A (tech) bubble on the humble: What may have seemed like a missing-in-action rap star has actually been a gradually successful climb into the tech and financial industry, as Chamillionaire Is Entrepreneur in Residence at a Venture Capital Firm!
Up Front Ventures based in Los Angeles is now housing Hakeem Seriki, aka the Grammy Award-winning Texas native known by Chamillionaire Is Entrepreneur in Residence at a Venture Capital Firm. After an initial meet-up at a tech conference in 2009, General Partner and respected tech entrepreneur Mark Suster describes witnessing his obvious ability and decidedly “Ridin” with the rapper, elevator style:
“After seeing Chamillionaire interact with several entrepreneurs both at events and as an investor I started introducing him to start-ups in an advisory capacity. It always started the same way – a founder would ask for an intro because they figured he could help with promotion. And after one meeting they started asking for his advice about marketing, customer engagement, product design, monetization – whatever.”
Chamillionaire Is Entrepreneur in Residence at a Venture Capital Firm but his financial portfolio began way sooner, also to Suster’s surprise. Over the last five years he’s been a speaker on social media engagement in the music industry as well as politicking with notables like the Y Combinator associates. He was one of the original investors in the online video platform Maker Studios (which Suster was also an investor in) which sold to Disney for a reported $500 million last year. His work at Up Front currently situates him as an adviser with the firm, known mostly for its investments across business and digital platforms, Saas, media and consumer retail.
“Suffice it to say that Chamillionaire has transcended the days when he explained on YouTube how Michael Jordan sonned him, or maybe that was just an early example of his Internet savvy and ability to manipulate viral stories and plant social media engagement.”
A definite progression in the growth of Hip Hop artists across industries, Suster describes “Chamillionaire has a way more refined sense of what customer behavior is like than most ivy league graduates with nice Powerpoint slides that I meet.” –Dope!!! The rapper has expressed wanting to fully immerse himself into being a tech-entrepreneur, learning more about product development, business models and attending high-profile conferences. The only trouble here Suster says, is too many people know him! Further investments are made in curving tweets and people who come up to the Up Front offices just trying to meet him. Surely though, that popularity will grow into more relevance as he becomes even more of a professional heavyweight!
Chamillionaire Is Entrepreneur in Residence at a Venture Capital Firm is the latest in tech and financial come-ups since of course our own Funk Flex’s Virgin Mega App collab and Snoop’s proposed $25 million for tech involved marijuana start-ups. Bun B is another entrepreneurial force killing the game right now with an insane portfolio most wouldn’t believe. Goes to show there’s value in staying passionate and developing your skills outside the music. Congrats to you bruh!
Check the vid and the gallery up top to see him in action!