There are a thousand pieces of advice being thrown at entrepreneurs and leaders right now. Pivot. Automate. Scale. Streamline. But here’s one that doesn’t get enough airtime:get in community if you want to make it through the future.
It’s not feel-good fluff. It’s survival strategy.
Futurist and economist Bronwyn Williams reminds us that the job apocalypse isn’t coming. It’s already here. She should know. Her entire inner circle lost their jobs this year, and we’re only halfway through it. Industries are shifting. Roles are evaporating. Algorithms are moving faster than legacy systems and institutions can comprehend. In that context, your greatest asset isn’t your software stack or your scalability. It’s your social capital. It’s people.
It’s community.
And not the kind with lanyards, celebrity speakers and hashtags. The kind where you can look someone in the eye, ask a real question, and get a real answer. The kind where one honest conversation can change the trajectory of your business. Or your day. Or your life.
That’s how Liz Pretorius and I built Founders Café.
It started with a simple question over a virtual coffee:”Hey Liz, want to be a speaker at something I’m putting together?”
In true Liz fashion, she didn’t just say yes. She brought energy, scope and co-creation to the idea – and what started as a whisper became a full-bodied roar in just 10 weeks.
Founders Café isn’t a pitch-fest or a personal brand Olympics. It’s a horizontal room. A space for founders, CEOs and decision-makers of SMEs to sit shoulder to shoulder. There are no green rooms. No pedestals. Just humans building things that matter.
We deliberately kept it intimate: 40 people max.
We hosted the event at Flower Café – the most opposite-of-a-corporate space we knew.
We curated speakers who weren’t there to perform, but to participate.
Then we replaced awkward small talk with one-on-one quickfire peer consults and guided speed networking.
And finally we asked: what if we flipped the gift bag idea on its head?
What if, instead of a parting goodie bag, we gave attendees a brand showcase upfront? A tote filled with more than R3,000 of founder-backed products. Not just for the sake of freebies, but to tell the stories of brilliant local businesses before the intros even begin.
Show and tell beats tell
It worked. People got curious. They tasted. Tried. Read the labels. And then they met the founders. Because when you interact with the product first, your conversation becomes deeper. It isn’t, “So what do you do?” – it’s, “I loved your granola bar. Where did the idea come from?”
These are the rooms we need more of. Especially now.
Because no matter what the headlines say, humans are still the most important infrastructure.
And the best time to strengthen your network is before you need to lean on it.
So if you’re building something from scratch, or scaling – a business, a product, a movement – don’t go it alone.
Knock on doors. Sit at new tables. Even if you’re not ready. Especially then.
Get in community. It’s how you’ll make it through the future.
Lisa Aspeling is founder of Anago Marketing & Co-Creator of Founders Café. Sign up to the Founders Café mailing list to be the first to know about future events.
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