Scooter Braun was browsing through singers on Youtube one night when he came across a 13-year-old from Canada lusciously singing along to Usher's "____." There was no name or contact info on the video and despite, or because of, its raw amateur quality, Braun was hooked. 'My gut was going crazy after seeing him,' Braun recalls from his home in Atlanta. "I became infatuated."
For most people, "infatuation"" means hunting down more of the artist's music and simply sharing it with friends. For the 28-year-old record executive, it means finding out the singer's school, which led to a call to his aunt and uncle, which led to reaching the singer himself, which led to flying him and his mom to Atlanta to audition for Island Def Jam CEO Antonio "L.A." Reid.
Braun would eventually sign the singer, Justin Bieber, to his management company and set him up a record deal with RBMG, a partnership between Braun and R&B superstar Usher.
While most label heads struggle to find one breakout artist these days, it's this level of dedication that has made Braun the only executive in recent years to break two artists from scratch. Before Bieber, Braun had already earned his bona fides with Asher Roth, the 23-year-old rapper whose debut album, Asleep in the Bread Aisle, debuted at #1 on iTunes and #5 on Billboard's Top 200. Thanks to Braun, who discovered the rapper via Myspace, Roth was able to parlay massive online buzz into sold-out shows and critical acclaim that continue to this day.
Braun's success today is just the latest in a string of accomplishments going back a decade.
Romany Malco is an American-born Trinidadian, former member of hip-hop sensation the College Boyz, and a successful comedic actor in film and television. Malco's breakout role was as the trash-talking womanizer "Jay" in Judd Apatow's 2005 box office hit, The 40 Year Old Virgin. Many know him for his role in the Showtime hit series Weeds as Conrad Shepard, the love interest and business partner to Nancy Botwin played by award-winning actress Mary-Louise Parker.
Malco also gained attention for memorable supporting roles in films such as Blades Of Glory, The Love Guru, and Baby Mama opposite Tina Fey and Amy Poehler.
Malco continues to land roles in A-list productions. He was cast in Earthbound, starring Kate Hudson. He's also featured in the upcoming Gulliver's Travels adaptation starring Jack Black, Jason Segal and Emily Blunt. Malco made the leap from cable to network TV in the fall of 2010 landing the ABC primetime one-hour drama No Ordinary Family in which he plays opposite Michael Chiklis.
His brainchild web series, TIJUANA JACKSON, focuses on an ex-convict turned motivational speaker, and is airing now on HBO's Funny or Die Presents.
Romany continues to prove himself an exception to the Hollywood rule by making it a priority to communicate directly with fans. His Twitter and Facebook followers can intermittently call him directly on his favorite accessory, his Droid – and have their calls shared on his YouTube channel!
Brian is currently the founder of Namesake; a community focused on building trust, knowledge and expertise through conversation. At Namesake, his goal is to build an innovative, intellectually-curious and humble company.
Previously, he founded Newroo (acquired by FOX Interactive Media) & Ad.ly (the largest celebrity micro endorsement platform). Everyday he looks for curious and earnest people that embrace risk. He believes entrepreneurship is the most important lever in society.
Brian graduated with honors from Brown University where he was awarded an National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance grant.
President of NowLive. They are a one-stop live event production company with a proprietary live engagement platform in Los Angeles. NowLive launched in January with the premiere of the major motion picture The Green Hornet and in the last 2 months have worked with Universal Pictures for Fast Five, Weinstein Companies' Scream 4 Premiere, Discovery Channel's Deadliest Catch.
The team is comprised of Hollywood digital alums from Paramount Pictures, MGM Studios, Access Hollywood, The Huffington Post, MySpace and AOL Moviefone. We are represented by CAA and have an advisory board consisting of digital department heads from more than half of Hollywood's studios.
Recently named to Digital Media Wire's list of 25 Execs to Watch in Digital Entertainment for 2011, Evan Lowenstein launched StageIt with the goal of creating a Web-based platform that would empower artists to deliver and monetize interactive live experiences. While overseeing all aspects of this groundbreaking company as CEO, Lowenstein relies on his nearly 20 years of experience in the music industry as a recording artist, award-winning writer and executive.
Most recently, Lowenstein founded and served as President of HookUp Feed, a premier social networking and mobile marketing company whose clients include The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, American Airlines, Domino’s Pizza and Cold Stone Creamery. Lowenstein still remains involved with the company as a senior advisor.
Previously, he hosted USA Network's Character Road Trip, a weekly series providing viewers with a peek into the greatest "characters" the country has to offer. Lowenstein was also a recording and touring artist with pop/rock band Evan and Jaron who scored three Top 40 hits, including the Top 10 song Crazy For This Girl.
Michael Callahan is a mobile innovator determined to change the world. He began inventing at age 5, tried to file his first patent at age 17, started his first company at 22, and made national headlines at 23.
His goal is to enable all of the world's communication in order to empower people to change the world for the better. His first technology, a device called the Audeo, is being developed as the next generation of cell phone technology. The Audeo captures neurological information from the brain that it translates into speech. Callahan performed the world's first voiceless cell phone call in 2008 and was named Popular Science's Inventions of the Year. Marc Andreessen, founder of the first commercial Internet browser, Netscape, stated "I have a feeling that someday, this may be up there with 'Come here, Watson, I need you.'"
During development of this technology, he began creating another way to enable communication, called One. One is a mobile application that lets you know when there are people around you that share your interests. With One, Callahan hopes to connect the people of the world around the things they love. His work has been licensed by multiple Fortune 100 companies as well as featured on CNN, Popular Science, and Wired Magazine.
Equal parts clairvoyant, entrepreneur and hustler. He can see the future, and it is peppered with ShareSquare QR codes on posters, flyers, billboards, packaging, even TV screens, connecting the offline world with the mobile web. After that, it's pretty dystopian. 60% of the time, he is right every time.
Larry is a founder of Duck9. He focuses all 88 of his self-reported IQ points into helping college students build their FICO. Duck9 stands for Deep Underground Credit Knowledge. He also is a NY Times Bestselling author.
Hi I'm Larry Chiang. I started a business in college. I utilize mentorship in a manner, method, and magnitude that is unique.
What most people don't know is that I gained early success because of a book I read, "What They Don't Teach You At Harvard Business School." I used that book to network with and get access to mentors. Yes that included the author of the book!
Reading Mark McCormack's book as an engineer helped me get street smart. In mentoring undergrads, I attempt to expose and help investigate specific granular tactical methods that get stuff done. People often ask me what one thing I did that helped me the most. I answer that the one thing I did is the 650 little things I did.
I focus on the first few steps out of the batters box on the way to first base. I don't only admire the big home runs. I really like showing people how to hit singles and base-hits. I also love pre-preneurs and helping them reverse engineer the steps required to be a founder. For example, in working with BASES freshman at Stanford, I mentored them to execute a plan out that engineers their first three internships in a row. Here is what their experiences were like documented here and here.
There is a motto I try to live by... engineers don't let engineers graduate without street smarts