Harold Hughes
PROFILE
Harold Hughes is a serial entrepreneur and currently serves as the CXO and co-founder of Catalyst Labs, an entrepreneur support organization he co-founded to help provide entrepreneurs with the resources and community they need to launch, build, and scale their companies. He is also the founder of Bandwagon, a South Carolina-based live experience technology company. Under his leadership, Bandwagon has raised more than $4M in venture capital and successfully acquired IdealSeat, Inc. in 2020.
As a first-generation American, Harold prioritized education, receiving two bachelor’s degrees (Economics and Political Science) from Clemson University and later received his MBA from Clemson while he led business development at a Fortune 1000 company based in Greenville, South Carolina. As a web3 builder and community leader, Harold published “A Kids Book About Blockchain” to help educate people “from 6 to 60” about the revolutionary technology that Bandwagon specializes in.
As a community builder, Harold co-founded Catalyst Labs, where he provides resources and a 12-week accelerator curriculum to help support the next generation of entrepreneurs. While his expertise focuses on go-to-market strategies and business development, as an experienced operator, Harold has helped founders go from the idea stage to scaling as an advisor and fractional operator.
Harold is also an active angel investor, primarily investing in women, people of colour, and Black founder-led companies. Most notably, he has invested in Partake Foods, the Jay-Z-backed CPG company making allergy-friendly snacks, and companies like Liquid Death, Athletic Greens, Republic, Stix, Major League Pickleball, and Broadway plays like Merrily We Roll Along, Hell’s Kitchen, and The Wiz on Broadway.
SPEAKING TOPICS
Work-Life Balance is a Myth!
The concept of Work-Life Balance has become increasingly discussed lately while becoming seemingly impossible to achieve. If you have ever felt this, you are in for a treat as we unpack the myth of Work-Life Balance and shift our focus to Work-Life Prioritization. We will talk about healthy habits, responsible routines, and productive processes that we can all apply to feel better at home and work.
Underestimated: Keys to Navigating Being a Person of Colour in Tech
As a first-generation American and son to Jamaican parents, Harold knows what it is like to overcome challenges. Being one of 5 children growing up in Columbia, South Carolina, he understood what it was like to grow up without some of the key resources that he needed. Now, an entrepreneur, Harold shares his story with others as well as his hacks for overcoming the challenges of being a person in colour in tech as it relates to growing your network, raising capital, and getting in the door with your first customer.
Blockchain Beyond the Coin
Like many great innovations, the first use case isn’t always the best one. Harold and his team have navigated the adoption of blockchain technology in an enterprise environment to show that crypto doesn’t only mean cryptocurrencies. Harold will share his thoughts on permissioned-blockchains, Zero-Knowledge Proof, and other enterprise level solutions in the blockchain space.
