Hugo King-Oakley is head of private markets and community for GPFO (Global Partnership Family Offices), which regularly asks its members what issues are top of mind for them. King-Oakley discusses one of those issues — entrepreneurship — and when it can be a fit for family offices:
Where does entrepreneurship fit into the big picture of what family offices do?
Entrepreneurship is coming up more frequently in conversations with our members. Looking at the big picture, we talk about the family office as an economic powerhouse for local economies. If the family still has an operating business, it may be an employer. Even if not, the family office can be an investor, a catalyst for economic growth, an entity that invests in and supports business and entrepreneurship in local jurisdictions. And on the philanthropy side, family offices support communities and causes that are important.
How can family offices be a catalyst for entrepreneurship?
We’re increasingly seeing the emergence of the family office as a platform for entrepreneurship — whether that’s a venture investor, a fund of funds type investor in other venture ecosystems or building a venture studio within the family office to incubate businesses.
And we’re seeing — especially with the families that have deep domain expertise, or first gen families that have been significant wealth creators — a really interesting idea: using the family office as a kind of venture studio to build businesses.
How is the next generation involved?
There’s a really interesting intergenerational tie-in. We see a lot that NextGens are very interested in entrepreneurship: making impact building businesses, not just the asset allocation or investing stuff or operational stuff that happens within the family office, which is often seen as slightly dull.
So, this, along with some of the philanthropy and impact investing, is one of the key areas that people are using to engage NextGen family members.
