Episode 316: Building Community Assets Grounded in Love with Bakajika Tshinanga

Greetings Glocal Citizens! This week on the podcast community builidng is a central theme. For twenty years, my guest, Bakajika Tshinanga, has operated at the exact intersection where culture generates economic value. His journey started in 2004, when he founded a student-led program at the University of Georgia Atlanta. Georgia Daze still runs today and has improved enrollment yield conservatively valued at $150M+ in incremental revenue for the university. That experience shaped how he thinks about infrastructure: who builds it, who benefits, and who owns the upside. He went on building hospitality programming delivering the cultural insight that prompted AT&T to sponsor Drake's inaugural headline tour and leading the campaign that introduced the Lyft ridesahre app to Atlanta. He’s produced work with cultural figures including Michael Jordan, and while an undergraduate he producing concerts featuring Outkast, Lauryn Hill, and Dave Chappelle. Also of note, he owns a publishing catalog featuring songs from Lil Wayne, The Neptunes, Sevyn Streeter, Pusha T, and Usher. Coding since age 11, technology is lens he's always looking through. His latest endeavor, the lOlŌ's platform is the direct expression of technology deployed as infrastructure to close the gap between who creates cultural value and who captures it. He's lived the innovator's dilemma firsthand: operating at the riskiest part of the curve, where the work is undeniable but the capital isn't designed to find you. That experience is why lOlŌ exists—a collective ownership vehicle for cultural capital, community-capitalized, community-governed, designed to compound for generations. Where to fine Bakajika? On LinkedIn On Instagram On Threads What’s Bakajika reading? The Science of Scaling by Dr. Benjamin Hardy adn Blake Erickson What’s Bakajika watching? Dreaming Whilst Black on Showtime How’s Bakijika listening to? Who is Joy Leone? Other topics of interest: Kinshasa, DRC About Georgia Daze University of Michigan Supreme Court Affirmative Action Case Atlanta Influences Everything Lɔlɔ̃ means loveSpecial Guest: Bakajika Tshinanga.