電視演員塞德里克·亞伯勒坐在那里貌似有些困惑,但這是可以理解的。此時他正在參加一年一度的“《烏木》雜志最有影響力的100位黑人”(Ebony Power 100)頒獎典禮,典禮地點是曾經(jīng)舉辦過金球獎頒獎典禮的貝弗利希爾頓酒店的宴會廳。兩邊的桌子上坐的是亞馬遜和BET公司的高管,與他同桌的是風投公司哈萊姆資本的四個年輕的黑人合伙人和他們的配偶。坐在他身邊的是哈萊姆資本的實際負責人約翰·亨利·馬托斯。馬托斯年僅26歲,是一名多米尼加移民。不一會兒的工夫,馬托斯就消失了,等他回來時,他說自己剛剛溜進了后臺,祝賀了一下今晚充當主持人的克里斯·塔克。 馬托斯邊給自己倒酒邊說:“只要你端著一杯白葡萄酒,你在這兒想做什么都可以?!?/p> 亞伯勒睜大了眼睛,對馬托斯說道:“不管你是賣什么的,我都愿意做你的下一個投資人?!?/p> 馬托斯又端著酒去跟晚宴上的其他重量級人物打招呼了,其中有演員大衛(wèi)·奧伊羅、政治家安德魯·吉勒姆,還有美國全國保險公司(Nationwide)和聯(lián)合航空等大公司的高管。 哈勒姆公司的一位合伙人亨里·皮埃爾·杰奎斯看著他跟這些大人物談笑風生,嘆道: “這哥們兒真是天不怕地不怕?!?/p> 但這種性格卻也令馬托斯十分受用。 馬托斯說,他的人生是“從門房到地主”的一生(他在賓西法尼亞州艾倫鎮(zhèn)的兩棟公寓樓里擁有17套房產(chǎn))。馬托斯是一名社區(qū)大學的輟學生,曾經(jīng)當過爵士吉他手,輟學后在布魯克林的威廉斯堡當過一陣子門房。當時,那棟樓里的一名租客給他提供了一套干洗設備的使用權(quán)。令人意想不到的是,馬托斯的第一個干洗客戶竟然是馬丁·斯科塞斯導演的電影《華爾街之狼》的道具部——當時劇組里有幾百套道具服裝需要干洗。從此,馬托斯就跟當?shù)氐母鱾€影視劇組建立了業(yè)務關(guān)系。(后來他由于向小區(qū)租客兜售他的干洗服務而丟掉了門房的工作。)再后來,他的干洗業(yè)務越做越大,他干脆做了一個按需干洗服務軟件Mobile City,最后他以一筆未披露的價格將軟件成功出手(有一家獨立評估機構(gòu)稱這筆交易的收購價是100萬美元)。 馬托斯用這筆錢創(chuàng)辦了一個名為Cofound Harlem的孵化器。在短短9個月的時間里,它就孵化了四家創(chuàng)業(yè)公司,其中包括職場預約服務軟件Croissant和音樂協(xié)作網(wǎng)站Bandhub。之后他又協(xié)助天使投資人大衛(wèi)·羅斯運營一家名為Area的房地產(chǎn)技術(shù)基金。再后來,馬托斯加盟了哈萊姆資本公司。2018年,這家公司因承諾未來20年將資助1000名少數(shù)族裔創(chuàng)業(yè)人而名聲大噪。(2018年6月,該公司推出了一項2500萬美元的投資計劃,到11月已敲定了500萬美元。該公司計劃在2月底前沖擊1000萬美元,到2019年6月底前完成2500萬美元的目標。) 哈萊姆資本的風投方式 這家公司主要用三種方法尋找投資目標。 |
The television actor Cedric Yarbrough looks understandably perplexed. Between tables for Amazon and BET at the annual Ebony Power 100 awards, in the same Beverly Hilton ballroom that hosts the Golden Globes, his tablemates are the four young black partners of venture firm Harlem Capital and their dates. Next to him is the group’s de facto front man, John Henry Matos, the 26-year-old son of Dominican immigrants who goes by only his steel-driving, two-part given name. Matos disappears and returns with a tale of slipping backstage to personally congratulate Chris Tucker on his job as the show’s emcee. “You can do anything at these things if you hold a glass of white wine,” he says as he refills. Yarbrough’s eyes widen. “Whatever you’re selling,” he tells Matos, “I’m your next investor.” But Matos is off making a run to glad-hand the A-list tables: actor David Oyelowo, politico Andrew Gillum, and executives from Nationwide and United Airlines. “Daaamn,” says Henri Pierre-Jacques, one of the Harlem partners, as he watches. “The brother is fearless.” It has worked for him so far. Matos bills his life as going “from doorman to landlord” (he owns 17 apartments in two buildings in Allentown, Pa.). A community college dropout and erstwhile jazz guitarist, he worked as a doorman in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where a tenant gave him access to dry cleaning equipment. Matos’s first dry cleaning client was, astonishingly enough, the costume department for Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street—there were hundreds of costumes—and Matos became a local film industry fixture. (He was subsequently fired from the doorman job for hawking his dry cleaning services to tenants.) The dry cleaning business became Mobile City, an off-hours on-demand dry cleaning app he sold to a wholesaler for an undisclosed sum (although an independent assessment puts it at $1 million). He used that money to create incubator Cofound Harlem and accelerate four startups for nine months, including workspace booking service Croissant and music collaboration website Bandhub. From there he helped run Area, a real estate technology fund for angel investor David Rose, until he joined Harlem Capital, which spent 2018 soaking up headline hype for promising to fund 1,000 minority founders over the next 20 years. (In June 2018 it debuted a $25 million fund campaign and secured $5?million by November, aiming to hit $10 million in February and $25?million by June 2019.) The Harlem Capital Way Three ways the firm finds investments. |
今年2月,馬托斯還將成為Vice出品的8集創(chuàng)業(yè)真人秀《Hustle》的唯一主持人。第一集講的是布魯克林的一家果醬制作公司的故事。該節(jié)目的創(chuàng)作團隊與MTV的《嘻哈飆車族》(Pimp My Ride)的制作團隊是同一個。 他非常適合這個角色。打個比方,在Spotify公司主辦的黑人科技峰會上,他可以結(jié)合Instagram上的網(wǎng)絡流行語,給大家講力量、熱情、成功、信任、真理和共鳴。在任何時候,他給人的感覺都是“幸?!薄ⅰ案卸鳌?、“謙卑”和“令人鼓舞”的。他的個人網(wǎng)站(buildwithpassion.com)上這樣寫道:“馬托斯是一個真實的創(chuàng)業(yè)人。”。他還將自己比作小說《源泉》里的霍華德·羅克。他在Aruba公司做過主題演講,他還有用自己的名字首字母做的個人Logo。你可以把他想象成一個年輕版的“了不起的蓋茨比”。 與歌手艾莉西亞·凱斯一起參與《Hustle》攝制的知名大廚馬庫斯·薩繆爾森評價道:“他讓自己出了名,他的存在是有感染力的,他有一種無處不在的神奇能力。我很少遇見像他這樣既聰明又快樂的人。一旦你見過了他,你就會記住他?!?/p> 已故黑人商業(yè)大亨雷金納德·劉易斯的女兒克里斯蒂娜·劉易斯運營著一家名叫“全明星編程”的非盈利機構(gòu),該機構(gòu)主要教育黑人和拉丁裔男孩學習編程。她通過薩繆爾森認識了馬托斯。她表示:“在我一生中,我遇見過很多跟馬托斯做同樣事情的人,但他卻能使自己顯得與眾不同。重點不在與他,而在于他的圈子,他使他的熱情和才華變成了一整個世界。” 在“《烏木》雜志最有影響力的100位黑人”頒獎典禮上,當哈萊姆資本公司的名字出現(xiàn)在大屏幕上,享受著在場其他企業(yè)家的歡呼時,馬托斯已經(jīng)離開了現(xiàn)場。馬托斯將女友——一個長的像奧利維亞·瑪恩的美女送到了她的瑪莎拉蒂上,然后打了一輛Uber網(wǎng)約車直奔洛杉磯機場。他這次從紐約往返洛杉磯,整個行程只用了不到24小時。 在去機場的路上,馬托斯說,有位一線演員表示有興趣購買他的生平故事改編權(quán)。他喃喃自語地說道:“我的生平?再過20年,我說不定能當總統(tǒng)呢!” 在他沖向登機門時,他突然想起了什么?!霸懔?!”他的衣服口袋里還有一點用于今晚慶祝的大麻,今晚始終沒有用掉?!皼]事的?!彼柭柤鐩_過安檢口,依舊無所畏懼,膽子比這班飛機上的其他人至少大10倍。(財富中文網(wǎng)) 本文的另一版本發(fā)表于2019年2月1日刊的《財富》雜志上,題目是《為激情而活》。 譯者:TY |
Also in February, Matos is stepping out from his fellow partners as the solo host of Hustle, an eight-episode reality show on Vice that aims to 10x startups—the premiere showcases a jam maker in Brooklyn—from the same development team behind MTV’s Pimp My Ride. He is perfect in the role. In lectures—at a black tech conference held by Spotify, for example—he speaks in the Instagrammy lingo of energy, passion, success, trust, truth, and vibes. At any given moment, he is likely #blessed, #grateful, #humbled, or #inspired. And he has a giddy, earnest way of name-dropping: “a K in KKR!” for Henry Kravis or “the M in L+M!” for Ron Moelis. “JH is a straight-up entrepreneur,” blares his website (buildwithpassion.com). He socials his own Gillette ads with his father. He casually compares himself to the Fountainhead’s Howard Roark and says he has a radar for fellow Roarks. He keynotes in Aruba. He has a monogram-style personal logo. Imagine a young Junot Díaz as Gatsby. “He makes himself known,” says chef Marcus Samuelsson, who along with singer Alicia Keys is producing Hustle. “His presence is infectious. He has a beautiful ability to be everywhere. I’ve rarely met a person that intelligent and also just so happy. Once you meet him, you remember him.” Christina Lewis—daughter of the legendary late black business dynamo Reginald Lewis—who leads All Star Code, a nonprofit that teaches coding to black and Latino boys, met Matos through Samuelsson. She agrees: “For most of my life, I’ve met people trying to do the same thing as John Henry. He’s distinguishing himself. It’s not just about John Henry but about John Henry’s community. He makes his passion and talent a whole world.” At the Ebony awards, as soon as Harlem Capital is recognized with an on-screen shout-out in a sizzle reel of other entrepreneurs, Matos has departed. After Pose’s Dyllón Burnside stops him to say they should DM, Matos walks his date—an Olivia Munn doppelg?nger—to her Maserati and hops in an Uber for LAX, in and out of Los Angeles from New York in less than 24 hours. On the ride to the airport, he says an A-list actor has shown interest in buying his life rights. “I dunno,” he muses. “My life? In 20 years, I could be President!” As he dashes to his gate, he remembers—“Oh, shit!”—a celebratory marijuana joint in his pocket that never got used in all the eventful night’s hubbub. “It’ll be fine,” he shrugs and marches it through security without so much as a drop of Chardonnay in hand this time—?fearless in his own right, and about to 10x the flight of whoever sits next to him. A version of this article appears in the February 1, 2019 issue of Fortune with the headline “Live For the Hustle.” |