Sherrese Clarke Soares Explains Why Content Is Queen Trapital

“Content is queen” is the mantra of this week’s Trapital’s guest, Sherrese Clarke Soares. The phrase has a double-meaning. For one, it’s the heart of her investment firm, HarbourView Equity Partners, which specializes in acquiring content across the entertainment, sports, and media sectors. But on a personal level, the phrase also represents her unique place in the industry as a rare Black and female founder. 

Sherrese founded HarbourView in 2021. This came on the heels of founding Tempo Music and ten-plus years at Morgan Stanley. These experiences have put Sherrese front and center with IP, understanding not only its financial incentives, but its cultural value too.

HarbourView is backed with up to $1 billion in investment capital from Apollo Global Management. Within months of its founding, HarbourView acquired the music catalog of Luis Fonsi and with that, the decade-defining hit “Despacito.” It was the latest splash in the booming business of catalog sales that ecliped over $5 billion in 2021 alone. 

What’s Sherrese's strategy with Fonsi’s catalog plus other IP acquisitions? You’ll want to listen to the full episode to find out, plus a whole lot more. Here’s everything we covered during our interview:

[3:27] Why Sherrese Created Her Own Firm, HarbourView
[6:55] Why HarbourView Team Looks Different Than Any Other Investment Group
[10:31] Hip-Hop Investments Being Overlooked
[15:28] Why HarbourView Acquired Luis Fonsi’s Music Catalog
[17:21] HarbourView’s “Forever Owner” Strategy To IP
[22:47] Owning IP In web3 
[24:22] Owning IP Vs. Owning Distribution 
[28:24] Current Market Conditions Impact On Catalog Investments
[33:39] Music Industry In Better Shape Now Compared To 2008 Recession
[35:54] Building A Next-Gen Asset Management Firm
[37:25] Opportunities In Reggae & Ska
[39:11] Importance of Mentorship in Private Equity


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Host: Dan Runcie, @RuncieDan, trapital.co

Guests: Sherrese Clarke Soares, @sherreseclarkesoares
 
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TRANSCRIPTION
[00:00:00] Sherrese Clarke Soares: We want to be one of the largest buyers, if not the largest buyer, of music catalogs, but we're also investing outside of music in how do we create cross-pollination across the music that we own to other places where we may invest as well. So we think there's lots and lots and lots of upside around owning premium content. So we are very focused on being kind of as close to the IP as possible or the IP creation or development, or actually ownership of the IP, because we think that that's going to drive huge, huge upside. 
[00:00:27] Dan Runcie: Hey, welcome to the Trapital podcast. I'm your host and the founder of Trapital, Dan Runcie. This podcast is your place to gain insights from executives in music, media, entertainment, and more who are taking hip-hop culture to the next level. 
[00:00:54] Dan Runcie: Today's guest is Sherrese Clarke Soares. She's the founder and CEO of HarbourView Equity Partners, a global investment firm that's focused on premium content across the entertainment, sports, and media sectors. You may know the name from some of the music catalog acquisitions she's done a couple months back.
[00:01:14] Dan Runcie: The firm acquired Luis Fonsi's catalog and got one of the biggest hits of the 21st century with Despacito. So we talked about that and we talked about Sherrese's strategy more broadly for the firm. One of the things that has always stuck out to me about the music investment space is that you don't see as many big deals for hip-hop, R&B, or genres outside of the US, especially considering how popular all of these are in the streaming era and li