No matter what industry they dream of disrupting, entrepreneurs find themselves as full-stack founders that have to balance funding rounds and vibe coding proofs of concept with learning the basics of generally accepted accounting practices and remote-work HR regulations.
That sort of wearing-every-hat flexibility attracts the kind of professional that thrives in the grey areas between working a nine-to-five for someone else, or working for yourself at any hour of the day—even if that means continuing to work for someone else to leverage the stability of a larger organization. Founders who keep the day job while building on the side are more likely to succeed than those who quit outright.
That’s increasingly what the future of work looks like—flexible, scrappy, but incredibly capable thanks to a growing set of tools that almost anyone can tap into. Ten years ago, cloud storage and no-code tools meant you could launch something without a dev team. Then three years ago generative AI made us all highly capable (if skeptical of em dash usage) of everything overnight. So even if the hours haven’t gotten any shorter, now all founders can be multi-hyphenate investors, provide stat-driven products, or source and build a hype-defying tea business—with a business card in their wallet that returns the same ambition they bring to it.
This November 4, WIRED is exploring that future of entrepreneurship at WIRED World Fair, a one-day festival of the future at The Sacred Space in Miami, sponsored by Chase Sapphire Reserve for Business℠, a business card built for this kind of founder. Rewarding key aspects of a founder’s life, from travel and tech to hiring and more.
A Founder’s State of Mind
Known the world over as one of the greatest lyricists and cultural commentators to come out of New York, Nas is perhaps lesser known for turning what started as a side interest into the same kind of real hustle this piece opened with: an early seed investor in some of tech's most prominent companies. Nas's investment focuses on consumer technology, media, and financial technology, and his portfolio has since seen four unicorns, seven IPOs, and 39 acquisitions.
That range extends well past the cap table: In addition to a stake in Bombay Sweet Shop’s parent company, Hunger Inc, Nas co-owns Mass Appeal, the entertainment company and record label he helped revive in 2014 from a 1990s hip hop magazine. It’s that same instinct for building in more than one lane that WIRED World Fair guests will find inside the Regroup Lounge in Miami, where an installation of Nas’s Founders Bookshelf will highlight the books behind Nas’s own founder journey. Additionally, DJs spinning music curated by Nas and presented by Mass Appeal will provide the soundtrack for the day.
The Cost of Scaling
Launching a business or joining a small entrepreneurial team requires managing everything, everywhere, all at once. Pushing development along, balancing investors’ expectations, and managing employees becomes a “996” endeavor. Operating at that pace for too long can take a physical toll: sleep gets sacrificed, diets go awry, and even the type-A types who are maniacal about their fitness can miss hidden cardiovascular issues. Frequent travel only adds to the load, with disrupted sleep, dehydration, and time-zone whiplash piling onto an already depleted system.
To relieve some of that toll, Chase Sapphire Reserve and Sapphire Reserve for Business cardmembers can use Chase Sapphire Lounges in select airports, where, depending on their departure city, they can decompress with a complimentary 30-minute facial treatment, time in a massage chair, or a shower. But seeing around corners, in business and in yourself, takes more than the right tools: it takes the focus to get everything done.
Focus Mode
Modern work is full of distractions: group chats with your co-founders or friends, social media promotion that turns into an endless scroll, a calendar of never-ending calls. Sometimes the best way to support the mind-body connection is to physically disconnect from the phone. Research has found that merely having your device within reach (even flipped screen-side down) reduces available cognitive capacity, because part of your brain is spending energy actively not checking it. So you could switch to a vintage flip phone or put your credit card points toward getting off the grid entirely. But as it so often is, the answer is balance: Built-in device settings like Screen Time limits grayscale mode, or NFC tags that require a physical tap, can build friction into your scrolling habit. To keep things moving, Sapphire Reserve for Business does the opposite for hiring, with up to $400 a year in credits with ZipRecruiter, helping remove the friction out of finding who to bring on next.
A Festival of the Future
WIRED World Fair launches on November 4, 2026 in Miami, Florida, as a festival of the future, posing questions like: Who owns the future of AI? What if you could talk to a dolphin? What if you could put a social network in front of a jury? Interactive exhibits will take guests from the bottom of an AI-generated sea to a training compound on the moon.
Throughout, attendees will be invited to regroup, refuel, and recharge in dedicated spaces presented by Chase Sapphire Reserve for Business. Recharge is a wellness space aimed at helping guests reset and go back to work with renewed vitality. Guests will have access to meditation pods, consciousness-shifting light eye masks, and a longevity mirror. The Regroup Lounge will provide a relaxed space for networking and connection.
Additionally, the Refuel Bar will showcase a matcha bar serving fresh, iced drinks from rocky’s matcha, an independently owned tea company specializing in ceremonial-grade matcha from specific Japanese regions. For founder Rocky Xu, that means multiple trips to Japan a year and multiple opportunities to visit a Chase Sapphire Lounge by The Club, while earning 4x points on flights and hotels when booked directly. That’s the case WIRED World Fair is making this November: Founders move differently now, and so should the tools built for them.
Together with Chase, WIRED is exploring how the next generation of founders move, work, connect, and scale. Tickets are available at WIRED.com. Learn more about how Chase Sapphire Reserve for Business℠ can help you scale at chase.com/ReserveBusiness.
JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. Member FDIC
