FOCUS
VENTURE
39
FORTUNE.COM// FEB.1 .19THE TELEVISIONactor Cedric
Yarbrough looks understandably
perplexed. Between tables for Amazon and
BET at the annualEbony Power 100 awards,
in the same Beverly Hilton ballroom that
hosts the Golden Globes, his tablemates are
the four young black partners of venture firm
Harlem Capital and their dates. Next to himis the group’s de facto front man, John Henry
Matos, the 26-year-old son of Dominican im-
migrants who goes by only his steel-driving,
two-part given name. Matos disappears and
returns with a tale of slipping backstage to
personally congratulate Chris Tucker on his
job as the show’s emcee.
“You can do anything at these things if you
hold a glass of white wine,” he says as he refills.
Yarbrough’s eyes widen. “Whatever you’re
selling,” he tells Matos, “I’m your next investor.”
But Matos is off making a run to glad-
hand the A-list tables: actor David Oyelowo,
politico Andrew Gillum, and executives from
Nationwide and United Airlines.
“Daaamn,” says Henri Pierre-Jacques, one
of the Harlem partners, as he watches.John Henry
Matos’s Vice
series,Hustle,
premieres
Feb. 10.LIVE FOR THE HUSTLE
From building doorman to A-list schmoozing venture capitalist
in less than 10 years: thus begins the legend of John Henry.
By Richard MorganCO
UR
TE
SY
OF
LE
VI^
WA
LT
ON
/V
IC
EL
AN
D