Your Network Is Your NET Worth
How an investment in your community is the best thing you should be doing right now
My community has been built on years of hard work, hustle, and good people. 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. “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. Justin’s (NYC, ATL), Mr. 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. Pre-social media, your network was truly your “net-worth” and your reputation as the currency. 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. During my “night job” I mastered the art of being at several events or environments across multiple industries. In a perfect night, at Joe’s Pub, a Bad Boy party, or even the infamous Persaud Bros. sets you could find the intersection of the banker, advertising exec, fashion designer, and recording artist in one place on one night.
I recognized in 1998 the rare air I was navigating. NYC felt like a high school and just like my real-life high school experience I moved in between the worlds seamlessly. 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. 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. 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. 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 SoulPurpose.com. Ultimately UBO went bankrupt but I will never forget that entire journey and those that supported and were on the ride with me. 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.
Why We Built The Authenticated
I feel for this next generation. The idea of community has been forever altered by the events of 2020. 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. 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. This is the spirit behind why we created The Authenticated several years ago and what has caused us to double down on that investment. 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. Often we are there because we are a famous NBA player, rapper, or DJ but not because of our valuable insights and contributions. 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. Last week we held our second “Culture & Code Festival” this year. 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. We believe that we can create rooms and environments that create the companies, ideas, activities that drive culture fueled business.
We are opening up registrations and interviewing new members and partners. If you are interested please email or text us.
Clubhouse x The Authenticated
The newest news is that we now have a The Authenticated club on Clubhouse, the most talked-about new network out of Silicon Valley. I’ve been on the platform since May and have watched the startup grow with the help of Andressen Horowitz and their Clubhouse squad of Ben Horowitz, Felicia Horowtiz, Nait Jones, and Chris Lyons. Felicia’s Saturday dinner series has brought out the famous and infamous. I’m not sure where else on the internets you can find a stage that includes Oprah, Deepak, Pastor TD Jakes, Van Jones, E-40, and MC Hammer at the same time. Things really got interesting when they absolute right person the right person for the Clubhouse founding team in Stephanie Simon. Not only is she a pure multi-hyphenate (former college hooper, banker, lawyer, fashion exec, former Beats by Dre and ran Will I Am innovation lab) she just gets culture and intersections. Her innate nose for how to grow a true community is second to none. Stephanie is leading strategic growth and programming and after her prodding and poking, we decided to commit to one of the newest Clubhouse Channels and have been supporting Stephanie in her dope ass weekly news show called The Dose. If you are on the platform please go follow The Authenticated, we have a ton of programming ideas that we will be launching for the fall.
Two nights ago on “The Dose” we hosted an episode that was focused on the Pharrell x Jay Z video for “Entrepreneur.” We had a two-hour discussion with Calmatic the video director, several entrepreneurs featured in the video including Chace Infinite and Marques Williams followed by an hour-long Q&A session which found us bringing up to the stage Virgil Abloh, Just Blaze, June Ambrose. A pretty magical night and a preview of what’s to come on the platform for us.
Culture & Code August Recap
We had our 2nd “Virtual Culture & Code” in August, identifying signals that our network was talking about. For 3 days we unpacked the following:
Education
Entertainment
eSports
Gen Z
Dubai
We’ve made the content available for non-members this month only as a preview for our Fall series. If you are interested in joining the network, please email us or text.
Video Replays From Culture & Code August
What is Culture & Code (James Andrews)
Innovation In Early Education (Rudi Gupta)
Raising Successful Kids & Building Better Classrooms (Esther Wojcicki)
Sharjah: The Arab Cultural Capital Of The World (Sheikh Fahim bin Al Qasimi)
Future of Trust, Brand, Consumers & Content (Ana Andjelic / Grace Harry)
Gen Z Demystified (Kelsey Davis, Nadine Jarrard, Maxine Marcus)
Good read, thanks for sharing :)
James, I love this so much - glad I came across you and your story - it resonates so much with what I have been passionate about & trying to gain a foothold in - finding, absorbing, & creating intersections across such diverse people & ideas - will reach out & hope we can connect soon