. I co-founded Symbridge, serving as its CEO from 2019 to 2021 and as Chairman from 2021 to 2022, building it from an idea into a 45-person high-growth fintech startup. Throughout my career, I have raised over $50 million in financing for my startups and have been the Founder/CEO of high-performing international teams for more than 25 years.
Currently, I focus on fintech, Web3, tokenization, and education opportunities. I am proud to serve on the Board of Advisors for the Codos Foundation. As a dual citizen of the USA and Switzerland, I bring a global perspective to my work. I have been a Finalist for Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year and am a five-time Ironman finisher.
If you were in an elevator with Warren Buffett, how would you describe your company, your services or products? What makes your company different from others? What is your company’s biggest strength?
Michael McGuire: We educate and motivate people who want to become entrepreneurs and then we help them scale their business. We use techniques that are proven to help launch and scale businesses. I have been teaching students at Columbia University in NYC these techniques for the last 7 years and want to be more democratic in the approach and make entrepreneurship and economic mobility a possibility for anyone interested.
Quiet quitting, The Great Resignation, is an ongoing trend causing many businesses to struggle to keep talent engaged and motivated. Most are leaving because of their boss or their company culture. 82% of people feel unheard, undervalued, and misunderstood in the workplace. In your experience, what keeps employees happy? And how are you adapting to the current shift we see?
Michael McGuire: You absolutely have it right! People are so checked out because they do not love what they do or the people they work with and they are limited as to their economic mobility and freedom. That is why we started Ivy Entrepreneurs! My grandfather once told me, never run from something, always run to something. And by ideating and launching a business, you can create that “something”.
Online business keeps on surging higher than ever, B2B, B2C, online shopping, virtual meetings, remote work, Zoom medical consultations, what are your expectations for the year to come and how are you capitalizing on the tidal wave?
Michael McGuire: Moving some of what you do online and/or monetizing a brick and mortar business online can help you develop new revenue streams. I imagine in the next 15 years online interactions will become the norm across most demographic. Having said that, it is important to keep things real and in person engagement will be just as important, just less frequent.
Business is all about overcoming obstacles and creating opportunities for growth. What do you see as THE real challenge right now?
Michael McGuire: The real challenge for anyone launching a business is nailing the execution and holding yourself accountable. The idea and the launch are the easy part!
In your experience, what tends to be the most underestimated part of running a company? Can you share an example?
Michael McGuire: Managing people – it is literally the most dynamic and difficult part of running a company. Not everyone is like you and therefore they do not react to the same things that you do. Understanding peoples motivations (and it is not always about the money) is key to being a successful manager.
On a lighter note, if you had the ability to pick any business superpower, what would it be and how would you put it into practice?
Michael McGuire: Invisibility – listening to what clients, employees and partners say about you and your business when you are not their. Knowing that you could pivot whenever you needed to create different outcomes.
What does “success” in 2024 mean to you? It could be on a personal or business level, please share your vision
Michael McGuire: Helping people launch businesses that change their lives.
