Objective

Toby Benson is an entertainment #marketer and artist manager, a serial #entrepreneur, angel #investor, and #musician. He's the founder of Discord (music management), co-founder of Versa (talent buying, event programming), and co-creator of The Dojo (experiential events).

Benson operates Discord, a music management company, through which he manages the DJ duo Dada Life (and their various weird satellite projects). Benson also maintains a partnership with Activist, another management company, with whom he works on a band called Empire of The Sun.

Benson's other company, Versa, procures talent and runs experiential/festival operations. Versa has worked with Kimpton Hotels, The Virgin Group, Tencent, Universal Music Group, Absolut, and more. Versa co-owns and produces the largest domestic dance-music festival in China called Vision and Colour (VAC) which is moving operations to Changsha ahead of their October 2020 festival.

Benson has invested in, or been an advisor to, startups including Bread, Hive and SubPac.

Benson was born and raised in London and moved to the United States in 2002. He has spent spread the gospel of dance music to over 70 countries, and visited about 50 of those in the process. He has had the dubious honor of having been to Las Vegas over 60 times (only one of those being by choice).

Subjective

One week into his quarantine, Toby launched a virtual house party called The Dojo with his wife, Monica Benson, Will Cady (how I met Toby), and support from other Citizens of One.

He's a rank-amateur cider maker, is slowly learning Mandarin, continually exploring the construction of his own micronation, and is the proud holder of two Guinness World Records (including the record for the largest pillow fight in history. Toby loves mischief and open to cheeky collaborations.

Contexts

• This is the Root Memo for #toby-benson.

• #citizen-of-one (See: Citizens of One)