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Becoming A Social Entrepreneur And Tech Investor: Matt Poole’s Journey

Becoming A Social Entrepreneur And Tech Investor: Matt Poole’s Journey

Matt Poole is a graduate of Morehouse College in Atlanta and was recently hired by Microsoft as a recruiter at historically black colleges and universities. His degree is in business administration but most of his professional experiences have been in technology. During school, Matt founded a startup called When&Where — a social platform for discovering events and sharing experiences while attending events. He recently worked on Opportunity Ecosystem’s HBCU@SXSW program, bringing 100 students from HBCUs to attend this year’s SXSW event as part of an effort to help increase diversity and inclusion in the innovation, entrepreneurship and investment ecosystem. 

Matt will be writing a regular column for Moguldom.com, sharing his journey and mindset on the road towards becoming a social entrepreneur and impact investor. You can reach Matt here.

There are about 7.4 billion people in the world and for some reason, I was chosen to be Matt Poole. I am 24 years old and was born to two great parents during the 1993 snowstorm in Atlanta, Ga. My go-to “fun fact” whenever I introduce myself is that my parents were choosing between the names Matthew and Blizzard when they were naming me.

Needless to say, they choose the socially safer of the two identifying mechanisms. In my introduction, I stated that “for some reason, I was chosen to be Matt Poole”, and I made that statement because, like many other people, the question about my life’s purpose routinely pops up in my mind.

As far as life goes — up to this point — I have landed on a simple personal purpose to life. I feel my life’s purpose is to love and spread love. Life is not fair, but love is supposed to be the great equalizer. Love makes life worth living. Yes, my ideas about love are on the existential side of reality. However, I want to tangibly manifest my life’s purpose by positively impacting society on a grand scale. This is where life becomes a little tricky.

From the time I was a senior in high school to now, there were a few instances in my life that led me to revelations which would lay out my path forward. At the end of high school, I started to notice there was a disparity between groups of people when it came to professional attainment.

Specifically, I noticed white students were going off to the colleges of their choice, but many black students were hitting the ceiling as it pertained to their professional progression in life. That blatant disparity sat uneasily with me for some time. However, in college, becoming more aware of social problems led me to the realization that intentional systemic forces are the cause of practically all social disparities in America — and quite frankly in the world.

Fortunately, while I learned about life’s structural inequality, I was also learning a new form of problem-solving.

When historians look back on our time, one of the most polarizing aspects will be how the exponential growth of technology accelerated all facets of business and wealth creation.

The new form of problem-solving I learned has no flashy title.

The process is straightforward, out-of-the-box thinking using different perspectives paired with technology as an underpinning for exponential scale.

I believe that building significant wealth through innovation in technology and scalable businesses is the most effective way to curtail the effects of systematic roadblocks for people all across the globe.

That is because when a person controls their money they control their life. That being said, succeeding in creating disruptive wealth is no simple task. However, my young adult life has taught me that with the right resources and guidance, setbacks are just set-ups for success.

Oh, and you need love, lots of love.

Look for Matt’s column at Moguldom.com.