REVOLT CEO on Its Employee-Led, Post-Diddy Future: ‘We’re About to Dream Bigger & Blacker’

Music

Last October, REVOLT — the Black-owned and operated digital cable network co-founded by Sean “Diddy” Combs in 2013 — celebrated its 10th anniversary. Now, eight months later, the multi-platform media company is celebrating its rebirth as an employee-owned entity.

Announced today (June 4) by REVOLT CEO Detavio Samuels, the historic business shift follows in the wake of Combs’ stepping down as company chairman last November after being served with multiple sexual assault lawsuits. In keeping with Samuels’ and his team’s determination that REVOLT remain Black-owned and operated, the equity move — in which Diddy sold his stake back to the company, which is then distributing shares among its current employees — underscores the company’s original vision to pioneer a new era of entertainment while also establishing a new media model.

“I needed my employees to be incentivized, excited, to feel like they have skin in the game,” Samuels exclusively tells Billboard. “It’s about generating wealth for marginalized communities who have been historically left out.”

Atlanta-based Samuels joined REVOLT as COO in 2020 and was promoted to CEO a year later. It’s his hope that “more CEOs embrace and embody this idea of linked prosperity: if the company wins, every single person wins. We’re trying to set an industry standard where this type of thing becomes the norm.” In the following interview, Samuels outlines REVOLT’s journey to that decision.

At what point was the decision made to seek a new owner for REVOLT?

After all of the allegations in November became clear, stepping into 2024 for that association with Sean Combs could be a distraction to the mission that we had been on for the last four years. So at that point in time, we had very real conversations. You know, you can’t force anybody to sell their shares in the same way that nobody could force you to sell your house. But Sean Combs understood the assignment and elected to sell his shares so that the mission could continue.

In March there were media reports that Richelieu Dennis, the owner of Essence magazine, was buying REVOLT. Was that true? Were there other suitors for the company?

There’s been tons of speculation and rumors, as you can imagine. What we wanted to do was find the best home for REVOLT. At the end of the day, we want this business, which is stronger than ever, to continue to thrive. So absolutely, we’ve had lots of conversations with people. What we realized is that you can search the whole world, but we came to the conclusion that the only people we needed was us. We were the ones that we were looking for. I hope that can be a signal just to us as Black people and the Black community in general about self-reliance, unity. Nobody’s coming to save us. We have all we need to save ourselves. 

When you came on board as CEO, was such a notion on your mind then?

One of the biggest things I wanted to do was just make sure that employees could benefit in the success of this company. And it’s been a conversation that we’ve had, specifically at the management level, for the last four years since I’ve been here, looking for the opportunity to ultimately make it happen. I’m a big believer in the idea of linked prosperity, meaning that as REVOLT wins, everybody in our ecosystem wins. Our values are reflected in our business model. We’ve given 50-plus entrepreneurs capital with no exchange of equity. We’ve put more than $50 million recirculated back into the Black community every single year. We have the biggest deals with the biggest content creators, but all of them also have upside participation in the content we co-create.

When we’ve had big years and blown our numbers out the water, our employees got big bonuses — every single one of them. So this was kind of like the missing piece. How do we put our employees, who are giving us their blood, sweat and tears every single day, in a position where they can benefit from the economics of their genius? So I’m thrilled that we are finally at that point where the people who are the backbone of our success now to get to be shareholders in the company.

At the bottom of the press release announcing REVOLT’s new owners, it says, “Shares held by the company’s former chair have been fully redeemed and retired.” What does that mean exactly?

Some people still aren’t clear. So that [statement] is enough to make it very clear: He [Sean Combs] is not the chairman of the company. He’s not on the board of this company. And he owns zero equity and zero shares in this company.

How did you decide to distribute the shares among employees? Were they all given equal shares?

Everyone is not going to be given equal shares. What we’re doing right now is working through a distribution process where we can ensure everything is smooth and fair. And two of the key components, of course, will be seniority and our vesting schedule. We plan on rolling that out over the course of the next few months.

And by employees, that includes yourself and the rest of the executive team as well?

If you are a full-time employee at REVOLT, you will receive something from this distribution.  

Was there any pushback to this plan?

There was no pushback. In fact, if anything, I need to celebrate my amazing board, who immediately latched onto the idea. Their work was critical in helping us get here, so no pushback. Everybody knows that REVOLT is a values-driven brand. We don’t just talk the talk, we walk the walk.

How many members comprise the board and what are the names of some of those members?

We’re going to keep that side confidential.

And new employees will be eligible to be shareholders as well?

New employees will be eligible for this equity incentive pool as well. In the short term today, there are no massive changes happening to our organizational structure. We will continue to stay on brand; the vision and mission are the same. We want to shift the narrative for Black people globally by building the world’s most powerful Black storytelling engine on the planet, powered by creators. In fact, as we lean into this idea of being powered by creators, we are trademarking a new term: we are “pioneering a new era of entertainment.” Media is in chaos right now. But we believe that we’ve got a new model that works in this chaotic world that we live in. And we’re getting ready to make a run and show the world what it’s supposed to look like. The only other way to say this is that we’re about to dream bigger and we’re about to dream Blacker. That’s all it is.

Diddy was very publicly the face of Revolt. How do you plan to forward and reinvent the brand out of his shadow?

Diddy wasn’t the face of the brand, I don’t think, inside of the company. Since I’ve been here, he’s never been part of the day-to-day operations and the teams have had zero interaction with him. So there’s no difference on our side; no difference with our clients and our affiliate partners, our customers. So really the only place where I think there’s this, you know, massive association with him and REVOLT is with the culture.

The way we will respond to that, first and foremost, is with this announcement so that everybody knows every time you support REVOLT, you are standing by the people and the employees who are building this thing. The second thing is, it was never supposed to be built on one person. REVOLT has never believed that it is one person, one idea, one lens. You can’t shift the narrative for Black people through one lens. So we will continue to bring on the biggest and baddest creators in the culture. And it is through this “for us, by us” model that we will get people to shake this association from Sean Combs and make it about the people who are building the culture today.

Are you planning to continue REVOLT’s events business as well as the television and podcasting initiatives?

Last year’s REVOLT WORLD summit was just the pilot and it took off like a rocket ship: 30,000 people [in attendance] during three days. Now we’re moving ahead with our vision and strategies clear. We haven’t announced this year’s REVOLT WORLD yet, but it will be in September. Last year’s was sponsored by Walmart, Pepsi, McDonald’s and other brands who have continued to stand by us through all of this.

The other piece is about this new era of media. Gone are the days where there’s a single-lane media company, where you can only be cable, only be a podcast, or only be live events. We believe we have this special model where we are able to be fast, efficient and effective, partner with the dopest creators in the culture, shoot once and be able to deliver that in whatever format — cable, streaming, podcast, live events — that our audience wants to consume it: Spotify, Apple, all cable, CTV, YouTube, so be it. It’s imperative that we reach our audience wherever they live and breathe. You name it, we’re going to be there.

What is REVOLT valued at and is it profitable? 

I can’t tell you the valuation. But REVOLT has been profitable since at least 2018. I took over [as CEO] in the COVID year, 2020. If you compare the numbers we finished in 2020 to the numbers we finished in 2023, EBITDA is up 3.5x. If you want to compare advertising numbers, those are up six times. The business is healthy, the business is sound. That’s why we’re ready to make this next run. 

Are there plans to continue to shop REVOLT in the future, or is this the ownership structure you guys are committed to now?

I am 100% committed to this new ownership structure. I’m big about the history and the history of America says that Black people have been responsible for building trillion-dollar industries in this country, whether we’re talking about the cotton and tobacco industries or now hip-hop. But they’ve never been able to fully reap from the economics that their hard work and genius have built. Black and brown people deserve to benefit from the economics that their genius creates. 

A second thing also underscores my commitment and why this announcement is so important and historic. Usually when you run into these kinds of situations, the companies reflect what I consider the old America majority: white people. Marginalized groups barely get a benefit when these types of things take off. But with REVOLT, you’re talking about a company that’s majority Black and 50% women. So when we make this run to become the next Black unicorn, when we hit that billion-dollar valuation, those people who have historically been left out of the wealth-building opportunities in America will be left out no more. So for those reasons, I’m committed. Does that mean that we won’t have to take back equity in order to raise capital to make that run to that billion-dollar number? No. But what it means is our employees will always have a share and ownership in this company that they’re creating.

With the ownership situation behind you, what are you looking forward to next?

I’m most excited about the bunch of coming announcements that I’m sitting on right now and can’t wait to roll out. For now, people can see that we’ve started to sow some seeds, like launching REVOLT Sports. People may think we’ve been a little quieter than usual. And in full transparency, we have been: the only hit show we have running at this time is Drink Champs on YouTube. But they’re about to find out really quickly that REVOLT is about to get real loud real fast. So ask me this question in December, and I’m sure I’ll have plenty to talk about.