The path towards success can be a winding road. Life throws diversions at you, and often it is down to you alone to guide yourself away towards a more conducive route. In the case of 26 year old entrepreneur and multi-business owner Barth Rougier, the path to obtaining his aspirations has been driven by a clear ethos and sheer determination, and I find him now lying in the wake of greatness.
Born in France before moving to London for his father’s work, as a young adult Barth dismissed the expectations set on him by society, steering away from an educational agenda forced upon him, instead following his own succinct vision. Now, despite being merely in his mid twenties, he is the owner of a successful global Marketing & Talent Management agency, DNA, who work with Luxury brands and represents over 75 talents worldwide including touring DJs, music producers, artists and influencers. Recently foraying into the food and hospitality sector, Barth has also opened a Chelsea-based nightclub, B London, and is poised to open a new Mexican restaurant, lxchel, in October of this year.
Connecting with the self-starter over Zoom for a refreshingly candid conversation, it becomes apparent that Barth’s personal and business ideologies are built on foundations of individuality, self-belief and equality. From a young age, he has worked to improve himself and the situation of those around, seeing his staff and talents as family rather than as employees or clients.
During our revealing discussion, Barth explains to me how he became one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the country under the age of 30, looking back on his childhood, industry rise, current ventures and plans for the future.
Read the full interview below…
What was your journey to becoming an entrepreneur?
I wouldn’t say my family was very entrepreneurial. My older brothers and sister, my dad, have primarily all worked for firms their entire careers. My dad worked from the ground up in finance, literally starting counting coins in a bank safe at the age of 18 when he was kicked out of his own home by his parents, to running a global finance corporation. We had a modest lifestyle until my dad got a good job and as a kid I could see how life changed – small things such as suddenly getting a driver to the airport or even going from state school to private school. Then it all changed in 2008 with the financial crash. I definitely witnessed my family going through a very difficult situation and it was tough for my dad to financially recover from it
I got all these examples of what it could feel like to work for somebody else your entire life and never really being in control of the company’s outcomes. I think it really shook me up as a kid seeing a glimpse of my father’s success and then for it all to be taken away in such a short period of time. I was being forced into the model of going to university to get a good degree, but I always wanted to make my mark. The 2008 crash changed something in our generation, to fight against the greed of these major corporations – why should someone work hard for their entire life just for it to be ruined by someone else’s greed?
Do you think that adversity that your dad and so many others went through has shaped your own path and the way that you view business?
I didn’t really feel like I had a family around me in my teenage years. They were there, but over the phone mostly, since they had gone back to France and I was still based in the UK. My brothers and sister are much older than I am, so it was difficult to ever create a close relationship. They started raising their own families from when I was 10 years old, I was already an uncle then.
I felt very alone when I was young, and in need of building a family. I quickly started understanding what the real meaning of a ‘company’ was. When I was young I was obsessed with money, but through therapy I grew up quickly and I started understanding my values. I wanted to be a leader in my own company and to create a group of people who I can protect and look after, and to this day I stand by this ethos. I have an insane amount of love and wanting to protect those close to me. Now I see how that’s influenced me.
How do you lock into the mindset of success?
You have to be crazy in some way. I’ve gone through many different relationships or lost friendships because most people just find it so difficult to be around you. I’ve begun to understand the craziness of wanting to succeed. I think it’s an addiction of wanting to continuously grow. The first day of university, I was hustling. I had this comfort of believing in myself. I wake up everyday and it’s like a 24 hour chess game. Doubt doesn’t really come into it at this point – of course it’s good to question when making big decisions, but you are so obsessed with what you’re doing.
I’ve worked tirelessly and now looking back, those sacrifices have become enjoyment. I’ve never sat there at 1am in my office thinking that I’ve missed out by not going to the pub. It just becomes a routine. There is a huge sacrifice on your personal life. You can’t balance it out to begin with, your work life has to be your priority. I’m in a particular place because I have so many businesses at a young age, so I’m even three or four times busier than the average person.
How do you balance the work between the different businesses?
It’s taken a few burnouts. I’m the type of person who takes myself to the extreme to start understanding my mental boundaries. I honestly believe I can outwork anyone. I think that’s why I’m here today. Everybody I’ve worked with, I’ve always found myself outworking them. I wouldn’t consider myself smart in any particular way, I’m just obsessed with learning, grafting and I’m not afraid to fail or to be rejected.
What do you struggle with in your job?
Being so young. Most of the people that I work with are 35-50 years old. You have to go and earn their respect. I think I’ve had a bit of an age complex at the beginning because of how quickly I indulged myself in my career. To start to become an owner, I had to make quick impacts somewhere when working for others. The initial meeting with someone from a big brand or establishment, they would question who I am and why I’m coming to them. As soon as they gave me a chance to show them how much I could do for them, that’s when I’d start to build their respect and trust. When people would look down on me, I’d have to take it on the chin and understand its natural business hierarchy. It’s down to us as young entrepreneurs to understand this and to break the boundaries and truly take any opportunity as if it was your last.
The worst is when people assume I have family money being able to do what I do at such a young age. I like actions, I don’t talk a lot. That’s how I operate. Even to lead my team, why should they put so much trust in someone so young? I have to lead by example and work harder than the average CEO to show them that I can do anything that I’d ask them to do.
From being weeks away from redundancy to running several successful businesses – what is the secret? How have you manipulated the way that the industry is run to work in your favour?
The success of DNA and the agency has been pretty recent, and in a pretty unconventional way. DNA was going nowhere at the beginning. I was just managing young DJs and producers that weren’t making enough revenue for me to live on and people were rejecting us because we were so new in the agency space. It was the money that I was personally investing that saved DNA – money from other companies I was working extra hours for meanwhile managing the day to day of the agency. I was consulting for an automotive company as well as managing a members club in London, and earning more money than I’d ever earned at the time. I don’t even know how I managed to keep this automotive job for all these years, I had zero experience in that industry, I just applied my marketing knowledge and it seemed to have worked out in the end. I was managing three different projects simultaneously every single day to reinvest money into DNA until the agency started creating a sustainable income.
I’ve always found in this industry it’s like fine wine – if you are consistent and build a good representation for yourself or your brand, results will start appearing. When you’re quickly in a CEO position, you have a different perception of what success actually is. It’s been about building trust between myself and my team – at the beginning, this was just their part-time job. I just had this immense amount of vision that this could work.
Needless to say that I wouldn’t be here today without my incredible team of partners, who are all very close friends of mine now, having worked and been mentored for years by them, especially with the club.
Do you think that some entrepreneurs approach success too narrow-mindedly?
Every other person in the industry thinks that I’m crazy to be managing so many businesses at once. They say you should focus on one thing and then move onto the next. One thing I’ve realised is that there is so much synergy in the business world that I have created. Now, I own a nightclub and a bar. I’m opening a restaurant in West London soon and running a 360 marketing & Talent management business. I can book artists in my own nightclub, I can dine clients in my restaurant, I can bring businessmen into my lifestyle, I can utilise my spaces. I have a different team for each business, but then a central team at DNA that looks after everything. It never feels like I’m doing something completely different. People in the entertainment world, the PR world, the fashion world – they like socialising. It’s how deals are made. I’m completely in the middle of it. I’m pioneering for the new generation in a big way. I’ve invested everything I’ve ever earned into West London, where I grew up. I want to rejuvenate it.
What is your wider vision for these businesses?
I’ve always had this vision for Talents in my management company to stay at my hotel, eat at my restaurant and perform at my club. For me, it’s creating my own environment through my businesses. Treating people how I want to be treated. I want people to be respected and free. I’ve created a structure here where my staff could become my partners tomorrow. I’m so strong on ideas – no idea is a bad idea, it’s just how to execute it.
Right now, I’m on a mission to generate money that can be reinvested to create positivity. What Google or Apple did for technology, I want to do for the entertainment world. I don’t care about money – money to me is a utility, it’s what allows me to drive and fuel happiness. I’m so tired of this shark mentality within the creative industries between competitors, I really think there’s so much space for so many people to win.
What advice would you give to your younger self?
Keep dreaming the way you are dreaming, and don’t worry, it’ll come. My biggest problem is impatience. But if I didn’t stick to the way I thought as a kid, then I wouldn’t be sitting here today. A lot of people put off others from dreaming big, kids are supposed to dream big. I don’t like people putting a ceiling on other people’s ideas or vision.
What’s to come this year?
We’ve got the restaurant opening and we’re working with some of the biggest luxury brands. DNA is sitting in a position to help rejuvenate and retarget the younger generation for these brands. It’s a beautiful place to be because we are now becoming the voice for some of these global brands. We will utilise our contacts to help with charitable work and education. It’s a really exciting time for us and we are strategising right now. It feels good to be young and in this position. We have a lot of time ahead of us but I do feel a huge responsibility to provide a sustainable future for the people working in my businesses.
