By Ash Khayami
On Wednesday, June 25, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati sponsored a talk with
business and music big shot, Troy Carter. Moderated by WSGR partner, Robert F. Kornegay, the talk was part of “The Campfire: a fireside chat series serving LA’s tech community,” which allows LA-based entrepreneurs to gain valuable insight into launching successful startups.
The Campfire series is organized by David C. Murphy, a successful startup entrepreneur who, in conjunction to his Fireside chats, launched the L.A. Tech Agenda report to help strengthen the Los Angeles startup environment.
By noon, the Historic Women’s Club was filled with enthusiastic entrepreneurs exchanging feedback, praise and contact information.
The event’s guest speaker, Troy Carter, the CEO of Atom Factory, an entertainment and music management company, started by recalling how he began his career as a music performer but quickly transitioned to the business side of the music industry. “I learned to fail fast,” he said. By 1995, Carter had worked as a promoter for artists like Notorious B.I.G. as well as record labels like Bad Boy Records in New York City.
He went on to eventually manage artists like the budding rapper Eve and the pop superstar Lady Gaga. He created his own entertainment management company, Atom Factory, which now manages many artists like John Legend and Sky Ferreira.
It was very apparent throughout the entire talk that Carter valued hard work over monetary promises. When hearing investment pitches, he said, the first thing he looks for is evidence that the entrepreneur has done his or her “homework.” “For me, nothing replaces hard work,” he said.
Troy Carter explained his romantic view on investing on promising companies, “[I] work with things that inspire me. If you have a great company you’re gonna get funded.” He stated that the importance of a great company does not always lie with the revenue projections, that, in fact, there are difficult problems and obstacles to almost every start-up.
But he described what leads to a success is putting the work into the company and really making it more than just an idea, saying, “An idea is cheap. Anyone can have an idea.”
To address the unique entrepreneurial environment of Los Angeles, Troy Carter spoke about how close proximity to celebrities allows for a very interesting investing atmosphere. But he also explained that Los Angeles’s tech start-ups run sometimes suffer because of the lack of engineers needed for development.
In closing, Carter was asked what startups he would be interested in seeing. He responded by expressing his interest in domains that have yet to be “broken in” or fundamentally transformed by the tech industry; public education, health and live audio broadcasting are just a few he named.
Unlike past events, Troy Carter did not stay after the talk to speak with entrepreneurs, but exchanges between attendees continued.
The Fireside Chat series will continue on September 24 with an interview with Brad Feld, author of nine books on startups. Howard Morgan of First Round Capital, a venture capital firm that provides seed-stage funding to technology companies, will be interviewed October 16.
For more information about LATechAgenda events, go to: latechagenda.com/events.
