DIVINE

CEO + Founder at NOTES with RAKIM | AWS Impact Accelerator Alum '22 | VISA Inclusive Fintech Accelerator Alum '24 | DEN Member | ForbesBLK Member

[DIVINE @divine4thletter]

Salute and congratulations to my brotha and NOTES (@notestechnology) comrade The God RAKIM (@thegodrakim) on the 39th anniversary of his debut album, “Paid In Full”, that dropped today 39 years ago on Tuesday July 7, 1987…the Hip-Hop game was never the same…blessings Beloved! 🫡🫡🫡 🤲🏾🤲🏾🤲🏾

[a16z @a16z]

Travis Kalanick says a leader's job is to find the line between order and chaos:

"On one side is order. You have lots of rules, lots of structure, lots of process, and eventually lots of bureaucracy."

"If you go to the other side of the line, which is chaos, lack of rules, lack of process, lack of structure... you also get to a place where you're going slow and people are bummed."

"That line between order and chaos is innovation at speed and at scale, and the job of every leader is to find that line. And it's not in two dimensions. It's like in eighty dimensions."

"Go back to launch at Uber... There's a bunch of 23-year-olds launching cities... Nothing would actually launch until it got to a pricing call... It could be eight, ten hours of pricing calls before we launched London."

"I never solved the same problem twice. Once we solved it, it became part of the playbook, and eventually we get to city 20 and that pricing call takes five minutes. I stopped going to them."

"So now I've got one rule, which is that pricing call. The fewest number of rules while staying out of chaos. If you didn't have that one rule, you now have 23-year-olds running around doing crazy shit."

@travisk w/ @davidsenra

[DIVINE @divine4thletter]

@DarrelFrater @OralRobertsU 🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾

[Naithan Jones @NaithanJones]

My life radically improved after I instituted what I call a “radical forward looking policy”. A lot of absolute bullcrap happened to me this past year and a half and ruminating on it all froze me. Then I made a promise to god that no matter what happens, I get a day to unpack it for learning purposes. I journal those lessons, then I move forward. No regret, no shame, no wallowing, no wondering why, no bitterness with people or events. As a part of this I make peace with world as a teacher. Since then literally everything has changed for the better. Everything positive. Anxiety has disappeared, sleep is better, productivity is way up, creativity is way up, and so is satisfaction. Looking backwards is a poison. I refuse to sip it ever again.

[DIVINE @divine4thletter]

@NaithanJones 🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾

[Darrel Frater ✝️ @DarrelFrater]

TGN Ventures has expanded to daily events inside our founder community, The Good News LOOP!

Every weekday, founders now have a place to learn, build, ask questions, and connect with experienced operators, investors, attorneys, and fellow entrepreneurs.

Here’s what’s happening this week:
MONDAY
🙏🏿 First Fruits — 8:30–9:30 AM CT
Begin your workweek with Jesus.

📈 MULTIPLY — 4–5 PM CT
Weekly GTM & Sales Office Hours featuring Tauri Laws - Phillips, CEO of DivInc.

TUESDAY
🚪 The Upper Room — 4–5 PM CT
Founder Office Hours featuring Sadiq Edu, Co-Founder & CEO of Pika Insights.

WEDNESDAY
⚖️ Wise Counsel — 5–6 PM CT
Weekly Legal Office Hours featuring Abraham J. Williamson, Esq., Principal Venture Counsel at Williamson PLLC.

THURSDAY
🛠️ The Builder’s Table — 5–6 PM CT
Weekly Product & MVP Office Hours with Amadeu Tolentino, Founder of Loop.

FRIDAY
💰 Investor Office Hours — Noon–2 PM CT
Featuring Shane Ray Martin, Venture Partner at B Ventures Group and Nisha Dua Managing Partner and Co-Founder at BBG Ventures.

Whether you need support with faith, sales, product, legal, fundraising, or simply want to be around other builders, there’s now a room for you every day.

Join us this week in The Good News LOOP.

[a16z @a16z]

Travis Kalanick showed up to fundraise for several stealth companies at once. Ben Horowitz only needed to check one thing:

Ben: "The other thing that I learned was he was still Travis. He hadn't turned into... He wasn't living his best life. He wasn't doing that. I was at conviction very fast."

Travis: "We actually had separate companies going. So when I went to do the fundraise, I showed up at a16z like the guy with a trench coat with a bunch of watches saying, 'You want a watch? Which watch would you like? I got lots of stuff. Do you want some food stuff? I've got some mining stuff.'"

"They're like, 'We just want the stuff.' And we heard that from the first few people we talked to... I had to merge separate entities with different investors and put it together."

"You see some of the things with Elon, and he's starting to put the pieces back together... He was managing five or six or seven different companies. So I was really trying to put it together under a single roof."

@bhorowitz @travisk

[a16z @a16z]

Travis Kalanick says entrepreneurs need pissed-off energy:

"When you get into your 3rd and 4th, this may be even my 5th at this point, company, you get fricking really good at doing stuff."

"Things that used to take me a day or 3 days, a lot of stress, anxiety, like how am I gonna do this, take me like 45 minutes."

"I'm so used to adversity at this point that it's kind of normal, so I don't get as pissed off. But being pissed off makes you good as an entrepreneur, so I gotta make sure I'm still fired up."

"You get too used to adversity, and that's kind of a problem."

@travisk @bhorowitz

[DIVINE @divine4thletter]

@NaithanJones 🔥🔥🔥 🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾

[Naithan Jones @NaithanJones]

looking backwards freezes you. You have to look forward

You will experience uncharitable behavior, jealous people will tell lies, weak people will accept them, you will experience tragedies, calamities, loss, etc

You must not dwell on any of that

You must press forward

[XXL Magazine @XXL]

53 years ago today, hip-hop was born 🙏

DJ Kool Herc’s Back to School party marked the start of it all.

[DIVINE @divine4thletter]

@sridharfyi @thegodrakim @notestechnology https://t.co/Nc0FeL4bWr

[DIVINE @divine4thletter]

@sridharfyi Building the Intelligent Operating Ecosystem for independent urban music artists and creators in the global creator economy, with Hip-Hop legend @thegodrakim. Merging Music, Money + Knowledge, @notestechnology empowers them to build sustainable careers while retaining ownership.

[Darrel Frater ✝️ @DarrelFrater]

Last night was more than a celebration. It was a reminder of what can happen when faith, entrepreneurship, and community come together.

Thank you to News on 6 for covering our banquet and helping share the story of The Center For Faith & Business as we celebrated one year of serving entrepreneurs.

Over the past year, we’ve worked to help founders grow their businesses through biblical principles, mentorship, resources, capital, and community. Seeing that mission recognized by our local news was incredibly meaningful.

We’re grateful to every entrepreneur, mentor, investor, partner, donor, and friend who has supported this vision.

This is only the beginning.

We believe Tulsa can become a global destination for faith-driven entrepreneurship, and we’re excited to continue building toward that future.

Thank you again to News on 6 for joining us and sharing the good news. 🙏🏿

[TheSoundMind @Bigdawg_Fly]

Richard Pryor and Pam Grier in Paris, 1977. Pure Black excellence.🖤

[DIVINE @divine4thletter]

@NaithanJones 🔥🔥🔥 🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾

[Naithan Jones @NaithanJones]

On the anniversary of The Who’s most iconic album “Who’s next” I wanted to drop this story about my dad, a guitarist who played with the band and why being an incredibly talented creative isn’t enough. You have to learn business savvy

[Hubert Thieblot @hthieblot]

I’m begging you, never quit as a founder.

It’s 0 for longer than you’ll ever expect. No momentum. Soul-crushing doubts. Nobody seems to care.

Even when it looks like it’s working, it’s not. You keep trying new things. You don’t lose hope.

Then it snaps to 100.

You find the one thing that resonates. You wake up with more customers than you can handle. Everything is breaking. Momentum builds even when you stop pushing.

You didn’t get lucky. You just didn’t leave.

[RAKIM @thegodrakim]

.@paidinfullorg, established to honor the Grandmasters who changed the game. Get involved. Support the history.

The Hip Hop Grandmaster Awards
Saturday October 24th 2026
The Bellagio Resort & Casino
Las Vegas, Nevada

Buy Tickets Now: https://t.co/wDsD5scoNH

[DIVINE @divine4thletter]

@thegodrakim @paidinfullorg 🔥🔥🔥