(photo: Facebook via Valleywag)
If your new tech company was looking for investment money you probably wouldn’t tell Zappos founder that his company sold “Sh*t Product”. That is, unless you were Kanye West.
West is notorious for his outspoken and erratic behavior. He’s done many many, controversial things to hype his image. If there’s one hip hop artist with a god complex, it’s definitely West.
When we broke the story two weeks ago about Kanye West saying Tony Hsieh’s company, Zappos, sold “Sh*t product”, we had no idea he may be on an investor tour. Now, thanks to Valleywag, we’ve learned, that’s exactly what he’s been doing. Valleywag reports that Hsieh isn’t the only prominent tech person that West has been chatting up. He’s apparently been on a fundraising drive for months, even lunching with Instagram founder Kevin Systrom.
West is looking for Silicon Valley’s tech elite to invest in DONDA, his creative agency. West has apparently been telling anyone who will listen that he is the next Steve Jobs. Now a lot of people think they’re the “next Steve Jobs” and many of them haven’t been as successful as Kanye West, but the kicker here is that Valleywag reports that he made this bold statement at a power dinner with a room full of investors at Laurene Powell Jobs’ home.
Apparently the Silicon Valley investors love to have Kanye around. He’s popular, he attracts attention and to a degree it’s probably cool to hang out with him, but that seems to be all he’s getting. He can’t secure an investment for DONDA. “I think he’s getting frustrated. People are enjoying meeting him because he’s Kanye and they want to take him around, but then they’re not actually investing,” an unnamed source told Valleywag
If you think West’s delusions of grandeur are over the top saying he’s the “next Steve Jobs”, now would be a good time to point out that he’s also told anyone who will listen, including an arena full of people at Madison Square Garden, that he expects DONDA to become a trillion dollar company.
The same unnamed source told Valleywag that one of West’s biggest problems is his erratic behavior citing the Tony Hsieh incident ” “If you meet him now and he does what he did with Zappos—he’s self-imploding.” the source said.
West has also reportedly been leaning on connections through his fiance’s mother Kris Jenner. Through connections with Jenner and fiance Kim Kardashian, West has been able to link up with Anthony Schiller who currently runs Kramlich Investment Company. That company was founded by C. Richard Kramlich who co-founded New Enterprise Associates (NEA).
Valleywag goes onto detail West’s friendship with Ben Horowitz, the co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz. Horowitz is a known hip hop fan, and lead investor in Rap Genius, the famous website that translates rap (and other) lyrics into their cool hipster meanings. Horowitz isn’t big on name dropping but he has been tied to Nas and is obviously good friends with Kanye based on his Facebook page. Even with all that in mind, he hasn’t made an investment in DONDA, he just gives Kanye advice.
Rap Genius’ co-founder Mahbod Moghadam told Valleywag that West wasn’t good at articulating exactly what DONDA is.
