The Authentic Narrative Is Really Bulls***

An Honest Evaluation Of What It Truly Means To Be Authentic

“The Authentic Narrative is BULLSHIT!” Even typing that felt strange but good. I started my company Authenticated in 2016 with an idea around investing in founders, creators and brands. In 2022, I started to call bullshit on my own brand name and narrative. Authenticated was a “get away car” an entity and a business I started after pivoting out of my last role as CEO of a venture studio / branding agency in Los Angeles. Like so many business leaders I had played with the word Authentic and decided to name my company Authenticated Ventures, LLC. To me the word “Authentic” had connotations of “keeping it real” something I could relate to. I equated it to hip hop culture, the genre that I not only grew up with as a kid being in love with but also as a music executive at Sony, hip hop provided a lifestyle and fed my family. During the pandemic, with a lot more time on my hands to reflect, I began to question who I was, how I was presenting myself to the world and my own true sense of auth…