![]() ![]() I worked weekends and nights at a catering company and a restaurant called “Fantasea Grill” – thinking of maybe doing culinary school in the process. I invested in a few small e-commerce companies including Pink & Blue and Neon Beige.ĭuring the summers in Business school, I started picking back up my love of both photography and cooking. Meanwhile, I started working for two venture funds – Amplify.LA and also Lamppost Group. We signed up two of the largest parking operators in the US including Republic Parking and Classic Parking. I went to USC at this point and won a competition which helped fund my next company, a parking technology company called “WHIPP” which helped parking operators manage inventory and automatically check cars in and out using Bluetooth technology. We ended up taking FD9 Group public and it was acquired by Reign Sapphire Group and listed on the stock market I decided at that point to move on and enter business school because I was so far into e-commerce and entrepreneurship that I wanted to hone my business acumen more, and was interested in venture capital. In the meantime, we were approached to be purchased by Science INC (Venture Fund in Los Angeles). This brand ended up doing the best out of all of our investments and broke almost $10MM in sales within a few years. These were basically bracelets and necklaces w/ a coordinate engraved in them and a matching memory you could send to a friend/partner/etc. We also developed a wearable memory which I called the “Coordinates Collection”. We also developed merchandise for Paris Hilton, Yolanda Foster (Hadid), and a few other celebrities. We actively looked for small fashion brands to invest in so that we could help them with all the backend operations. In the next chapter, the Dutch investment group (FD9) asked me to co-run the company and they gave me a new check for $2MM to start a fashion incubator. By the second year, the company had grown and we were approached by a Dutch investment group which asked to purchase our brand and our assets and distribution. In a period of over a year I built a sales team and streamlined the backend, and we ended up selling to everyone from Nordstroms, Neiman’s, and 200 other boutiques. I realized soon that I needed to help out with the business operations and quit my day job and went full time into fashion. ![]() I knew nothing about fashion or jewelry but ended up investing a little bit of money in it. I randomly met a client who happened to have a jewelry company, her name was Jacqueline Brown and her brand was BesoBeso. It was fun for a bit as I got to produce and help find funding for some short films but in the long run, I knew I didn’t want to do it. I went to College then directly to law school, then worked for the District Attorneys office for a short period of time, hated it, then went and worked for a law school professor in entertainment law. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far. ![]() ![]() Today we’d like to introduce you to Chris Young.Ĭhris, let’s start with your story. ![]()
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