CHAMILLIONAIRE IS NOW AN ENTREPRENEUR

[JumpinJack AJ]

Chamillionaire Is Now An Entrepreneur In Residence at a Venture Capital Firm

By Alex Russell

In a letter penned by VC Mark Suster explaining the head-turning week he's had at Upfront Ventures in Los Angeles, he explains the presence of a new face around the office: Chamillionaire. The same Chamillionaire who was showing us how to get our respective shines on not a decade ago. But if Kanye has taught us anything, it's that we can find success in multiple creative outlets. In the past five years or so, Cham has been quietly but actively involved in the tech startup scene, from speaking on social media engagement in the music industry to hanging out with Y Combinator associates.

He's also been making some investments himself. He was one of the earliest investors in Maker Studios, an online video network founded in 2009 and sold to Disney for $500 million last year. The firm he's currently hanging with and advising, Upfront Ventures, has a vast portfolio that includes some acquired startups such as Bill Me Later (Rick Ross may or may not have been referring to this method of monetary transaction on his verse for Nicki Minaj's "I Am Your Leader"). Suffice it to say that Chamillionaire has transcended the days when he explained on YouTube how Michael Jordan sonned him, or maybe that was just an early example of his Internet savvy and ability to manipulate viral stories and plant social media engagement. At any rate, in a world in which Internet entrepreneurs like Ben Horowitz make business decisions through the inspiration of rap songs, it's not surprising to see that we now have rappers getting their own piece of the pie. 

We can all agree that Chamillionaire should be given a platform to speak at the next TechCrunch Disrupt conference.

Source, plus a good interview: http://www.complex.com/music/2015/02/chamillionaire-is-now-an-entrepreneur-in-residence-at-a-venture-capital-firm?utm_campaign=complexmag%2Bsocialflow%2B02%2B2015&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social