Kevin Hart has come a long way since leaving North Philly.
The rise: His rise to fame and ambitious humor cemented his footing in the comedy industry and beyond, but it was actually his willingness to know when to stay quiet that helped him turn Kevin Hart into a multi-media brand.
Today, the multi-media brand is now worth $650 million.
As AfroTech previously reported in April 2022, Kevin Hart “merged Laugh Out Loud and HartBeat Productions to form HARTBEAT. In addition, it was also announced that the multi-platform media company raised $100 million from Abry Partners, in which the private equity firm took a minority investment. The funding will support new content, hiring new teams, and the expansion of existing brands and franchises.”
Before the fame, financial literacy was foreign: Whether it was through pursuing his own ventures or making the conscious decision to put his dollars toward other companies, his business acumen had to be trained as financial literacy was quite foreign to Hart prior to the fame.
He explained further during a conversation at TechCrunch Disrupt 2022.
“I’m from North Philadelphia. You may or may not know what that is or where that is it’s but you know it’s the bottom, it’s the gutter, it’s the hood. And you know, where I come from, the conversations attached to finance are not had. They’re not few far and in between. They don’t exist,” Hart said.
He then narrowed in his discussion to the world of investing and expressed the misconceptions he had about this arena.
Hart explains his doubts: “Let’s go to the ground level. I had to learn why investing was okay,” Hart explained. “From my understanding, the world of investing, well it was attached to the space of a con. You’re trying to con me, trick me out my money. I don’t trust you. I’m not giving nobody my money so they can run off and do what they going do — that’s the biggest challenge.”
Although Hart has shown he was previously apprehensive about investing, he has proven to embrace the idea of trusting in others as it relates to opportunities that have continued to strengthen his growing empire.
Trust led to working with the largest bank in the United States: That trust in opportunity has turned into favorable outcomes most recently for Hart’s venture capital firm Hartbeat Ventures, which just secured its first institutional investment from J.P. Morgan.
“Over the last few years, we’ve put $90 million into 23 funds that have gone on to raise over $900 million of capital. And so through this project and through meeting with Kevin’s team, we’re super excited that as of yesterday, we just closed and J.P. Morgan is now the first investor in Hartbeat Ventures’ new fund and we’re very excited for the things that we can do together,” said J.P. Morgan’s head of digital investment banking and digital private markets Michael Elanjian, according to TechCrunch.
Securing an investment from the largest bank in the United States is a huge win for Hart. Yet, it would never be possible if he didn’t learn to build confidence but more importantly be receptive to learning the ins and outs of how the economy can work to his benefit.
Hart Reveals His Biggest Learning Curve About Investing
“The biggest learning curve for me was understanding that the investment has a timeline attached to it and because I invested today does not mean I get anything tomorrow,” Hart explained. “You have to be confident and understanding the world of growth and the process that has to happen and it’s not just about doing one, it’s about understanding the economy, how the economy works. Understanding how to make your money work for you. These are all things that I had to learn on the ground level, but I was confident about learning.”
