FEATURED ENTREPRENEUR FOR SEPTEMBER 23, 2017
“I find nothing wrong with striving for the impossible. But I find alot wrong with giving up” - Scooter Braun
Scooter Braun (born June 18, 1981 as Scott Samuel Braun in New York, New York) is an American talent manager. Scooter found early success in Atlanta’s hip-hop scene, hosting major parties for celebrities like Britney Spears and Ludacris, and the 2003 NBA All-Star Game, all while still enrolled at Emory University. He scored his first big talent find in 2008, when he saw a young Canadian teen singer on YouTube. That young performer was Justin Bieber, who Scooter and R&B star Usher signed to their label Raymond-Braun Media Group. Scooter’s career skyrocketed from there, signing new talent Asher Roth, Carly Rae Jepsen, The Wanted and Cody Simpson to Scooter Braun Projects. Scooter’s accomplishments are unparalleled, accomplishing more than most entrepreneurs twice his age.
Best Known For:
Discovering Justin Bieber
Entrepreneurship:
Scooter Braun is also a savvy investor and made early stage investments in Uber, Pinterest, and Spotify. Scooter always wants to know one thing before he enters a new situation: Did you burn the ships?That's what he asked his friend Tom McLeod, a serial entrepreneur and chief of storage concierge startup Omni, who came to Braun recently with an investment opportunity. Braun quickly declined, and McLeod asked him why. The ancient Greeks, Braun explained, used to burn their own ships upon arriving on enemy shores.
“You are a serial entrepreneur,” he told McLeod. “If we are going to do this, I need to know you’re going to burn the ships. There is no turning back, there is no, ‘Hey, it’s getting tough now. It’s not really working out. I’m going to fold and try something else.’ If this is you're [going to] burn the ships, that’s a different story.”
Braun has stuck to that philosophy throughout his career, and it has served him well. After guiding a teenaged Bieber to superstar status, Braun didn't retreat as his young charge's career unraveled while the world watched; instead, he stuck with the singer and helped Bieber re-establish himself as one of the foremost names in the world of pop music.
"He just wants to make sure I’m on my toes," Bieber explained, understatedly, in an interview for the FORBES Celebrity 100 cover story four years ago.
Even back then, Braun was diversifying his roster, adding acts like the Wanted and Asher Roth--while getting his start as a venture capitalist and helping Bieber do the same.
Braun has since expanded much more than his list of clients, adding entire categories to his budding SB Projects empire. Among them: motion picture arm SB Films, the entity behind the record-setting documentary Justin Bieber: Never Say Never; Silent Labs, which houses Braun's investments in companies like Uber and Spotify; music label Schoolboy Records, home to the likes of Psy and Carly Rae Jepsen; and a host of philanthropic endeavors.
"I was given the opportunity to music and I was trying to do that to the best of my ability," he told FORBES during a recent video interview at his Los Angeles headquarters. "But I always had this entrepreneurial spirit that wanted to wake up and do cool shit, and never want to be limited by anything."
In Braun's eyes, the same skills apply to all his areas of operation. His experience packaging and producing Bieber biopics helped him score a hit with the CBS CBS -3.49%show Scorpion; in the tech field, he looks for companies that already churn out meaningful revenues, just as he often decides to manage acts who already have their own audiences--frequently beyond the U.S.--like K-Pop sensation CL, Dutch DJ Martin Garrix and Swedish star Steve Angello.
To be sure, Braun hasn't been able to replicate the Bieber magic with all his acts. The Wanted never caught up to One Direction, and Asher Roth didn't become Eminem. But in his interview with FORBES, Braun seemed to confirm his biggest addition since Bieber: Kanye West.
The rapper-producer-designer, who would likely appreciate Braun's ship-burning philosophy, recently made his new album The Life Of Pablo available across all major streaming services after releasing it only via Jay Z's Tidal at first. That seems a first step in a direction of which Braun would approve.
Perhaps Braun will be able to help West soar into the upper reaches of hip-hop's top earners--the manager is certainly persuasive, as the resolution of his interaction with McLeod shows. The entrepreneur called Braun a day after their discussion. “I’m going to burn the f---ing ships,” he said calmly. What did Braun do?
"I invested," he recalls. "I felt his passion, and I think it’s that mentality of, 'I will not take no for an answer' that you look for in people to find the things that are going to be successful."
Personal Life:
Scooter grew up in Greenwich, Connecticut to parents, Ervin and Susan, both dentists. His paternal grandparents were Hungarian Jews and both survivors of the Holocaust. In high school, Scooter produced a documentary, “The Hungarian Conflict,” inspired by their experience. The film now plays at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. He studied at Emory University in Atlanta, and became a self-named “power player” in the city’s hip-hop scene. For all his success, Scooter is committed to giving back and serves on the Advisory Board for Pencils of Promise, a non-profit organization founded by his brother Adam.