UNLOCK THE SECRETS OF SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEURSHIP LEARNED THROUGH THE HIGH-STAKES WORLD OF NIGHTLIFE
Nightlife Lessons
How I conquered the business of partying with tech and a glimpse into its future
By Shane Neman
Everything Shane Neman needed to know about business he learned in the gritty, chaotic New York City nightclub scene.
In Nightlife Lessons, Neman takes you behind the velvet ropes so you can too.
With sharp insight, humor, and gratitude, the three-time startup founder and venture capitalist shows in this unlikely business book how with tenacity and ambition, you can transform any industry.
In the pre-social media and camera-phone days of the new millennium and fresh off his failed first business, Neman was starting from scratch with no budget but a huge idea: bring the hopelessly outdated event promotions and hospitality world into the digital age.
The result is JoonBug, which blended his passion for partying and expertise in technology to become a multimillion-dollar stepping stone to serial entrepreneurship and a grounded personal life.
Neman connects with a wide range of players–from drag queens, ravers, and club kids, to celebs, Wall Street suits, and bridge-and-tunnel partiers, to the city’s most influential club owners and promoters. Using Neman’s tech innovations, all mix and mingle at iconic venues that range from dilapidated warehouses to Swarovski-studded alcoves of luxury.
Nightlife Lessons is packed with perceptive lessons from his comeback, advice on how industry insiders still need to evolve, and predictions on how partiers will experience nightlife in the future.
Neman’s business path is an inspirational ride through New York’s hot spots. If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere . . . and take it with you everywhere.
Praise for nightlife Lessons
About
shane Neman
Shane Neman is a serial entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and real estate developer. After dropping out of NYU Medical School and failing at his first startup during the tech-bubble bust of the early 2000s, Neman started over. He built his second venture, JoonBug, into a multimillion-dollar digital events powerhouse that thoroughly disrupted the outdated events and hospitality industry. He subsequently founded a successful SaaS business, EZ Texting, the largest business SMS software platform in the United States.
Now, Neman is a prolific backer of startups and runs a substantial real estate portfolio with properties in major metropolitan areas across the country.
Although a lifelong New Yorker at heart, after thirty-eight years Neman moved to South Florida, where he currently resides with his wife and kids.
Chapter List
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On New Year’s Eve, 1990, I got my first taste of a New York City nightclub. I was only in eighth grade then: a young Jewish kid, born in Brooklyn, and living in the Long Island suburbs. But that one foray into the world of nightlife was the turning point that put me on the path to success. In the unlikely ecosystem of NYC nightlife, I learned invaluable lessons that allowed me to build not one, but two incredibly successful startups from the ground up. Those experiences also have given me a unique perspective as a venture capitalist when I back fledgling companies and entrepreneurs. This book explains those lessons in detail. My hope is that it will help other entrepreneurs on the path to success, and that we’ll have some fun along the way.
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The world of nightlife is a world of mystery, chaos, and potential. The people and the experiences associated with that two-in-the-morning existence just seem to produce electric, out-of-the-box ideas.
I have seen the nightlife industry propel some of the more interesting characters in entrepreneurship not only to stardom but to great wealth. For me personally, the nightclub and events scene in New York City proved to be a steppingstone to success in my career, as well as in my personal life.
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When it comes to nightlife, you’re only as good as your last party. But when you’re just starting out, you don’t have a “last party” to point back to. Where does that leave you?
Answer: Calling, emailing, texting, and spending every bit of energy you have on promoting an event that may end up a catastrophe. It’s hard not to be overwhelmed during the crucial startup phase.
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“Not tonight, bro.” This was the line that the legendary NYC doorman Wass Stevens used for years to turn people away from exclusive clubs such as Veruka and Avenue. Eventually, it became such a well-known catchphrase that he turned it into a brand.
Exclusivity is a big thing in nightlife. Some of the most popular clubs in NYC history centered their business model on exclusivity: Bungalow 8, Socialista, Pangaea, PM, Lot 61, and Cain, just to name a few. The idea is to craft an experience that is meant only for the elite. If that succeeds, then celebrities, models, and other VIPs will flock to the club. Those people usually get comped, of course, but they’re followed by tons of wealthy wannabes who are willing to shell out big bucks to be part of the in-crowd.
Ultimately, though, exclusivity is a strategy that’s destined to fail.
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Have you ever been in a nightclub when the lights are on? It’s not pretty. But in nightlife, you’re not selling a product: you’re selling a feeling. Glamour, intrigue, buzz, and chaos are what motivate patrons to flock to a club, even if it’s a dump. Which, as a matter of fact, popular clubs often are. Some of the most profitable hotspots in NYC history have been little more than lightly decorated disasters in seedy locations.
The same goes for nightlife professionals. You might think that presenting yourself as sophisticated and attracting “beautiful people” to your club could make or break a club’s reputation, which in turn could make or break your career. Right?
Well, yes and no.
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In the world of nightlife, no one cares what you did before. They only care about what you’re doing now. You might have made magic last year, but if this year has been a bust, that’s what people will remember—especially in today’s short-term-memory, social-media-focused, “everyone gets a trophy” world!
That’s why you always have to be on your A-game. Being consistent in representing yourself in a positive light and providing a quality product will fuel your stamina on the social circuit as well as in business. While it’s great if you can start a thriving business and sell it for a ton of cash, remember: if you can’t make it happen again, you’ll quickly fade out.
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While running JoonBug, especially in the beginning, there were a lot of business processes I knew could benefit from a digital upgrade. Many tasks could be done better, cheaper, or easier with the right software. Aside from upgrading existing systems, I also had other ideas for entirely new approaches that could only be implemented digitally.
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Money talks. That’s just a fact. And oftentimes, money is all it takes to turn your biggest critic into your biggest fan.
It was a cycle that I became familiar with—fast. Starting out, a lot of club owners and promoters despised JoonBug, because we were “too mainstream.” They talked a lot of trash about us, sometimes about me and Ariana personally, even to our faces.
Ego-tripping on their fifteen minutes of nightlife fame, owners of popular hotspots would brag that they weren’t in it for the money. (This was good because they were usually broke.) Instead, they loftily claimed to be connoisseurs of the world of nightclubbing, curating crowds and “crafting unforgettable experiences.”
But we didn’t care what they said, because we knew that the tide would always turn.
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Being an entrepreneur in the events business is like firefighting. Your job is to constantly pivot, solve problems, do the best you can with what you have, and move on to the next job. Of course, unlike being a firefighter, you have to do it all while not breaking a sweat! Because if others see you freaking out, they’ll freak out, too. That includes your employees as well as your patrons.
However, if you can act cool and collected, doing whatever you have to do to band-aid the situations that arise, most people will never notice, and the party will just keep going. Your brain might be running a thousand miles a minute, and your adrenaline might be pumping like crazy, but on the outside, you just have to keep smiling and playing it cool.
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During my years in the nightlife industry, I witnessed the same phenomenon over and over again: the riches in the niches. Certain party promoters avoided mainstream event promotions and instead went all-in on a particular niche, whether it was ethnic, demographic, religious, musical, or a particular holiday. These promoters were able to pull thousands of people to their events and made a fortune doing it. They found niche demographics that were large enough to be profitable and tailored their businesses to dominate that niche.
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I got out of the nightlife scene when it got too taxing on my life. Running JoonBug essentially meant working all through the night until the early morning hours, crashing briefly, and then coming into the office a few hours later, blinking in the daylight and downing coffee like water. After nearly a decade in the industry, the constant hustle and long hours became unbearable, and it was time to move on. And it was time for Ariana and me to move on from each other as well.
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As technology evolved and became more accessible, it slowly chipped away at the JoonBug business model, making it mostly obsolete in only a decade. Recently, COVID hastened even more changes that were on the horizon, proving that the internet could be used to replace in-person events. The future of the nightlife and hospitality industry is likely to be brought about by Web3 blockchain technology and located in the metaverse.
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