John Henry aka @johnhenrystyle is the son of Dominican immigrants. He grew up in poverty, with his parents having a combined household income of less than $30,000. He was uninterested in school and dropped out of junior college after one semester. At the age of 18 faced with limited job opportunities, he began working as a doorman in luxury New York City apartment buildings, first in Wall Street and then in Brooklyn. While working as a doorman in Brooklyn he befriended a resident named Hugo. Hugo was in the laundry business and owned an outsourcing facility that dry cleaners used to wash their clothes.
Hugo took a liking to John and told him that he didn’t have to settle for being a doorman, he told him that he could have his own doorman. That inspired John to start his own pickup and delivery dry cleaning service. He spoke with doormen in buildings all over Harlem and struck deals with them to refer the residents in their buildings to his company for their dry cleaning needs. Shortly after cultivating the relationships with the doormen John’s company became the dry cleaning service for the blockbuster movie “The Wolf of Wall Street”.
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That led to his company becoming the dry cleaning service for over 20 movies and TV shows filmed in New York City, including Boardwalk Empire, Spiderman 2, and Law and Order. Within 3 years his business was making $100,000 a month in revenue. Never the one to rest on his laurels. At the age of 21, he sold the business for $1 million. He sold it because he saw problems ahead for the industry and he began to become burnt out. After he sold the business he started the first business incubator in Harlem called Cofound Harlem.
After starting Cofound Harlem he decided he wanted to dive into the world of Venture Capital. He joined forces with three other young entrepreneurs and became a partner in @harlemcapital. Harlem Capital Partners is a $25 million Venture Capital firm owned and operated by four men under the age of 30.
All four of the partners are on the most recent Forbes 30 under 30 list.
In episode 45 of @earnyourleisure, John walked us through every step of his incredible journey.
EYL 45 will be out today at 5 pm est.
Article by; Rashad Bilal