Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael Berkowitz
Hi Michael, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Myself (Michael Berkowitz) and my co-founder, Doug Landers, both grew up in the Washington, D.C. area and originally met in 8th grade during chorus class at Landon School in Bethesda, Maryland.
We instantly became good friends, and stayed close throughout high school and our freshman year of college even though Doug went to Duke University in Durham North Carolina to study Mandarin Chinese, and I went to Berklee College of Music in Boston Massachusetts to study Music Business and continue pursuing the singer/songwriter route. During High School, we had the same lunch period because we did chorus and a capella club together. Doug and I would have these amazing intellectual conversations spanning philosophy, art, politics, sports, music, culture, and pretty much everything under the sun. I’ve always been very social and great at both connecting people, and connecting with people. I was the person folks would text on a Friday afternoon to find out what parties and social gatherings were going on that weekend. By the time I graduated high school, I can confidently say that I knew a majority of high school age kids in the DMV. My outgoing personality and genuine love of the human experience has always been one of my greatest strengths. I could talk to anyone about anything, but talking with Doug was a special experience. I remember coming away from the lunch table thinking “this is the most intelligent person I’ve ever met.” I knew that I wanted to be an entrepreneur from an early age, and I had this list on my phone of “people I’d want to start a business with.” There were many people on the list, but Doug Landers was ranked #1.
Doug and I stayed close during our freshman year of college, and would regularly call each other to joke about dropping out to start a business because the economy was booming. Well, It wasn’t really joking, but we knew our parents would not be happy at the thought of us not finishing our undergraduate degrees.
In the fall of our sophomore year of college, Doug had taken some time off from Duke and was working in Boston. He would come to my shows, studio sessions, and events. I was running a music collective at Berklee, connecting artists with producers, engineers, managers, and band mates. It was a fun time, but the DIY singer/songwriter path was excruciatingly difficult and pretty emotionally taxing. I was nowhere close to being the most talented musician, performer, or producer, but I did have a knack for finding the right people to work with and connecting the dots as an entrepreneur in the music space.
In the spring of our sophomore year, our lives were completely thrown off track by the global pandemic. The COVID lockdowns hit, classes went online, I became pretty disillusioned with the singer/songwriter path and began to focus more on the business side of things, altering my curriculum to focus on music business and creative entrepreneurship as classes went online. For the most part, everyone we knew was spending all day scrolling on TikTok while half paying attention to their zoom lectures. We had a few friends who were doing decently well on social media at the time and, very organically, we started talking with them about what problems they were encountering day-to-day. One thing led to another and soon enough, Doug and I began taking on a pseudo “manager” role for those friends. We began helping on everything from structuring brand partnerships on their behalf to helping them think about hiring their own staff and creating more sophisticated business structures.
We had some early insights about the TikTok algorithm that gave us the tools to help our clients grow really fast. We also had a knack for helping to connect people with the right talent, and hire content production teams. Within a few months we had several clients that were doing really well, gaining massive followings, and getting real interest from brands. We took that initial success and decided to dive into helping creators full time. I moved down to Durham NC with Doug while classes were still remote at Berklee, and we went all in on Greenlight Group. That is when things really started gaining traction for us. Although I did end up moving back to Boston in 2022 to finish my undergrad at Berklee while Doug stayed in Durham to finish up at Duke, we remained committed to growing the business as our main focus, not taking a single cent out of the business until we had both graduated. Now, over 4 years later, we represent some of the top creators in the world with an aggregate following of 200 million and 70 billion lifetime views across the Greenlight Group Roster. Our clients have been featured on the Forbes Top Creators List, won Creator of the Year, been the fastest growing creators in the world, and have received a bunch of other accolades that have been extremely fulfilling for Doug and myself. We have grown with our top clients from the ground up, and are extremely grateful for the success we’ve had, and more passionate than ever about continuing to quarterback the careers of our talent and elevate what Greenlight Group has the capability to do.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Of course not. We’ve had a ton of challenges along the way and unlimited fire drills that Doug, myself, and our amazing team have had to deal with. I think the difference is that we very much expect the challenges and the hard times as just part of the process. Doug and I view Greenlight Group as the #1 representation company in the world. We understand that in order to prove that to others we will, by definition, have to be able to deal with big challenges and sophisticated problems, internally and externally. In that sense, we don’t look at struggles as a negative sign at all – it’s a sign we’re headed into territory we haven’t been in before.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Greenlight Group?
Greenlight Group is a talent management company for the top digital creators in the world. We’ve been around for 4 years and the difference in our strategy can be summarized in one sentence: we sign the person, not the following. We look for talented and ambitious creators who are looking for a manager to help them expand their portfolio of brand partners but who are also looking for a thought partner to help grow as an entrepreneur over the course of many years. In that sense, we like to work with creators early in the career and develop them over the course of years. We also stick to a tight roster of creators who are all superstars or future superstars. This is markedly different from most management companies that sign every creator they can get their hands on and only look at current following and views as the litmus test for potential success. We’re very proud of where we’ve come from as many of our clients have been with us for years and have now become the top creators in their niche.
What were you like growing up?
Doug and I both come from a sports background. I played Basketball growing up at a very high level and Doug played Lacrosse at a high level. So, that athletic competitive drive is something that we both feel. It drives us to constantly improve and be goal oriented but process focused. I think we take a lot of life lessons from the time we spent as serious athletes and apply it to what we do at Greenlight. We are also renaissance men, having diverse interests in the arts and humanities. We play instruments, like to read, take in popular media, and think outside the box. Doug and I also love Chess. We didn’t realize this until a few years ago, but we both would go to the US Chess Center in downtown Washington D.C. on the weekends and compete with other kids in elementary school. We didn’t meet each other there, but it is a funny coincidence. Another thing to note here is that I am the youngest of four kids, with three older sisters, and Doug is the oldest of three, with two younger sisters. Our skills and expertise are extremely complimentary. Furthermore, our friendship is deep, and has only been strengthened by our partnership in running Greenlight Group.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://greenlightgroup.co/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ballinlikeberk/
Image Credits
Bryan DeAlmeida
