Charles Kuykendoll, Blavity House Party

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I'm Will Lucas and this as Black Tech, Green Money. Charles Beloved cirtaindal is the founder at R and B House Party a unique party experience where R and B and gospel and music are at the center, bringing the vibes as well as the nostalgia. Just recently, R and B a House Party was acquired by Blavity, Inc. Which is also the peering company Afrotech is rebranded as Blavity

Yes, So in June of this year, just a knowing what Blavity is, what has been built over time, you know, it just felt like a blessing to even be considered for an opportunity to come join you guys, in house, but the novice thinking that I had to think that it was only gonna be just for what I had proven to do from like a talent acquisition space to date and not the product that you know, we had been building myself in Kareem over some years and have

That it a blew my mind. But be put me and.

My business partner in the space to say, not only is this like incredible for us as founders and what that looks like, but be like to be able to join forces with this company, like this was the right company. So it was really exciting and should Knight got it done?

Jada, because it's so interesting to me because you know, coming to Blavity, like my experience like on day one, like being in slack on this one black really slack, it's super black, and you get the memes, you get the jokes, like you get all the things, and you've talked about having the code switch in your corporate career, so like, what what has that experience been like knowing that you can bring your full self. You can be beloved over here.

Yeah yeah, like and the intriguing party is beloved is signed to bloviting.

Now I'm really my authentic self.

But what was interesting to me to see now having been a part of the company for going on a month, what's the incredible infrastructure that has built the culture that.

Is built here.

And I'm just a fan, like I'm in slack and I'm even feeling like, hey.

Am im too corporate.

Meme And it's really because people are just like being the authentic self. The level of depth of conversation that I've even seen take place on political issues and things.

And I'm from.

I'll go it's a place where hey, MJ said, Republicans are democrats by shooting.

That is that is my line of thinking.

But to just see the depth of conversation that has taken place in this organization, it's just been beautiful, Like people feel heard.

It's just an incredible company Like.

That is one of the things that I felt like I knew, but I didn't really know.

Until I joined.

I understand And before we talk about the business, I want to get into the beginning of your journey here, because if anybody has seen you on stage, they can tell that guy has directed a choir before. And you've talked about this, and it makes me think, and I've said this before on this podcast, my favorite quote from Steve Jobs, which says, you can't connect the dots looking forward.

No, that's a great question.

And you know I didn't realize and I won't say that I won't be a pastor. People are on my comments saying that that's inevitable future.

My dad is a pastor. I'm leaving that all to him.

But you know, directing the high school choir the entire time, and then going to college primarily white institution, who had a gospel choir and was able to like step in and lead that choir for another four years.

I was heavy into like music production.

And I thought I was gonna, you know, be a famous I don't want to say singer because I know people who could really sing. I'm not a famous background singer, like I knew my space, and then I just let all of that passion and music, that love for bringing people together to the wayside, you know what I mean. I just attend church, and the hecticness of our lives

But I'm very thankful for that. And be on key, don't come to correct.

Somebody's off in soprano section with the sopranos flat. So so when I think about you know, there's a story you told about having to learn how to host, because it's one thing that's different about just being a hype man on stage and yelling out a bunch of cool stuff, but learning how to actually create a narrative of the night, create movement to the party. Can you talk to me about learning how to create these moments during a party? To us, you found success where a lot of people

So I really just replicated church. And there's an arc to every church service. You have typically the beginning praise and worship, and they set in the tune for like choir, and then they're going up a notch, and then you get to the sermon, which again is high, but.

It's also low.

But then they build up their sermon to end on like a crescendo of shouting praise or an organ going they're tithes and off a mixture. You know they're not on a high too, and then they get out of there. And so I was just over talking. When I first started out, I did not understand how to translate this movement, which is choir directing, where I didn't have the microphone into where to pick my spots.

And then that was when it became.

Clear and I had hired previous hosts, and I just felt like the vibe wasn't the same as when I did it. And then I had even like brought in artists and things, and I didn't in my opinion, the artists had done very very well. But patrons will respond on our page and say, hey, we prefer the party

Not to not certain songs too early, you know what I mean.

It just build up to a point where we're doing that sing along where we're on that nostalgic moment of you and your tens, your twenties of Terrence J and Rocks on one O six in Park, or if you were older like me, you know what I mean, freeing age one Park and all the songs that you have memorized because we were all at home together, like bringing you to that moment and then you know, get getting you out of there on a high note, you know,

I choose to like pick and choose.

Now it's about like forty five minutes that I'm really trying to heavily be on the mic, But early on it's like greeting people like your ushers. I go around every party, you know, back when we were first starting out, and even now we still do it.

My wife and I.

We meet everybody, we say thank you so much for coming out, the same way you would at church, make them feel welcomed at home. People don't ask me these questions, so this is great. But secondarily, we used to do it because we didn't want them to leave. Because if you had like a group of four that didn't think the party was going to be popping, and they left.

Yeah, yeah, that's right.

Stay Yeah.

As a mechanism but now it's just you set you usher, feeling the bob early on to get people to have self facilitate the party.

I love that because you know, I'm one of those people when I go to an event, like I'm looking at the logistics if I'm looking at the tresses that's holding the lights, and you know how they weren't in the wires? Are the wires? Neat are they just ran up there? And I was paying attention to you. I was on stage last year afro Tech for the while at Andrew Hill, and so I'm watching you on stage and I'm paying attention to the level of excellence and

So, you know, six or seven years into curating these spaces, like it's to get to that point where you feel highly likely that almost every person, almost like every single person, almost every person in that event is going to have a great time. That build up, you got to hit the marks to get that build up, to build that nostalgia, and so I'm extremely meticulous when it comes to that.

I lost my voice. I was supposed to host the entire night.

I couldn't, but it actually unlocked something that you know, I hadn't leaned into heavily, which was like being an executive producer.

I pretty much eped that event.

And now along with the Blavity team, we're excited to executive produce this festival for everybody that's locked into culture, that's locked into the musicality, musicality and the diverse, you know, plate of songs and artistry that we all have grown to love. So that level of meticulousness that I was bringing to R and B House Party, Like, it's a level of meticulousness that Afrotech has with all of.

The events in the Wilde event.

There's level of meticulousness that you have with this podcast in your posting on stage. So I think that we really really fit well with each other to you know, understand the needs and put the people at the forthfile. It wasn't about my ego. It was about making sure that we gave the people what they wanted.

When I was sorry, nobody was like you were going off, But if you were on stage, you saw I saw it.

I saw it.

I fell for him a little bit, I'm like, but yeah, but he took it like a champ. He took it like a chimp.

He's just.

And so one of the things, and I do encourage everybody who is not listening to your podcast with Morgan Debond on the Journey that you should go listen to that podcast because you talk about some things. I'm not going to step on those questions, but there are things

So first I was respectful smart enough to know what I did not know, and we put together that's me and Kareem, my business partner for our house party c or A team. Uh he has his NBA. I graduated, but we were like no, no, no, no, no. You see what's called a due diligence checklist and it was the most robust, in depth but naked document I have ever had to fill out my life.

Like you know.

I actually got a chance to meet Wasser, who is the chief business officer here, maybe a week into being acquired. He was like, hey, Charles, nice to meet you. I said, no, it's not nice to meet you. You know everything my social Security numbers give me. But that's the level of depth that you had to go into. And so the team that I put together, I'll give some per sistent people. No, my account want played a huge role in the acquisition.

And then I had an.

Acquisition consultant who was able to do research on like what this acquisition looks like, what comps look like, and all of that for us to be able to properly valuate what we thought the brand was worth on the asset was worth. And then obviously we had conversations with Poverty about where they thought the asset was worked in Lower air Landed and then coming to the middle of how we both can walk away from this fielding real good about moving forward.

So you mentioned, you know, when you first started to brost these conversations, like your business was kind of all over, like your documents were everywhere. Things were not because you weren't planning to be acquired. You weren't building a business to be acquired. Talbot talk about the bridge between having stuff all over the place to having it in a format that you can actually deliver it.

Yeah, so the term is called data will and shout out to my account USAIO, a big copple of account.

He might have listed his name, but you could look at Mosiah.

He had been preaching to me about a data room for multiple years. But being CEO slash host, which are two completely different whole side has me on the road literally seventy percent of every weekend, I will and CEO side the planning of the events. Like I'm very very much in the weeds. From the experience standpoint as well.

So just really.

Understanding that balance with something that we needed to do, and we just had to get our business in order.

There the very quickly.

The bill took place very quick, but we were both motivated to make it happen. But I would just say to somebody who was even starting out their entrepreneurial journey, had get your ROC now, get your business credit card.

Now, don't file.

Your taxes as an individual, like have your entity separate from your person.

It was a mess four or five years ago.

Then it got better after I paid the government a lot of money, but it still wasn't to the level that it needed to be for like an acquisition.

So I would just say, take care of your business.

Yeah, you are very much R and B House Party, and therefore you are very much Blackvity House Party like you're It's kind of like the acquisition of a personal brand. Because you talked about when you were building R and B House Party befre that people were going to the party because they wanted to know if you were there,

Yeah, so I think that in an acquisition landscape, the personal brand it's actually worked in my favor. And it worked in my favor because you know, Blavity Morgan executive team could see me fitting into the culture. This was just going to be I said, purchase agreement hard stop, thank you for what you did before. Now we take it to the next level independent of view. You know, that is what could have been the call out if the personality or the person didn't fit with the overall

They saw that as a value add to an organization.

How I operated as a CEO to manage my business and secure brand partnerships and you know, to mortgage point say, one of the hardest work of people that she's met, which is a compliment, but you know, a second nature to me because I really really cared, cared about all the things that I did in tech to enable people to get jobs. I cared about every experience that we curated with the R and B House Party, and so it made a lot of sense to bring the person

B House Party or what it was, and now being the director of Community of Blavity. So there had to be conversations around, Okay, there's there could be one day where Charles is not the guy out there on stage one day, So how do you continue to build this thing so where you're still a so where you can build in the in the interim, like this is based on Charles Beloved, you know, coming along, but there's there's a day two years, five years, twenty years away that it's not going to be Charles.

Yeah, and that makes that makes a lot of sense. And it's already not Charles. This is Glavity House Party. And that even you know, to some degree, had to be an ego cham Like, this is not Charles's baby anymore. This is Glavity House Party. We're opening up the demographic of you know, people that fall under what we're looking for from our experiences.

From an inclusive standpoint.

It was a silo community that we were trying to really attract. Now we've opened that up and we think that with the things that we're able to do, everybody can benefit and have a great time at the experiences that we ultimately curate. But in this seat now it's general maiged community. It's really all about the community. It's about the community of DJs that exist that we can

Soca and all that.

I'm anovilist, But to celebrate all of those cultures in the constructs of what's to come, you know what I mean. But still having that r and beat, you know, that's my bread and butt of that gospel.

Yeah, that's my bread and But we want to open it up.

And so I'm excited that in this role, you know, we will have the opportunity to ultimately create new avenues and highlight other people. It is no longer the beloved show, and I'm really excited about what that.

Could look like.

There's this quote I found that I'm going to read back, and it's something you said a couple of years ago, and it made sense because speaking to what we're talking about today, and you said, the biggest challenge that I've had to overcome was fear. I think a lot of us, myself included approach problems with a high level of caution. When you overcome that fear and try something new, you get a whole new perspective and a whole different set

Mm hmmm.

So to that end, it was important that I actually heavily leaned on where that initial quote came from, which is, you know, the birth of R and B House party and the fear that came of doing something new, or the fear that came with the career change from working in finance to you know, taking an agency recruiter job that paid me less than my internships when I was

Be clear, I would fix my mouth to say that.

But the value pop for me for us to be able to get to the finish line was the money, honestly with secondary for me, what me and my business partner were extremely after was knowing like, hey, there's some point we're not gonna be able to do this experience in the way that it was, and that means it's either gonna phase out, that means that we're gonna have to shift it. But there was a shift that was

From the first call, it was getting through all the other people.

So talk to me about you said, this deal happened quick, So talk to me like, what, like what the milestones look like when you're putting from that first DM to the day where you both signed off.

What does that? What do those mile markers look like?

Yeah, so initially you know the conversation. Then it was like, Okay, we're going to figure this out. I'll introduce you to my cheap business off for Sir watsap, and then he sent the due diligence checklist. So I was like quite quite quiet on social for a while, but because I was literally putting in twenty four hour days to get

This was now going to be my full time role.

I have a lot of things happening as Charles Beloved the influencer, and then there was a separation that needed to take place between Charles Beloved the talent and Charles Beloved the host of R and B House Party, in which I used R and B House Party interchangeably with myself since I went to every event under the construct of the now Blobbery House Party.

My role is to produce it.

But not necessarily be talent at it, and so we had to like segment those two and then price out what that looked like and then that I said, outside of me being a talent. So it was extremely complex to make all these different pieces make sense. That part probably took an additional week and a half, but we

You know, understanding what the future needed to look like for.

Us to still be incentivized to build this into what we think it has potential to be. Then everything worked out, but we just had to be silent because we had to do it. It was suppress release. So I was actually like, they're working already, no one knew.

She was like, Charles, please do not go out other people until oppress rely. So then when I was able to happen, it was an exciting day.

One more piece though, is that you know, I think we undervalued or didn't really put enough stock into what people would think about this collaboration coming together. I thought it was a great call, not just personally, but for the brand and for the people and for you know, the people that we serve, which is our patrons.

But it was a lot of positive feedback about a.

Black owned entity acquiring another black entity, about what collaboration looks like. Promoters thinking of saying, hey, there's a new pathway that we didn't even know existed for the things that we're building from people to I mean, it blew my mind how positive people felt about im. Obviously, I'm sure some people that was like, no, horrible idea, and I get that, but you know, we're excited for the opportunity to try and.

Prove that this was the right call. As people were saying.

Afro Tech is a global gathering where inclusive tech companies meet innovat It's the only tech event you.

Need all year.

Get ready for Afrotech twenty twenty three in Austin, Texas, November first through the fifth. We built a whole temper you can use to help you get your employer to sponsor your trip and enjoy experiences built for every stage your career. Whether you're a college student looking for your next internship, or if you work in Avention Capital looking for your next business to invest in, and if you're looking for a co founder or people that's join your team,

If that's your route.

In an afrotech, you'll make connections to help you get your next opportunity. Visit afrotech dot com slash conference to learn more. Is you've used the phrase here on that you know Blavity boughten asset and you've not said Blavity bought a company. Can you talk about the difference between buying the assets and buying a company, which Blavity didn't do.

Yeah.

So when Morgan and Shama business as all over the place, we had two LLC's that kind of I want to say co manage the brand of R and B House Party. It's made a little bit more difficult. So we have the Quest LLC, which Kareem and I started, and we use.

That as the housing for R and B House Party.

I also have Charles Kirkandaal LLC, which ultimately we pivoted R and B House Party two. But I was operating all of my individual Charles Beloved things out of that LLC. So the money without her, you know, spilling my dirty laundry was all mixed in because I had influencer stuff, brand partnerships, I had hosting stuff, stuff, and R and B house party revenue all going into you know, the same LLC, So that would have been a purchase of the company.

Charles kirkandaal LLC. She said, I don't want that be.

Very clear, but the asset purchase agreement was like the logo purchasing, the licensing, the e mail list serve, purchasing our website domain. So just all things that were R and B house party specific that could be transferred of ownership is well. Ultimately the APA asset purchase agreement was purchasing.

No, I love that.

The elephant in the room is how you guys are friends, you know, and so how do you go to the negotiating table against somebody that you know previous pre pregnancy, like you might have a drink with and you know what I mean, and so you know, how do you do that?

Yeah, it was it was very tough. I know I had a lot of frustrated days. I'm sure she had a number of frustrated days. And you know, working with friends is always like what's the word, A touchy, touchy topic girl, and maybe even discussing something that you should not do. I actually disagree with that for a number of reasons. But primarily I think that doing business with your friends when you both have interry and how moral compass and you know how.

A shared vision is the greatest.

Kareem is my business partner and also my best friend, and we have operated great and sure we get frustrated with each other. That makes sense, and so on my operatings with Morgan. It wasn't like this is the first thing that we ever did together. We have four years of partnering with Blivity and R and B House Party as entities, also seeing success with the collaborations, but also going through the growing pains of the yes is the

Now in this deal she had blobdy.

Art, But I couldnot lose sight of that every single thing that we have done as business entities, as Blivity and as R and B House Party has benefited me exponentially. So I knew the collaboration would work and just understanding like, hey, it was never Charles Morgan thing. It was a business thing and a business thing, and that was how we were able to get to the table and work together.

But our moving forward relationship.

I have worked with all the personalities you could possibly think of, and Morgan is a phenomenal CEO. I'm excited to learn so much from her and the other executives in this organization. But we keep the friendship separate. We get frustrated with each other more. I'm gonna tell you an example. Morgan asked the R and B House party, or to say, block the ass RMB House party, to produce happy hours in the pandemic at three different times across three different locations.

And I listen what I need to three pm, LA, five pm Chicago, six pm New York, exact same time, same video needed to play in three different me I said, she's nuts, that's crazy now.

So I referenced that, like she's a.

Visionary, I believe in doing the work and to that we're gonna be able to make anything.

Of benefit in the community.

And so, you know, I've heard these stories of tech companies particularly but companies in general, when they get acquired, they call these big all hands meetings, get everybody in the room so everybody can hear, the whole staff can hear, and then there's questions about what okay, what happens to us based on you know, this us selling to this other thing. What happens to the team that you built?

Yeah, that's great that you asked that.

And so from an ownership perspective, you know, I was an owner along with my wife and then Kareem equity owner and started a sweat equity and earned the opportunity to be the partner of R and B House Party and just a strong business mind Michigan NBA owner of a you know, a Chip fil A.

He's just phenomenal guy. And I couldn't have gotten to this point without them.

So I want to say that now R and B House Party is the DJs, is the team that has just helped us get to this point. And so while they were not a part of the acquisition in terms of like becoming employees of Livity, I think the opportunities for them with me in this community role are endless. You know, the number of events that we could do,

If you hadn't lost your job, would you have considered an acquisition?

Yes, absolutely, I absolutely would have considered the acquisition I did.

I do not know that I.

Would have wanted to do the full time thing, because everyone asked me, they were like, Okay, we see the trajectory of R and B.

This is the Lord pushing you to do R and B House Party full time.

And every time somebody said that, I said, absolutely not because I love what my role was at my previous company. I loved the career that I had in tech. So this was very unique for me to be able to steal essentially do that, but on the other side, not the client side, but on the afrotech side, to create these experiences, to assist in getting people jobs and creating the spaces for all of that to take place.

That's what I love.

It did not feel like work to me, and so I still get that aspect, plus being able to do the efense stuff for R and B or now Black House Party. And so when I tell you, it was the fine alignment for this to have been the opportunity for this to have been the company, because if it were another company that was interested, I probably would have been open to selling that I said, but not like working there full time.

I wanted to work here. It was very clear. I was like, well, a month more, what we're doing outside?

You actually posted a photo from old last acrotechnic video because I actually took.

The photo of all of you all yeah, yeah, yes, and I had Phonemos sitting there. I have Phon because I'm still why I wasn't in the photo. I'm not a black employee. I was the one that ye have those my homies.

Out here out here. I'm excited, and so I think this is a good time to being to bring up Queen Charen because the partnership there. You guys have talked about this on your you know, for better or best, and I think it's important and there's something here because you know, I wouldn't be at Blavity afro Tech if it wasn't for my wife. And so when I went to my second afro Tech, I took my wife with me because.

I'm like, you've got to see this thing.

And at the end of it, she's like, wonderful, great, all the things. You should not come back unless you're on stage, and I'm like, how am I going to get on that stage? And so, to make a long story short, I'm like, all right, but challenge accepted. That's what she said. I'm gonna figure it out. So I put a picture of that, that last afrotech on my vision board, and every day I woke up and I saw the thing on my dresser and I said, by the time they opened up speaker proposals, I'm gonna apply.

Yeah, So I would just say a having a partner, whether that is through marriage or friendship, that's able to see your blind spots, because it was a blind spot for me to know that I could monetize my energy. And that's literally what R and B House Party was was a monetization of the energy that I bring into

That she had built with me was key.

And when we get to you know, the partnerships with our protech and things of that nature, it was like, hey, she put the battery in my back to be able to take risks and be comfortable with risks.

She works every day. She's genuinely a queen. She's a boss.

Even when I was let go on a random, you know, Wednesday in June, I didn't think about, thank God, about us, you know, losing our house or anything. This wanting to go to work every day, she getting paved. Let me just figure it out. I didn't have to worry, and so that's just truly, truly, truly a blessing. And without her none of this is possible. Well, I can't travel seventeen weekends twenty weekends out the year without someone taking

Part of this. I'm not going now far now, wal.

But so I want to end this talking about where Blavity House Party is going. But I'm going to preface it with something you've said before, and I love it because our generation has not had its own time, Joiner, And I think that's a beautiful thing that you've had that vision for yourself. Like you know, I want to get bigger than just parties. I want to do cruises. I want to do concert series, all these things, and this provides that jet fuel. So where is Blavity House Party going?

Yeah?

And where's the community of Glavity going too?

Absolutely, you know, the goals of blab the house party is to celebrate culture and connect communities. And that nission statement that has yet to roll out publicly, what you always see soon is because that is the ultimate goal. It's not about us, it's really about we. And there are you know a lot of festivals events on the market, and they're all phenomenal.

I go to them.

But we're excited to kind of step into that space as well and bring something new with the different value proposition, a unique market positioning to this space and this space for everybody. And so what we're trying to do is again that musical diversity that makes everybody feel inclusive, that celebrates all the different you know, makeups and backgrounds of a community. I've always from a recruitment perspective and that's like my subject.

Out of expertise.

They say, hey, it's diversity of ethnicity, but it's diversity of thought.

I'm from the Shah, you're from toll House. Talk to me, you know what.

And we have soul got different minds even under this ecosystem of having some familiarity.

And so it's just excited to be able to build for.

That and across these tent pole moments that we have grown to love and enjoy. NBA All Star Games, we're talking about sports, Grammys, We're talking about music potentially our boss, We're talking about art, and fashion. We're able to curate this experience that is about you, that is about inclusiveness and the ecosystem that's already created things that you know,

Black Tech Green Money is a production to Blavity afro Tech on the Black Effect podcast network at Night Heart Medium and it's produced by Morgan Debonne and me Well Lucas, with additional production support by Sarah Ergin and Rose mc lucas. Special thank you to Michael Davis, Vanessa Suruno, and Maya Mouldrew. Learn more about my Guess and other tech distructors an innovators at afrotech dot com. Enjoying Black Tech Green Money. Share this with somebody, Go get your money.

He's in love.

Afro Tech is a global gathering where inclusive tech companies meet innovators. It's the only tech event you.

Need all year.

Get ready for afro Tech twenty twenty three in Austin, Texas. No ven refers through the fifth We built a whole temper you can use to help you get your employer to sponsor your trip and enjoy experiences built for every stage of your career. Whether you're a college student looking for your next internship, or if you work in avention capital looking for your next business to invest in, and if you're looking for a co founder of people that's