The newest news is that we now have a The Authenticated club on Clubhouse, the most talked-about new network out of Silicon Valley. If you are interested please email or text us. We are opening up registrations and interviewing new members and partners. We believe that we can create rooms and environments that create the companies, ideas, activities that drive culture fueled business. We’ve hosted some kinda virtual experience since March of 2020 and we’ve even built out The Backchannel, a production company built in the pandemic that produces experiences, communities, and content. Last week we held our second “Culture & Code Festival” this year. So I built a community initially in Slack and Whatsapp that today boasts a 300+ community across many channels and a private membership app and website. Often we are there because we are a famous NBA player, rapper, or DJ but not because of our valuable insights and contributions. What started out as a thought that the gatherings and summits were too focused on singular events, it also has become glaringly obvious most of those spaces cared very little about diversity and people of color. This is the spirit behind why we created The Authenticated several years ago and what has caused us to double down on that investment. There is no SXSW, Summit Series, Brilliant Minds, etc happening and Soho House and all the other member clubs are a mere shell of themselves. Not only is “doing drinks with the boss” not happening for a minute, but the hustle and flow of being out and about are also on pause. The idea of community has been forever altered by the events of 2020. With investors like Fred Wilson and Nicholas Negroponte and our Chairman of the board “The Black Godfather” Clarence Avant I was getting the good game on a regular. Ultimately UBO went bankrupt but I will never forget that entire journey and those that supported and were on the ride with me. We went on to raise $40m in funding, bought a building in Harlem, rented Ellis Island for a launch party and I found myself on the cover of the Wall Street Journal for the launch of. What started as 300 email addresses became 20,000 and I ultimately sold the newsletter to a “dot-com” called Urban Box Office (UBO) and joined founders Adam Kidron, Frank Cooper, and the late, great George Jackson. Zooming out I recognized I wanted to tell the stories so as a “side hustle” from my 550 Madison office at 26 years old I created Soul Purpose, a weekly newsletter where I made predictions, called out good and bad business deals, and highlighted executives that I felt should be more well known. Living in Montclair, NJ I hung out on weekends personally with Wall Street bankers, authors, and artists and during the week I flexed all the cultural capital I could squeeze out as a 20-something Columbia Records executive with all the biggest new artists in the world. NYC felt like a high school and just like my real-life high school experience I moved in between the worlds seamlessly. I recognized in 1998 the rare air I was navigating. sets you could find the intersection of the banker, advertising exec, fashion designer, and recording artist in one place on one night. In a perfect night, at Joe’s Pub, a Bad Boy party, or even the infamous Persaud Bros. During my “night job” I mastered the art of being at several events or environments across multiple industries. I learned the “art of the room” in my 9-5 job at Columbia Records where your seating chart at the weekly 3 hours Sony Music label meeting dictated where you were in the pecking order. Pre-social media, your network was truly your “net-worth” and your reputation as the currency. Chow’s (NYC), Shark Bar was “OUR Soho House” and in one night you could close several deals, meet tons of new people and walk out with multiple job offers. “Back in my day” (OMG I just became that guy) was a time when you had to negotiate your expense account into your employment contract because being out and in restaurants and clubs is where the action happened and the action dictated your upward mobility. I came up in the “Roaring Industry 90’s” music, fashion and advertising business and circled NYC to LA to London like it was your morning commute. My community has been built on years of hard work, hustle, and good people.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |