If there was a best candidate for a tech and entertainment fireside chat at Georgia Tech, it most certainly was local rap artist T.I.
T.I., also known as Tip Harris, joined the stage with business partner Vernell Woods, founder and CEO of Moolah Mobile, and moderator Magnus Egerstedt, the Steve W. Chaddick School Chair of Georgia Tech's School of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
Monday night, the rapper discussed his personal success, what drives him as an entrepreneur and even convinced Georgia Tech to create scholarships for Atlanta Public School students. Atlanta Inno has confirmed the scholarships are happening, though it's unclear where the funding is coming from and what T.I.'s involvement will be.
Egerstedt said the chat was the first in a series featuring fireside conversations at Georgia Tech with "characters" in Atlanta's community. Seats for the chat sold out in under an hour when tickets first went on sale.
"As a public university, we have a mission, and that's to be a partner to local communities and neighborhoods," he said. "We want to be a more open and inclusive partner for our communities."
Egerstedt kicked off the chat by asking how T.I. went from rapper to business mogul.
"First of all, even before I was a rapper, I was an entrepreneur ... I had that entrepreneurial spirit ... I've been investing in myself far before people knew who T.I. was," the rapper said. One of T.I.'s first business ventures was in the fourth grade, when he started selling candy bars to students and neighborhood kids.
That hustle didn't stop when his first album came out and didn't receive the attention it deserved from the label. The struggle led T.I. to travel to malls, clubs, projects and other places to get his album in people's hands.
"What I could ascertain was that the only reason people weren't buying is because people hadn't heard it," he said.
T.I. later took everyone's favorite songs from the first album, made a few more tracks and released a mixtape. When he finally received more recognition from his label, T.I. said he knew it was his efforts that got his music to where it was. He told the recording company he needed $2 million and a joint venture to continue working for them. The label released him.
"I have the ability to recognize potential that others may be able to walk past."
"That was the best thing (they) could have done for me, at that time ... I was a free agent ... I negotiated a $3 million deal with a joint venture three weeks later," he said.
While his passion is music, T.I. said the one thing his talent for beats and business have in common is diversity.
"I have the ability to recognize potential that others may be able to walk past," he said. T.I. credits this skill to why he's had several profitable ventures. In fact, it's the very reason why he bought an old backdoor event space for a nominal price and turned it into Atlanta's Trap Music Museum.
That skill also led to the collaboration with Woods, a former Georgia Tech student whose app Moola Mobile is designed for users to earn money on their cell phone by watching and participating in ads on their mobile devices.
"I invest in people more than I do technology ventures," T.I. said. "I believe in Vernell. I don’t know which ambitious harebrained schemes is going to pop … but I believe he has the vision."
Woods said he was first introduced to T.I. in a local bar when he was struggling to find investors for his first company.
"I was struggling to find investors who wanted to invest in me ... you're asking someone to take a chance on you as a person," he said.
Woods said he pushed his way through the crowd around T.I., who first dismissed him, and said, "I'm trying to make a billion dollars."
"He talked me into it," T.I. said.
The two have worked on several ventures together, including Woods' Moolah Mobile app.
"What my intelligent friend is trying to say is, we're giving away free money," the rapper said of the application. "If you download this app and you engage, you accumulate free money."
With the right partnerships, T.I. said he thinks the app could even replace the need for welfare. "It's a very minute effort. All you really need is a phone," he said.
"You can wait for someone to fix it, or you can do it yourself."
When asked how Georgia Tech could improve on becoming a better partner to local communities in Atlanta, T.I. said, "the problems that plague our community---they can all be traced back to three voids: the lack of formidable education, the lack of opportunity and the lack of exposure."
Egerstedt said 125 Atlanta Public School students were in attendance at the fireside chat, and if he had 25 in his class next year, it would be a success.
"How about we give 25 scholarships?" T.I. prompted, to the cheers and applause from the audience. Egerstedt applauded T.I.'s suggestion and stood up to shake his hand.
Atlanta Inno has confirmed with a Georgia Tech representative that "the scholarships are real, indeed," though details need to be finalized.
T.I. said the spirit of entrepreneurs and leaders such as Alonzo Herndon, Atlanta's first black millionaire, Maynard Jackson, Atlanta's first black mayor, and civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr. laid the foundation of the Atlanta we see today. The rapper said he wouldn't describe himself as an activist since he's in the "for-profit business."
Woods addressed the students in the audience, and said they were likely seeing problems all around them in their daily lives.
"You can wait for someone to fix it, or you can do it yourself," he said. "So for me, personally, failure really isn’t an option ... When you set your mind to something, go for it, solve problems and challenge everything you can. Realize you need help."
T.I. echoed Woods sentiments, and said collaboration was a key piece to successful entrepreneurship.
"The first thing the smartest person in the world must know is what they don’t know," he said.
