My Story
I have built inside music and inside technology. The deals live between them.
I build pipeline for companies selling into music, entertainment, technology and live events, and I advise the CEOs already inside them. I did everything I sell today for myself first: find the asset someone is under-using, get in front of the person who owns it, and build the thing that makes money from it.
I produced my first commercial show as a concert promoter in the early '90s. Through that decade I booked shows at CBGB's, and as talent buyer at S.O.B.'s I booked Celia Cruz, Burning Spear, the Black Eyed Peas and Marc Anthony. Everything since has been built on that network.
Technology: building the pipeline
At Bitfury Surround I built the North American pipeline from zero for a blockchain music IP platform, onboarding 20+ enterprise partners under LOI. I also introduced $17M in prospective investment to the executive team: a $10M prospect from a sovereign wealth fund and a $7M opportunity from a pop-music celebrity.
For a publicly traded technology company (OTCQB) I reported directly to the CEO. I researched 90+ acquisition, joint-venture and partnership candidates and personally engaged 50+ of them. I led the two-person team that took a white-label crypto exchange and iOS app live in eleven weeks. I also introduced the tokenized fine-art concept to the CEO, then designed and led the technical team for the art token that went to the SEC.
At RChain, a blockchain company whose token reached the top 30 by market capitalization, I was Director of Business Development, reporting to the company president. I co-led RSong, its music initiative, with the engineering lead: I wrote the business plan that went to the board, hired and managed the UX designer, and delivered a Phase One MVP that paid artists straight to a digital wallet. When the president handed me the relationship behind the company's audio codec licence, I ran its sublicensing track with streaming platforms in India and Asia.
And for fifteen months I advised the CEO of an immersive technology studio every week, through to its acquisition by a publicly traded company.
Across all of it, I build teams. I hired and ran the crews behind Tadasana and my concerts, co-led the RSong team, and led the team behind the exchange.
Music: where the network came from
I started as a musician and promoter. I'm a former international touring DJ and keyboard player with eight commercially released compilation albums. I built GlobeSonic into a concert-promotion company with its own imprint through Triloka. Billboard called me a "world music impresario."
One of the first businesses I built was one I pitched myself. After producing Africa Fete, I went to Dan Storper, founder of Putumayo World Music, with a simple idea: every compilation in his catalogue could be a tour. He backed it, and I built Putumayo's Events Division. That meant national tours built around individual releases (Women of Latin America, Acoustic Africa, Women of Africa, the Putumayo Kids Tour), Putumayo stages inside other people's festivals, and the Putumayo World Music Festival in Singapore, which led to a Putumayo distributor conference for Asia and gave the company a strong foothold there.
At Palm Pictures I ran A&R for Chris Blackwell. I conceived a national Latin music tour and sold Yahoo a $500,000 presenting sponsorship against it. At Uprise Management I worked both sides of the manager's desk: I managed artists onto stages like the Hollywood Bowl and Beiteddine, and as their agent I booked them onto Coachella and Bonnaroo.
I co-founded Tadasana Festival with Tommy Rosen. It launched on a $500,000 investment from entertainment producer Kevin Wall plus $250,000 in sponsorship, most of which I secured myself, including Subaru and Whole Foods. Before the first festival I created, produced, licensed and released Sounds of Tadasana, a free 30-song album of the festival's artists. It passed 15,000 downloads before the gates opened. At Wanderlust I programmed 7 multi-day and 40 single-day festivals a year, booking 750+ artists against a seven-figure talent budget.
The MENA scene
Much of my career has been spent inside the global MENA music scene. I've produced concerts for Rachid Taha, Khaled, Emel Mathlouthi and Tinariwen. Most recently I co-founded SADA SOUNDS, a music company for MENA and South Asian artists, designed as a record label, publisher, festival and management company in one. Through it I spent a year managing the artist Lana Lubany: a commercial engagement of thirty-plus hours a week, with strategy, planning, and more meetings than I could count.
Those experiences taught me something many technology executives never learn: how culture actually works. How audiences discover new ideas. How communities form around music, experiences, and shared values. And ultimately, how to build things that people genuinely care about.
I still build
My first iOS app, Vinyl Hunter, is in beta. I build my own CRMs and market-intelligence systems, and I hold two Anthropic Academy certifications in Claude.
What that means for you
When I take on a client, I'm not learning your industry on your money. I already know who decides, who influences, and who returns the call. I build the target list, open the rooms, build the deck and the CRM, and work the deal until money moves. Or I sit beside the CEO for a few hours a week, on the decisions that actually move the business.