Nasir Jones, better known as Nas, is one of the greater rappers to ever breathe on a mic. In the past few years, Nas stepped outside of music and built his cred as a tech investor. He’s invested in over 40 companies as a founding partner of Queensbridge Venture Partners and doesn’t plan on stopping.
Nas first got hooked on startups when he heard the word “investment” in school.
“You invest your time, you can invest money and it was just a matter of time before it all fell into place for me. That’s one of the things that I thought a lot about as a young kid — the guys behind the scenes who make things happen, help build people up, make dreams come true,” Nas said in an interview with Fast Company.
After his success in music, he told CNBC he wanted to get into tech “to be surrounded by the smartest people in the world, and didn’t want to limit that to just music.”
Anthony Saleh, Nas’ manager and partner at QueensBridge, told CNBC that the firm invests from $100,000 to $500,000 in a company. 100 companies pitch QueensBridge Ventures every month but they invest in fewer than three of them. Several companies Nas has invested in have been big winners. Here are some of the most notable ones in no particular order:
Nas wants “to see how you started, why you started, what are your goals and what have you done so far to get where you are, on your own.” If you’re considering pitching to QueensBridge, get your New York state of mind on and send him a note.
Rule the world.