随着大多数风险投资（VC）公司将数十亿美元投入人工智能（AI）初创企业，却有少数VC选择投资一个传统上属于低科技领域的行业——音乐会。他们认为，随着人们越来越多地将生活活动转移到屏幕上，能够让人们从这些屏幕上“解脱”出来（即回归现实生活）反而会变得更有价值。Bullpen Capital的管理合伙人保罗·马蒂诺（Paul Martino）表示：“现实生活体验才是对抗AI的最佳方式；唯一能让人逃离AI影响的地方，就是音乐会。”
As most VCs pour billions into AI startups, a select few are making a counterbet on a traditionally low-tech business: Concerts. They figure the more life moves onto screens, the more valuable it will become to get people off them. "Real life experiences are the ultimate hedge against AI," said Paul Martino, managing partner at Bullpen Capital. "The place you're going to escape from AI is a concert."
马蒂诺是大约十几位风险投资家之一，他们总共向总部位于洛杉矶的RASA World公司投资了950万美元。RASA World公司负责在全球范围内举办电子舞曲音乐节和现场活动。本月早些时候，该公司在旧金山海滨举办了一场吸引了3000人的电子舞曲音乐节；本周末，他们将在圣莫尼卡码头举办一场为期两天的音乐节，邀请了DJ Arodes和Claptone表演，预计将有8000人参加。
Martino is one of around a dozen VCs who have invested around $9.5 million into a Los Angeles-based startup RASA World, which produces electronic dance music festivals and live events around the globe. Earlier this month, it hosted an EDM festival for 3,000 people on the San Francisco waterfront. This weekend, it is holding a two-day festival on the Santa Monica pier featuring DJs Arodes and Claptone, with an expected crowd of 8,000 people.
RASA World成立于2023年，由三位经验丰富的科技创业者共同创立。该公司并未将资金用于聘请高价艺人，而是将其用于招聘工程师和数据专家，以开发一套内部“工具”——这套工具由联合创始人兼首席执行官艾哈迈德·穆海森（Ahmad Muhaisen）称为“超级工具”，用于整合门票销售数据、用户社交互动信息以及现场出席人数等数据。
Founded in 2023 by three serial tech entrepreneurs, RASA is decidedly for tech people, by tech people. Rather than spend money on expensive acts, the company has used its capital to hire engineers and data specialists to build what cofounder and CEO Ahmad Muhaisen described as an internal "super tool" to combine the data from ticketing, social interactions, and attendance.
RASA World吸引风险投资家的另一个原因是：其创始人的语言表达方式符合风险投资行业的习惯（即他们使用专业的技术术语）。穆海森解释说：“投资者原本以为会遇到一个擅长组织夜生活的专业人士，但当他们听到诸如‘客户获取成本’、‘客户生命周期价值’以及‘可扩展的传播渠道’这样的术语时，往往会感到非常惊讶。然后他们会意识到：‘等等，你们其实是科技创业者啊！’”
Part of RASA's appeal to VCs is that the founders speak in the lingua franca of venture-backed software. Muhaisen said investors often arrive expecting to meet a slick "nightlife promoter" only to be pleasantly surprised when he throws around terms like customer-acquisition cost, lifetime value, and scalable distribution. "Suddenly they meet us, and they're like, 'Wait, you're tech founders,'" he said.
穆海森在黎巴嫩长大，并在那里学习了计算机工程。后来他移居美国，曾共同创立了一家金融科技公司，但在2022年决定离开这家公司，转而专注于自己一直在旧金山组织的各类活动。他说：“这些活动最初只是在我家里举办的，只有50人参加。”
Muhaisen grew up in Lebanon where he studied computer engineering. After moving to the US, he cofounded a fintech company but left in 2022 to build a business around the gatherings he had been throwing in San Francisco. "These events started with 50 people in my house," Muhaisen said.
突然间，有成千上万的人出现了，他们纷纷租用了那些精美的活动场地。Muhaisen希望 RASA 能成为音乐演出行业的“Palantir”（即一个数据分析平台）——这个平台能够为活动主办方提供关于参与者、他们的社交关系以及他们为何会参加活动的更详细信息。Muhaisen 表示，该公司并不只关注那些在活动中花费最多金钱的人；更重要的是那些能够吸引最多朋友的人。
"Suddenly, there are a thousand people showing up and renting beautiful venues." Muhaisen wants RASA to become the "Palantir" of the concert business: an intelligence layer that gives an event producer a much more detailed picture of its customers, their social ties, and what draws them back. Muhaisen said the company is looking beyond the traditional nightlife metric of who spends the most money. More important is someone who brings the most friends.
“在我们的系统中，我们能够识别出那些真正负责邀请 2 万名参与者的人，”Muhaisen 说。公司会用免费门票或升级服务来奖励这些人。Muhaisen 喜欢使用“体验”这个词，并强调活动场地的美观性（以及这些场地是否适合在 Instagram 上分享）。不过，对于那些期待蒂埃斯托（Tiesto）或卡尔文·哈里斯（Calvin Harris）等知名音乐人的人来说，他们可能会感到失望。
"We know in our system the top thousand people who are responsible for inviting 20,000 people," Muhaisen said. The company can then reward those people with free tickets and upgrades. Muhaisen likes to use the word "experience," and emphasizes scenic (and Instagram-friendly) settings rather than headlining DJs. This is not Coachella. Anyone looking for Tiesto or Calvin Harris will be disappointed.
“如果你追求的是更知名的艺人，那么利润空间就会受到限制，因为这些艺人都是大家争相邀请的对象，”他解释道。与硅谷的务实风格相符，如果你期待酒水服务或免费酒饮，你也会感到失望。“如果有人在我们的活动中享受到了乐趣，即使他们没有喝酒，我们也知道这是一场成功的活动，”Muhaisen 说。RASA 的设计灵感部分来源于 Burning Man 这个活动——几十年来，Burning Man 一直吸引着科技界的精英人士。
"If you're going after bigger and bigger names, the margins suffer because it's a finite group of talent that everyone is fighting for," he explains. In keeping with Silicon Valley's sober kick, you will also be disappointed if you're looking for bottle service and rounds of shots. "If a person has fun at our events without drinking, then we know it's a good event," Muhaisen said. RASA takes some inspiration from Burning Man, which has attracted tech elites for decades.
但随着 Burning Man 参与者年龄的增长，RASA 正试图吸引那些希望在周末去城市里参加活动的年轻人群体。“有些人从未去过 Burning Man，但他们渴望那种社区氛围，”投资 RASA 的 Haystack Ventures 公司的合伙人 Semil Shah 说。“他们不想在野外或沙漠里待上几天甚至几周；他们希望拥有一个更加便捷、舒适的体验。”
But as the demographic of that event gets older, RASA is trying to appeal to younger audiences who want something they can go to in the city on the weekend. "There are people who have not been to Burning Man, but want that community feel," said Semil Shah, a general partner at Haystack Ventures, which backed RASA. "They don't want to go out into the woods or the desert for days or weeks. They want to have a more contained experience."
今年夏天，Bullpen Capital 的 Martino 参加了一场 RASA 举办的音乐会，希望能暂时摆脱如今科技圈里充斥的关于人工智能的讨论……不过，他的愿望并没有完全实现。
Over the summer, Bullpen Capital's Martino went to a RASA concert hoping to get a quick escape from conversations about AI, which dominate tech circles these days. He did not quite succeed.
“参加 RASA 活动，看到一些科技行业的‘狂热支持者’谈论人工智能，真是件有趣的事，”他说。他还补充道，当看到他们终于停下来专心跳舞时，他感到如释重负。“谢天谢地，我们让他们暂时远离了人工智能的话题，哪怕只有 25 分钟也好。”
"It is funny to go to a RASA event and see some of the biggest tech cheerleaders talking about AI," he said, adding he was eventually relieved to see them take at least a momentary break to just focus on dancing. "Thank God we got them away from their AI for 25 minutes," he said.