Welcome back to your weekly dose of everything you need to know in the world of business, entrepreneurship and all things Matt Haycox!

Welcome to your Friday morning dose of everything that matters in the world of business, finance, entrepreneurship and my life! If you want ‘agenda free’ news, top tips, tried and tested strategies and a bit of my banter, then you’re in the right place!

This week you’ll find:

• 🤔 INSIDER INSIGHTS: What I’ve been up to this week and what you can learn from it

• 📈 BEHIND THE NEWS: Major trending business news and my take on it

• 📑SPOTLIGHT: Football special! Messi’s millions might not be as big as you think…, Life as a football agent by Beckham’s former right hand and more ⚽️

• 😱 SCARY STAT: Stats that impact business thinking

• 📢 TEAM TALK: Weekly tips and hacks from my team

• ✂️  QUICK SNIPPETS: 7 great articles, tools and ideas I have found this week

• 📸  BIG PICTURE: The success secrets of a music magazine that made a venture capitalist out of its owner

• 💬 COMMENT OF THE WEEK: 15 key takeaways from a night with Tyson Fury

🤔 INSIDER INSIGHTS:

Welcome to this week’s newsletter which is swelling with more and more content by the issue!

It will be short and sweet from me this week. Following up heavy on contacts from last week in Amsterdam, preparing to leave Dubai for the summer, enjoying baby Nele’s 7th week in the world, and dealing with the usual hiring, firing, fund raising and borrowers that don’t want to pay has left me a bit short on time to write!

But the biggest news my end that will benefit you guys is I took on an editor to ramp up production and curation of content on Matt Haycox Daily.

The MHD is an important project for me for 2 reasons. Firstly, I truly believe that all successful businesses of the future will ultimately be media owners, or certainly have a media property within their group.

The only differentiator we all have in the overcrowded, commoditised world is our ability to generate cost effective leads that can be turned in to loyal customers.

And the best and cheapest way to do that is to own media properties that attract prospects and keep customers sticky. So, I am building this concept out for The Matt Haycox Group as an umbrella and then on an individual basis for Funding Guru, Clique, Larizia and Accent. Ultimately more of our group brands will follow for sure.

Secondly, it is a bit of a personal passion project as I have come to a point where I don’t read any mainstream media any more due to total lack of trust in their agenda’s and sources. (And I can’t tell you how much I used to love to sit around on a Sunday with 4 or 5 papers and a foot-long Subway!) I have read multiple articles about myself that have so little truth in them it hammers home to me how pointless it is to read anything because there is such a high likelihood of it being lies or propaganda. And I am far from alone in this view.

So, the opportunity to create a media property of my own that finds, analyses and curates the news I want to consume is very exciting - as I know there is a growing market of other people who are wanting to access it too.

“But Matt, don’t say you don’t have an agenda too”, I hear you say! “You will just be pushing your version of the truth out there too.”

Of course I have an agenda, we all do. But, my agenda is just that you get to know me through me growing my brand. And I will do that by providing accurate, true and relevant information. And then when you get to know and trust me, hopefully we will do business together one day in the future too.

So, I hope you enjoy the content, and I hope you benefit from it too. Please reply to this email or drop me a message through my usual social channels to let me know if you think I’m doing a good job or tell me what you want to see more of.

📈  BEHIND THE NEWS: LONDON TECH WEEK - Key Highlights For Business Leaders

British prime minister Rishi Sunak opened London Tech Week on Monday, with a speech urging tech leaders to grasp the “generational opportunities and challenges of AI.”

The PM said the UK must harness innovation to become the best place for tech businesses to invest and grow, in turn growing the economy and creating jobs.

We bring you 3 highlights from the week…

1. Microsoft UK CEO Clare Barclay on Generative AI – Preparing for the next wave in technology

There’s no doubt about it: AI is the defining technology of our time, one that’ll redefine how we live and work. But beyond the hype of recent months, what does it look like in practice? Barclay explores what generative AI can do for people, industry and society and how businesses can take advantage of the opportunities it’s creating.

2. Unlocking the potential fuelling UK entrepreneurship

After a record year of investment into European start-ups in 2021, VCs have taken a steadier approach in 2022 with a slowdown in funding and economic growth. Early-stage and pre-IPO funding remains critical for innovation and growth, so as valuations are pulled back how will this impact young businesses in need of funding to scale?

What are the barriers keeping investment from flowing into tech high-risk, high-reward companies? How do we close the gaps remaining in domestic investment in venture capital? Technology investment, is it ambitious or cautious? Watch this video for some great insights.

3. Want to understand the importance of data in motor sport?

Chief technology evangelist Matt Watt explains how NetApp pushed Aston Martin’s F1 team to the top, in this short video>

READ THE FULL ARTICLE ON MATT HAYCOX DAILY>

TECH NEWS: EU Clamps Down On Google’s Online Advertising Practises

European Union regulators lambasted Google on Wednesday, charging the tech giant with violating antitrust laws, reports The New York Times this week.

Google was accused of abusing its power in online advertising to “undercut rivals,” it’s the fourth time in recent years that Google has been charged with violating anti-trust laws in Europe.

The EU said it may seek to break up Google’s ad business. The outcome could have major ramifications for its parent company, Alphabet, which saw most of its $60bn profit last year come from advertising.

In other news, Google for Startups announced its 10 UK-based start-ups selected for this year’s $4m Black Founders Fund, Business Leader reports.

The Black Founders Fund, now in its third year, aims to help tackle systemic racial inequality in venture capital funding by providing equity-free grants and mentoring to early-stage Black-led high-growth businesses across Europe and Africa.

Prior to the fund’s launch in 2021, less than 0.25% of VC funding went to Black-led startups in the UK.

📑SPOTLIGHT: FOOTBALL SPECIAL⚽️

😱SCARY STAT: WHAT DO BEYONCE & INFLATION HAVE IN COMMON?

46,000 Beyonce fans could be the reason behind Sweden’s surging inflation, say economists at Danske Bank. The singer’s decision to start her world tour in Stockholm in May led to a surge in local hotel prices that in turn meant Swedish inflation exceeded expectations.

📢TEAM TALK

Each week my team share some of the tips, tools, learnings, apps and hacks that have powered their productivity, improved their lives, got them thinking, or just provided them a little entertainment.

CLICK TO EXPLORE: ExplodingTopics.com

TIP: You can get more relevant info for the fashion side of our businesses, for example, by filtering into just Fashion Trends>

FOOD FOR THOUGHT… WEBSITE DESIGN

Google has been moving to a mobile-first approach to indexing and the team has been thinking about what steps we can take to be responsive to this, to optimise both SEO and UX.

While this is contrary to how design is typically approached, it's not only the optimal way to ensure the site meet user experience expectations, but also to satisfy Google's competitive criteria.

✂️ QUICK SNIPPETS

• UK government unleashes £77m funding boost for creative industries. Read the article>

• What will the most important skills of the future be? Read the post>

• 16 non-obvious Shopify apps to increase sales. Read the article>

• What is a friend? In terms of the effect on happiness, a friend you see regularly is worth $100,000 a year. Read the article>

• 5 mistakes we make when we’re overwhelmed. Read the article>

• 10 Gmail productivity hacks you cannot miss. Read the post>

• 65 must-know Instagram statistics for marketers. Read the article>

📸  BIG PICTURE: HOW HIP-HOP CREATED A MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR BUSINESS EMPIRE

When an African student in London decided to set up a hip-hop music magazine, he never imagined it would turn him into a multi-million digital media venture capitalist success story.

Claude Grunitzky was just 23 years old when he launched a magazine called Trace to showcase his passion for music. At first, the venture looked destined to fail. He struggled to pay his rent and often lacked the funds to pay his writers:

“I really struggled for the first couple of years and I had a lot of failures. Then my luck changed…”

A Turning Point: Alicia Keys and The Rise of Trace Magazine

That changed everything. From that investment, Claude was able to fund Trace magazine properly. It also gave him the finance to launch a pan-African digital TV network called True Africa. His digital coverage grew from reporting on the hip-hop scene to covering film, arts, tech, and fashion to help create a new narrative for black youth in Africa and the diaspora.

This shift in his fortunes was so dramatic that Harvard Business School chose him to be the subject of one of its prestigious business case studies. That exposure would lead to further success.

 READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE>

💬COMMENT OF THE WEEK: 15 LIFE TAKEAWAYS AFTER A NIGHT WITH TYSON FURY

High performance coach to founders, CEO’s and athletes, Jean-Pierre De Villiers shares some of his key takeaways on Twitter, after an inspiring night with World Champion Tyson Fury (and his father and coach John Fury) in Phuket.

1. Money, fame, fortune and plastic friends mean nothing without family and loved ones.

2. A fathers love and support can turn a man (or woman) into a warrior.

3. Everyone can go to the gym and get fit, but not everyone can win. Because winning requires confidence and self belief.

4. Proving people wrong can be a powerful motivator in your life.

5. To become a world champion, you need to get the right people behind you.

6. Making your decisions based on chasing money can prevent you from achieving your greatness.

7. Where there’s a strong will there is always a way.

8. If your goals aren’t big and inspiring enough (to you) you won’t have the motivation to make them happen.

9. Don’t trust everyone, even if it looks like they’re trying to help you. People will try to play mind games with you to benefit themselves.

10. In life you’ve always got two choices… stay down and lose or get up and win.

11. Life will always give you road blocks, it’s how you take them onboard. That’s life.

12. If you die the day after achieving your greatest goals, you’ll die happy. When you stop wanting things and you stop having goals… that’s a dangerous place to be.

13. Lastly, and most importantly, if you’re in a dark place and struggling mentally.. get help!

TELL YOUR FRIENDS AND GET REWARDED

I love sharing things with friends, and if this newsletter has made you smile or been helpful then please share it with your mates and wider connections. Even better, there will be something in it for you.

We are still finding our feet, and the full reward programme isn’t in place yet. But any referrals you do in the meantime will all count towards it when it is.

What rewards can you expect? One of the rewards will be a long weekend in Dubai with me for the ultimate business immersion experience and dinner with some of my network on my yacht. So get referring now!

GOODBYE FOR NOW

That’s all for this week. I hope you enjoyed reading! I always love to hear feedback so let me know what you liked and what you want to see more of. I’m all ears!

And if you want to talk to me about borrowing, investing, growing your business, or anything else I am good at, then get in touch!

I’m an entrepreneur, investor, funding expert and mentor who has been building and growing businesses for both myself and my clients for more than 20 years. There’s nothing I don’t know about finance!