Selected work, grouped by the three ways I work.

A publicly traded technology company (OTCQB) · Corporate development

Challenge

A CEO building a digital-asset strategy who needed a deal pipeline and someone to run the projects.

What I did

Reported directly to the CEO. Researched 90+ acquisition, JV and partnership candidates and personally engaged more than 50. Led the two-person team that built and launched the company's white-label crypto exchange, and authored the business description for its S-1 filing. 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.

Results

Exchange and iOS app live within eleven weeks. 15 candidates reached NDA, LOI or agreement stage, including the Alt5 Sigma exchange licence.

Bitfury Surround · North America

Challenge

A blockchain music IP platform with no North American pipeline.

What I did

Built the pipeline from zero, and helped build the platform's own asset-management and commerce system for music IP.

Results

20+ enterprise partners onboarded under LOI. $17M in prospective investment introduced to the executive team: a $10M sovereign wealth fund prospect and a $7M opportunity from a pop-music celebrity.

RChain · Business development

Role

Director of Business Development, reporting to the president, at a blockchain company whose token reached the top 30 by market capitalization.

What I did

Co-led RSong, the company's music initiative, with the engineering lead. Wrote the 23-page business plan that went to the board, hired and managed the UX designer, ran the development-vendor selection, and mapped ~70 independent artists with 45.9M combined monthly Spotify listeners. Took over the relationship behind the company's audio codec licence from the president and ran its sublicensing track with streaming platforms in India and Asia, including applying the codec to a major Indian streamer's test files.

Results

A board-approved development budget and a Phase One MVP with direct-to-wallet artist payouts.

An immersive technology studio

Challenge

A founder-CEO building a company through growth and toward a sale.

What I did

Fifteen months of weekly conversations with the CEO on strategy. I built and positioned the relationship that led to an introduction resulting in a $4M investment in the company's $5M seed round; my role was relationship-building and positioning the introduction, not direct capital raising. I stayed with him through the exit.

Results

Acquired by a publicly traded company.

Wanderlust · VP of Programming

Challenge

A massive festival footprint, 7 multi-day and 40 single-day events a year, that needed a great deal of talent strong enough to sell tickets, kept within a seven-figure talent budget.

What I did

Booked 750+ artists and presenters a year. Outside my remit, originated partnerships with Spiritual Gangster and Bono's (RED), and produced the branded video for Spiritual Gangster.

Results

150,000+ attendees a year, and two brand partnerships I originated.

Tadasana Festival · Co-founder & producer

Challenge

Launch a new yoga and music festival on the Santa Monica beachfront from nothing.

What I did

Co-founded it with Tommy Rosen, hired and ran the team, and personally secured most of its sponsorship, including Subaru and Whole Foods. Before opening I created, produced, licensed and released Sounds of Tadasana, a free 30-song album of the festival's artists.

Results

$500,000 investment from Kevin Wall plus $250,000 in sponsorship. 15,000+ album downloads before the gates opened. 100M+ earned media impressions.

Palm Pictures · Musica Fresca tour

The idea

A national Latin music tour that a brand would pay to present. Nobody asked for it; I had the idea and made it happen.

What I did

Conceived the tour and sold Yahoo the presenting sponsorship. Then built the activation it ran on: two camera operators and a blogger on the road every night, and a Yahoo-branded battle of the bands, voted on by fans, with a cash prize at the end.

Results

A $500,000 sponsorship, against a property that did not exist until I created it.

“Fabian's extraordinary energy and passion ... his experience as a musician, producer and promoter is quite unique in today's music business.”

Chris Blackwell, founder of Island Records and Palm Pictures

Putumayo World Music · Events Division

Challenge

A catalogue of compilations with no live business behind it.

What I did

Pitched the founder, Dan Storper, on a simple idea: every compilation could be a tour. Then built the division: national tours (Women of Latin America, Acoustic Africa, Women of Africa, the Putumayo Kids Tour), Putumayo stages inside other festivals, and the Putumayo World Music Festival at the Esplanade in Singapore.

Results

A new live revenue line built from IP the company already owned. The Singapore festival led to a Putumayo distributor conference for Asia, which gave the company a strong foothold in the region.

Musicabana · Havana

Challenge

Stage the largest concert in Cuban history.

What I did

Advised the two creators of Musicabana, my clients, on the production, through many talent meetings with CAA and WME, and brought in prospective investors from celebrity networks and family offices.

Results

The 450,000-person Major Lazer show in Havana.

Uprise Management & Riot Artists · Representation and booking

Challenge

Build international careers for artists from emerging markets.

What I did

Managed a 20+ artist roster at Uprise and cleared song licensing on their behalf. As an agent at Riot Artists, booked North American tours and found festival opportunities worldwide.

Results

Uprise artists on the stages of the Hollywood Bowl, Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, Central Park SummerStage and Celebrate Brooklyn. Riot Artists clients at Coachella, Bonnaroo, WOMAD and Lincoln Center.