My mate Matt–Entrepreneur of the year

Last Thursday, after running late to be a panel member at the SydStart conference in Sydney, I sat down next to monster entrepreneur Matt Barrie (on stage), only to find his face looking up at me from the panel table. What a great achievement... good on you Matt.

Matt and I started our friendship/ rivalry back in 2010 at the Funding Connect event in the Quay in Sydney... a good natured argument broke out about how Aussies are not aware of their strengths because our culture teaches us to think of ourselves as the same as everybody else... Matt's argument was "everyone can do what he did... it's easy". The audience sided with me that “no... sorry we are not all super proactive leader types”... and “no... most of us need to partner with guys like Matt to make something really happen...”… since then a lot of others have sided with my side of the argument to the amusement of most people that know Matt and I.

As a result Matt wrote this little ditty on the copy of the magazine that he gave… its too small to see but it says “To Ric, My #1 PR team. Keep up the [Matt] bashing… Matt”.

Matt is CEO of online jobbing site Freelancer.com.