Meet George The Poet: Spoken Word Artist Partnering With Leading Investment Firm Sweet Capital

Introduction

Starting a business is one of the toughest endeavours one can take on, it can be a lonely journey that involves many setbacks. However, entrepreneurs are oftentimes painted as infallible superheroes by the media with the few outsized, seemingly overnight  successes getting all of the attention. COVID and the ensuing economic issues have meant that many entrepreneurs are more vulnerable than ever and are in need of authentic stories told by people they trust and may need support from in order to ensure they stay resilient. Sweet Capital, a fund that focuses on early-stage investments in consumer technology companies with positive impact have partnered with George The Poet, a Peabody Award winning London-born spoken word performer of Ugandan heritage to launch a video and podcast series highlighting honest, authentic stories about entrepreneurship.

Early Beginnings 

George grew up in London and started rapping at the age of 15 whilst in school. Soon after he gained a place at Cambridge University where he studied Politics, Psychology and Sociology. Whilst he gained some success as a rapper he quickly realised the genre had certain limitations in terms of how easily he could get across the social messages he wanted to at a time when Britain was going through significant change in the aftermath of a financial crisis. Whilst still at university he turned his attention to spoken-word and started performing at other university shows. His success did not go unnoticed and soon after he started doing corporate events where certain industries would commission him to write about the state of an industry “this gave me the confidence to know that I could apply my craft to other industries” he says. 

On graduating from university he signed a record deal with Universal and spent a few years releasing singles that melded rap with his unique sound. However, soon after he realised he wanted to focus his art on the social entrepreneurship sector, an area he spent the early part of his career working with “this was an area where my words carried weight with audiences that really needed to hear what I was saying and people were really trying to combat poverty and employment” he says. He negotiated his way out of his deal with Universal and effectively became an entrepreneur restructuring his way of doing business so his social convictions can be met. The years that have followed have seen George launch award winning  “Have You Heard” podcast, win multiple awards and perform numerous times on national television.

Collaborating With Sweet Capital

George’s newest project sees him partnering with Sweet Capital, an investment company established in 2015 with the private capital of the founders of King.com, the video game developer responsible for Candy Crush saga. Sweet Capital CEO & Chairman, Christian Dorffer a serial entrepreneur who has made investments in over 40 early-stage companies came across George whilst trying to find a lyricist who could help him with a project. He had grown frustrated with the lack of authentic stories around entrepreneurship and wanted to put together a video highlighting the resilience one needs in order to succeed. A quick Google search brought up George’s work and Dorffer reached out. George was later invited to Sweet Capital’s annual event for their entrepreneurs where he got to speak to many of them finding out about their journeys. The parallels between Georges’s journey and any of the entrepreneurs was apparent and led to the creation of the video “It Could Be For You”. 

In addition to the video Sweet Capital will be launching a speaker series with George The Poet, who will participate in and host the first chapter of the series, which will focus on black entrepreneurs. The speaker series will be called Sweet Founder Journeys. 

Speakers confirmed for the first chapter of Sweet Founder Journeys include:

• Michael Johnson, 13 time Olympic and World Champion sprinter, founder of Michael Johnson Performance and an upcoming digital coaching app;
• Sharmadean Reid MBE, Founder of WAH Nails and Beautystack;
• Edith Cooper, former Goldman Sachs Partner and member of the Management Committee, and Founder of Medley alongside her daughter, Jordan Taylor;
• Guy Primus, Founder and CEO of Valence, a social network for black professionals;

A sign up for the Sweet Founder Journeys series can be found on the Sweet Capital website www.sweetcapital.com.

This article is part of a series featuring diverse people making a difference. You can find more articles (click here) and if you have a story to tell or want to be updated as soon as new features are released message/follow me on Twitter @TommyASC91