Troy Carter
Founder & CEO, Venice Music. On 2 shows, 8 appearances, plus 1 compilation re-air not counted. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
founderexecutiveinvestor@atomfactory ↗venicemusic.co ↗Wikipedia ↗Instagram ↗
Troy Carter rose to prominence managing superstar artists including Lady Gaga, Eve, Meghan Trainor, and John Legend through his company Atom Factory, later serving as Global Head of Creator Services at Spotify. As an early-stage tech investor, he backed major startups including Uber, Lyft, Dropbox, and Spotify before co-founding music platform Venice Music.
2shows
8appearances
63statements
12resolved
8supported
3contradicted
67%fully supported
7said about them ↓ Everything Troy Carter said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Troy Carter: White executives literally hold 'head of Black music' titles
“You actually, believe it or not, have white people that are the heads of black music with a title at some of these companies.”
Troy Carter: America will never achieve true racial reconciliation
“So we're still reminded of our place in, in, in this country, so you'll never get to reconciliation. We all know the truth, but we'll never get to reconciliation.”
Music industry executive diversity is far worse than the NFL
“The music industry is much, much worse than the NFL. What black music has contributed financially to the music industry, What black culture has contributed, you know, financially to the music industry, and when you look at the ratio of actual black executives …”
White executives hold 'Head of Black Music' titles at some labels
“You actually, believe it or not, have white people that are the heads of black music with a title at some of these companies. You know, it's, and literally you have qualified black executives in the company, but actual white people with a title, the head of bl…”
Troy Carter: America will never reach true racial reconciliation
“So we're still reminded of our place in, in, in this country, so you'll never get to reconciliation. We all know the truth, but we'll never get to reconciliation.”
Troy Carter: Black founders need equal capital access, not charity
“Like, those Black businesses should be held to the same standard of return on capital. It's just the opportunity to have access to that capital, have access to the support and training that Y Combinator companies may get, or that, you know, first-round capital…”
Troy Carter: The era of high digital ad returns is over
“Because I just feel like you're never gonna get that return back from ads. What it is, is that, that era's over with, you know, so, so I feel like the storytelling piece of it is the way you can sort of get the attention you need around it.”
Carter: Managing software engineers is identical to managing recording artists
“Dude, me, like working with engineers now, you know, with our new startup, I'm like, You know what? They are so close, it's as close as you can get to managing the artists by the way.”
Carter invested blindly in ContextLogic and missed the Wish pivot
“And you said you were gonna invest, and you said Troy, you should put some money in. And, you know, I honestly, I had no idea what Peter was talking about. Like, I had, you know, a little inkling, but you trusted him so much, and I trusted you so much, I'm lik…”
Carter: Philadelphia has not approved a single charter school in eight years
“Philadelphia hasn't approved one charter school in eight years since, since this mayor's been in office.”
Carter forbids his children from using race as an excuse
“I don't allow my kids to use race as an excuse, and...
Yeah, and I, it's not allowed in my house, and like, it's just something I firmly believe in”
Black founders need equal capital access and standard ROI expectations, not charity
“Like those black businesses should be held to the same standard of return on capital. It's just the opportunity to have access to that capital. Have access to the support and training that Y Combinator companies may get, or that, you know, first-round capital …”
Carter: Record labels have 'screwed over artists for generations'
“Record income traditionally has been your smallest piece of the pie because record labels have screwed over artists for generations. So you're always forced to go on the road and sell merchandise and do all of these other things to subsidize the income essenti…”
Lady Gaga Fired Carter by Asking to Go in Another Direction
“She walked in and say I'm, I want to go in another direction, basically.”
Carter: Label Wanted Lady Gaga's Songs For Britney Spears
“And, you know, I think we worked on the music for almost nine or 10 months, and then we took it to the record label, and the record label said, oh, those songs are great, let's give this to the Pussycat Dolls, let's give this to Britney Spears.”
Troy Carter: The majority of celebrity brand partnerships do not work
“You know, it's most celebrity partnerships don't work. The majority don't work.”
Troy Carter: Transactional celebrity brand partnerships usually fail
“You know, making sure that is not transactional. You know, if it was me sitting in that seat, I would want somebody who's in love with my product and mission aligned with the vision of the company. And if you didn't have to pay them that they still would promo…”
Carter: Behind-the-scenes advisor input moves the needle more than forward-facing promo
“Even with my business, we set aside advisory shares, you know, so it's certain artists I call, some product people I call, and they're just incredibly helpful, you know, and so, and sometimes you may need somebody to do something forward facing, but a lot of t…”
Carter: Independent artists are music's fastest-growing but most underserved sector
“Independent artists, it's one of the fastest growing sectors in the music industry, but at the same time, it's a very underserved market in terms of technology, in terms of services”
Carter: Talent Picking Is Key in Both Music Management and Early-Stage Investing
“I think my personal superpower is being able to pick people, and you know, because as an artist manager, it's like, I can't sign a million artists, you know, so it's like, if you pick, and because you don't make money right away, so it's like, you got to be go…”
Carter: Record labels still lack direct customer relationships due to streaming platforms
“All of the technology that's been introduced to the music industry is still one of the only businesses that doesn't have a direct relationship with its customer. So like, if you're a record label Spotify or Apple music or YouTube, they have the direct relation…”
Troy Carter: Wealth doesn't protect Black Americans from systemic racial bias
“Money doesn't matter, and power doesn't matter. It's just this bias that, that's sort of baked in and the recipe of America that we've had to live with,”
Charlie Puth refused to soundcheck until venue removed its Confederate flag
“And then we went to Ohio after, and on stage, it was a Confederate flag right behind the stage, and Charlie Puth refused to go on for his soundtracks. Until they took that flag down.”
The other half of the tape: Troy Carter's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 7 times in 5 episodes across the shows. every mention, with the transcript →
Who brings them up most Guy Raz 7
Every mention by year
tap a year for its mentions
How I Built This 7
2025 1 mention in 1 episode
2020 3 mentions in 1 episode
2019 3 mentions in 3 episodes 1 per episode
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Troy's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HOW I BUILT THISLEDGER | Founder & CEO, Venice Music | 7 +1 | 55 | 80% 8/10 | full record on How I Built This → |
 AMERICAN OPTIMISTLEDGER | Founder & CEO, Venice Music | 1 | 8 | 0% 0/2 | full record on American Optimist → |