Access: The 'Content is Queen' founder & CEO investing in music and intellectual property
"Nobody is riding their Pelaton in silence" - Sherrese Clarke Soares
Hello reader,
Welcome to the 9th edition of Access - last week was Trustees’ Week, thank you to everyone who engaged and shared.
This week we’re back to usual programming although with so much going on, it was hard to select what to feature in today’s newsletter. The 2023 GRAMMY nominations, the UN Climate Change Conference (COP 27) in Egypt, Taylor Swift breaking Ticketmaster, and of course Elon Musk’s escapades at (and on) Twitter. And that’s just a few of this weeks headlines.
Before we started Access, Liz and I had many conversations about content - who does our network want to hear about? What is our community interested in? It feels as though we’ve come full-circle with our in-depth piece this week, featuring Sherrese Clarke Soares, founder of HarbourView Equity Partners and Queen of content. As a member of the Buyouts Class of 2022 Women in PE and a Billboard 2021 Change Agent, Clarke Soares sits at the intersection between investments and intellectual property.
We hope you enjoy this week’s edition - let us know if there’s anyone you’d like to see featured!
Until next time -
Liz & Melissa
In case you missed it…
Last week’s newsletter included a roundup of the very best resources for aspiring trustees and our pick of current trustee opportunities.
Our In-Depth section featured John Timpson, the millionaire businessman who fostered 90 children.
FEATURING:
This week’s best interviews
Brazil’s Neymar opens up ahead of the World Cup, hosted by Qatar
Ludwig Göransson on composing the highly anticipated score for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Rainn Wilson reintroduces himself in the name of climate change
In-depth: Sherrese Clarke Soares is the founder and CEO investing in entertainment intellectual content.
IN BRIEF
"I joke with Messi about beating him in the World Cup final."
Paris St-Germain superstar Neymar bares all, ahead of the World Cup in Qatar.
***
“Just imagining what the music would sound like without [Chadwick] because there were so many musical moments, and instruments, and sounds, and themes that were tied to his character in the first movie.”
Composer Ludwig Göransson shares the emotional weight of working on the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever score and thoughtfully navigating a project that means so much to so many.
[The process of crafting iconic film scores]
***
“What happens in the Arctic doesn’t stay in the Arctic.”
Rainn Wilson reintroduces himself as ‘Rain Fall Heat Wave Rising Sea Levels and We Have to Do Something About It Now Wilson’. A unique take on raising awareness for climate change.
[A climate change message for world leaders]
Looking for your next move?
Earlier this month we shared a list of 87 private capital opportunities. Missed the Jobseeker’s Edition? Check out the list here 👇
IN-DEPTH
“Content has the power to shift and shape the world… And I’ve always believed that capital can be an agent for good in that regard”
Sherrese Clarke Soares is the investor behind the trademarked phrase “content is queen” - a play on the well-known media slogan, “content is king”. For Clarke Soares, the queen’s power on the chessboard is the ability to move in any direction, mirrored by the ability of content to go in any direction, exist in many formats, and transcend physical boundaries.
“I wanted to impact how the world saw people like me. And the fastest way to do that is through content, because it travels to places you and I can’t go with our hands and feet.”
Clarke Soares founded her own global investment firm, HarbourView Equity Partners in 2021. With over 20 years experience in corporate finance, capital markets, and private equity, she brings to the table a successful track record in the music industry and a goal to partner with the creative economy, investing in media assets. Since its formation, HarbourView has acquired more than 40 artist catalogues.
Growing up, Clarke Soares played the piano and listened to the rhythmic sounds of soca and reggae; music which used to be a very local experience, made more accessible via technology. Through the course of her life, Clarke Soares has valued having a different perspective, embracing a different view that might not fit the status quo.
“[Music is] a core part of the human experience.”
On a personal level, the idea that “content is queen” resonates for Clarke Soares as a Black female founder, and she has forged a space for herself in an industry notorious for lacking in diversity. She joined GE Capital in 2004, before moving to CIT Group to develop their entertainment practice. In 2009, Clarke Soares became a managing director at Morgan Stanley where she founded their Entertainment, Media, & Sports Structured Solutions platform. Prior to HarbourView, Clarke Soares was the founder, CEO and Board Director for Tempo Music.
Her professional background not only exemplifies her journey to diversify the world of finance and private equity, it also demonstrates her impact as a change agent in the music industry where for every Black female executive, there are 17.7 white males. Clarke Soares is under no impression that she will be the only force of change, but she is very happy to be part of the process. Her aim is to create an institution of scale & starting HarbourView is her contribution to inspire others.
“There are going to be aspiring, talented young women of colour who will see themselves in her, and this will give them the vision and hopefully the courage, to try to be the next Sherrese.”
- Reggie Love, Apollo Global Management Senior Advisor
About HarbourView Equity Partners
Founded in 2021, HarbourView Equity Partners is a global investment firm focused on investing in intellectual property. HarbourView is backed with up to $1 billion in investment capital from Apollo Global Management through its credit arm.
On the importance of data
“Data is a core part of what I do, no matter what angle you’re looking at it from. Whether it’s penetration rates around streaming globally, or it’s usage or it’s sub source of income in different regions. I’m a huge consumer of data. All of that data is really important, and it helps to shape perspective on where to go and how to think about what’s next.”
“[A] data-focused mindset actually leads to the truth”
On entertainment IP as an asset class
“I believe in the asset class deeply for a few reasons. I really believe that content, whether film or TV, is a vessel for change and communication. It travels to places that you and I can’t get to and it educates us about other cultures, other people, other spaces.”
On investing in content
“The world of institutional investors are waking up to the ability for content to be the linchpin, to be the tip of the spear to actually drive outcomes.”
On innovative investing
“A lot of investors tend to do the same playbook over and over again, or a template that, you know, many other people do. We’re very focused on building a pathway that allows us to not take anything for granted, to not come into a situation with preconceived notions, [and] to really try to identify what we think our value-add is to an opportunity set, whether it’s in music or otherwise and how we really can envision the future!”
“I wasn’t the template. I had to find ways and think about ways to build my career and my opportunity set very differently. What that means for us is that our perspective is not coloured by any preconceived notions. We are constantly looking for what does the data tell us.”
On the influence of content
“You can be on the other side of the world, and have an understanding, whether right or wrong, of what it means to be a Black woman, simply by what you’ve seen or heard or listened to on television or in music. So that’s an extraordinary amount of power that content has to create subconscious points of view”
“[Music is] ephemeral, and it’s everywhere, and it allows it to really kind of be resilient on a relative basis.”
On the power of music
“When you stop and realize how personal music is to everyone’s individual experience, it’s not about being the cool kid. It’s just about being human and connecting to the fact that everybody has something that they love. That thing that they love may or may not be in the top forty. That’s a core part of how we think about our investing style, too. It’s appreciating that I never have to have heard of an artist before. We think that it’s meaningful and relevant to somebody.”
“I believe in the power and the impact of what content does. You know, obviously, it brings stories across the world and has the ability to shape hearts and minds.”
On democratising culture
"I grew up consuming mainstream culture, Black culture, and my own Jamaican immigrant culture. When I went to my first Cannes Film Festival in the early 2000s, I realized how much of the culture we consume was curated by a sliver of individuals. But we've entered a brave new world, beyond the analog and digital world of the last two decades. Culture continues to be democratized. I want the unseen, unheard, and underinvested to become stakeholders in the value created by content."
On access to content
“There are now multiple access points… [there’s] a growing ability for audiences to find their thing… we now have a lot of opportunity to drill down deep and allow audiences to pick things that are specific to them.”
“There’s a lot of value in local markets with local language, or local music becoming more global. It goes back to why I love content as a vessel. Five years ago, Afrobeats or K-Pop was not as ubiquitous as it is today. Now it’s everywhere. There’s a huge opportunity to bring local perspectives to global markets as well.”
On the journey to launching HarbourView
“Sometimes I tell people I was an accidental entrepreneur. I grew up consuming mainstream culture, black culture, and my own immigrant culture. As a long time investor in entertainment, I have long desired to bring the convergence of my own experience to the formula that creates content. For decades, I was able to build a track record, forge strong relationships in this industry, and now launch my own firm.”
On the changing face of content
“The demand for content has just become insatiable. And so there is so much opportunity to find ways to deliver content to a variety of different audiences.”
“We care deeply about setting the table differently, which allows us to invest differently and be the change we want to see in the world.”
On her team
“My strategy for attracting talent is to defy convention – deviating from traditional pipelines for private equity / asset management talent. I seek to find talent where others don’t typically look. As a result, every team I have led throughout my career has been incredibly diverse and authentically so. It is important to me to allow room for everyone to be seen and have a voice. It makes us all better investors.”
“My superpower is seeing things that others don’t necessarily see”
On creating lasting change
“There are so many places where one could look to find opportunities for progress and change. I’m under no illusion that I can change the world myself, but I’m happy to be part of it. I care deeply about giving back and anything I do will have an element of being present in our communities.”
On supporting the next generation
“I’ve been very fortunate over the years to basically have exposure to people who have built great businesses, who have seen lots of things, seen lots of different points of adversity, but also made way, made time to pour back into me. And so we think it’s responsible for us to pour back into others too.”
Her favourite song?
“One of my favourite songs is As by Stevie Wonder. It’s something I continue to play and listen to and go to. It’s my happy place.”
Sources
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