Spotlight: Matthew Glassman; Start-Up Investor/Restauranteur/Stand Up Comedian

Q: You seem to be involved with quite a bit; what drives you to get involved with a new project?

A: Inspiration comes in unexpected ways. Since branching out on my own in 2011, I have become industry agnostic. My first successful business was in financial market services. I am now in the restaurant game. I think entrepreneurs get addicted to problem solving.  It’s amazing how strategies can work across industries and borders.  I did a consulting project for Cisco in Silicon Valley as part of my Executive MBA and returned with a host of new ideas for our restaurant in London.  I attended a lecture at Cambridge regarding digitally transformative business models, which I want to apply in brick and mortar restaurants.  Makes little sense on the surface, but trust me there is something behind this.

My advice to entrepreneurs is to expose yourself to as many diverse industries and cultures as possible. Looking at a successful competitor within your industry helps. Immersing yourself in a different business and different culture unlocks a whole new realm of creative problem solving to surpass them.

Q: You have done business in quite a few places. What foreign business cultures do you admire?

A: India and Israel.

I have been to India a few times and always return more inspired than when I left. Not in the cliched spiritual sense, but from a bootstrapped entrepreneurial perspective. A term you often hear in India is jugaad, which roughly translates to ‘make it work’. With a billion people living in a relatively confined area, and comparatively few resources, you see innovation everywhere. They teach you to look at a product in a totally different way. By focusing on functionality over style you can provide products and services to a much larger segment of the population. Which brings up another lesson for exploring business ideas. I hear a lot of pitches that involve selling luxury products to wealthy people. I think there is a lot of unexplored potential in making seemingly luxury products available to lower socioeconomic groups.  Jugaad innovation can teach us a lot.

In regards to Israel, there is a wonderful efficiency in innovation normally attributed to their geopolitical positioning. But I also find something wonderful in their interpersonal directness. I was working in a group of Australians and Brits in Tel Aviv and began to notice how much time we added to our project via formality and politeness. I watched a group of Israelis work on the same problem much more effectively. Bluntness combined with reasoned argument creates a more efficient and energetic problem solving arena. “You’re wrong and here’s why” is a much better method than “Well I’ve considered your idea and I know where you’re coming from, but what I wonder is…”.

Q: You do stand-up comedy, how much does the world of business play into your routine?

A:  It’s becoming more and more. Stand-up comedy works when you relate to your audience, and everyone enjoys a good rant about work. You don’t have to take the same side. I’m an entrepreneur, I usually side with management. Comedy allows me to express the views of a business owner in a more relatable and sometimes ridiculous way. Rephrasing work issues in a humorous way actually helps you think through issues that arise in a workplace. But really I just do it for the fun and a free beer every now and again.

Matthew Glassman is a native of Washington DC. He has recently returned home after spending the past 14 years working and living in both Sydney and London. Teaming up with British television chef, Andi Oliver, he opened Andi’s restaurant, which was named “Favorite New Restaurant” by Time Out London. He is currently working on projects including an Alaskan Helicopter Skiing venture and will be hosting/performing at FountainHead RI’s Networking and Comedy Night being held at the RI Comedy Connection (in Providence, RI) on Sunday, August 26^th.