Building A Legacy That Transcends with Naithan Jones (Former A16z Partner & Head Of Growth, Royal)

Naithan Jones

Quote - “There's a fundamental misunderstanding of how success actually happens, how success happens is, you pick something to work on, that you don't mind working on in the wee hours of the night, for 20 plus years”

The Afropolitan Podcast spotlights Afropolitans who aren’t afraid to step into the unknown and walk in purpose. With this podcast we hope to empower Africans in the Diaspora to harness their full potential and contribute to the development of a bold and progressive black community.

Our guests will share their working formulas, the hard facts about leaving familiar terrain, embracing the unknown, and staying relevant afterwards.

This episode features Naithan Jones, former partner at A16z and current Head of Growth at Royal. Royal enables anyone to own and earn royalties for their favorite songs.

In 2011, Naithan drove out to silicon valley in his 1994 Corolla with everything he owned and went on to build Ag local, an ecommerce startup that eventually folded up.He later joined Andreessen Horowitz(A16z) where he did amazing work for seven years.

Naithan is a tech executive with over 20 years background in market strategy with emphasis on entrepreneurship, startups and entertainment driven business.

Listen and enjoy as Naithan talks to us about the misconceptions about being a VC and royal’s mission to redistribute the ownership of digital property.

Naithan’s Twitter post
​​https://twitter.com/naithanjones/status/1550151720319303683?s=21

Naithan’s reading list

Hard Things About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=hard+thing+about+hard+things&adgrpid=82923967095&gclid=Cj

Cybernetics by Nobert Weiner
https://www.amazon.com/Cybernetics-Second-Control-Communication-Machine/dp/026273009X

The Human Use Of Human Beings by Nobert Weiner
https://www.amazon.com/Human-Use-Beings-Cybernetics-Society/dp/0306803208

Inner Engineering by Sadhguru
https://www.amazon.com/Inner-Engineering-Yogis-Guide-Joy/dp/0812997794

Man's Search For Meaning
https://www.amazon.com/Mans-Search-Meaning-Viktor-Frankl/dp/080701429X

The Black Jacobins by C.L.R James
https://www.amazon.com/Black-Jacobins-Toussaint-LOuverture-Revolution/dp/0679724672

Power vs Force by David Hawkins
https://www.amazon.com/Power-Force-David-Hawkins-M-D/dp/1401945074

Psychology Of Unconsciousness by C.G Jung
https://www.amazon.com/Psychology-Unconscious-C-G-Jung/dp/0486424995



Show Notes
5:32 What inspired the mindset behind the tweet
11:25 How serving has changed Naithans’s perspective on life and humanity
17:11 Journey to Tech
24:43 Misconceptions about being a VC
33:15 Advice to founders
40:48 The role healing/therapy plays in dealing with past trauma
46:46 Royal’s mission
52:33 Naithan’s Reading list

The Afropolitan Podcast is hosted by Eche Emole, co-founder of Afropolitan.
Listen and subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Jamit, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Want to learn more about Afropolitan?

Twitter - https://twitter.com/afropolitan
Website - https://www.afropolitan.io/
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