Harold Hughes
Harold Hughes is an entrepreneur, educator, and community builder who helps founders unlock the power of social capital.
Why you should book Harold Hughes for your next event
- Learn how to unlock social capital and turn personal networks into powerful entrepreneurial assets.
- Gain insights from a founder who has raised multimillion-dollar funding and built standout venture-backed partnerships.
- Discover how community, storytelling, and lived experience can shape resilient, purpose-driven founders.
Non-binding request for Harold Hughes
Entrepreneur, educator, and creator shaping the future of social capital.
Harold Hughes has spent nearly twenty years building companies, sparking ideas, and turning relationships into sustainable opportunities. As Founder and CEO of NFNTE Capital, he helps both emerging and established entrepreneurs understand the true value of social capital and how to activate their networks with intention. Harold’s work blends entrepreneurship, education, and community building, rooted in his experience raising millions in venture funding and partnering with major brands, athletes, and creators. His perspective is practical, human, and deeply shaped by real-world lessons.
Harold Hughes
Harold Hughes stands out as a modern multihyphenate whose career blends entrepreneurship, community building, and education in a way that feels both contemporary and deeply human. As Founder and CEO of NFNTE Capital, he is driven by a clear mission: helping entrepreneurs unlock the value of social capital, beginning with something they already have their personal networks. His approach is grounded in two decades of experience across business development, partnerships, and operations, giving him a rare ability to speak to the realities founders face at every stage.
Harold’s entrepreneurial journey stretches back to 2004, a period he often describes as the start of “connecting the dots.” Throughout the years, he has launched businesses, built partnerships, raised venture capital, and navigated the challenges that come with turning ideas into thriving companies. Before NFNTE Capital, he founded a venture-backed startup and raised more than $5 million, securing collaborations with globally recognized brands like Pepsi and LIFEWTR, as well as athletes across the NFL, MLS, and NCAA. These experiences shaped his deep understanding of what founders need beyond capital clarity, community, and the ability to activate relationships.
Building Community
Harold’s work extends far beyond traditional entrepreneurship. He is a community creator at heart, consistently building spaces where people can grow, learn, and thrive together. He co-founded the first token-gated community for Black founders, funders, creators, and community leaders, pioneering a model that blends technology and cultural impact. By creating a protected, purposeful space, he helped foster collaboration and visibility among voices often overlooked in tech and venture ecosystems.
He later co-founded Catalyst Labs, where he built the flagship curriculum based directly on his lived experience as a founder. This curriculum has supported entrepreneurs seeking more than theoretical advice those wanting an honest look at what it takes to build with intention, resilience, and community behind them. For Harold, teaching is not about presenting frameworks; it's about equipping people with tools he has used himself through successes, failures, and pivotal shifts.
The Educator and Creator
Harold’s curiosity and commitment to education led him to author A Kids Book About Blockchain, ensuring that one of the most transformative technologies of our time becomes accessible to the next generation. His ability to translate complex concepts into meaningful stories showcases his instinct for connection bringing big ideas down to earth so they can spark possibility in young minds.
Beyond his professional titles, Harold describes himself as a “round character,” someone who fully embraces the many layers that shape him. He often shares his experiences as a dad, a foodie, and his personal journey with mental and physical health. These elements are not side notes; they are central to how he relates to audiences. Harold speaks with openness and authenticity, inviting others to bring their whole selves into their work and communities.
Book Harold Hughes for Your Event
Booking Harold Hughes means inviting a speaker who brings the full spectrum of entrepreneurship strategy, story, community, and humanity. He offers practical insight into building businesses, raising capital, and leveraging networks, but he also speaks to the deeper aspects of the founder journey: belonging, resilience, and the power of lived experience. His talks resonate with entrepreneurs, leaders, educators, and anyone fascinated by the intersection of technology, social capital, and the future of community.
Harold sees NFNTE Capital as the culmination of every experience he has gathered since 2004, and he is energized by the opportunity to share those lessons with audiences ready to build their own path. Whether speaking to innovators, students, executives, or aspiring founders, he brings clarity, honesty, and a sense of possibility that leaves people ready to take action.
Keynotes
Keynote by Harold Hughes:
Work-Life Balance is a Myth!
The concept of Work-Life Balance has become increasingly discussed lately while becoming seemingly impossible to achieve. If you have ever felt this, you are in for a treat as we unpack the myth of Work-Life Balance and shift our focus to Work-Life Prioritization.
We will talk about healthy habits, responsible routines, and productive processes that we can all apply to feel better at home and work.
Keynote by Harold Hughes:
Blockchain Beyond the Coin
Like many great innovations, the first use case isn’t always the best one. Harold and his team have navigated the adoption of blockchain technology in an enterprise environment to show that crypto doesn’t only mean cryptocurrencies.
Harold will share his thoughts on permissioned-blockchains, Zero-Knowledge Proof, and other enterprise level solutions in the blockchain space.
Keynote by Harold Hughes:
GRAVITY: The Social Capital Program
OVERVIEW
GRAVITY is designed to help founders, professionals, and aspiring entrepreneurs cultivate meaningful, long-term relationships that go beyond transactions. Social capital is often the missing ingredient in business success, yet few people know how to nurture authentic, value-driven connections. This program teaches participants how to build trust, foster reciprocity, and create communities that sustain growth. Through a mix of strategy, storytelling, and active engagement, participants will learn how to transform their network into a powerful asset that accelerates their business and professional goals.
OUR STRATEGY
GRAVITY uses an experiential, community-driven approach to help participants build meaningful, long-term relationships. Through real-time application, storytelling, and network mapping, participants learn how to engage their social capital beyond transactions. By deconstructing successful relationships and practicing sustainable connection strategies, they develop the tools to foster trust, reciprocity, and long-term collaboration. This hands-on methodology ensures they leave with actionable steps to cultivate and activate their network effectively.
OUTCOMES
Understand the Foundations of Social Capital
Learn How to Build Authentic Connections
Craft & Share Their Relationship Narrative
Map & Activate Their Social Capital Network
Develop a Relationship-Building Strategy
Keynote by Harold Hughes:
VELOCITY: The Startup Sprint Program
OVERVIEW
VELOCITY: The Startup Sprint Program is designed to give entrepreneurially curious students and young entrepreneurs the fundamental components of going from idea to launch. While we acknowledge that there are many unwritten rules to startup success, our goal is to give participants a foundational understanding of going from zero to one while also planting seeds of knowledge that, as they add their unique perspective and creativity, will lead to the first steps of building a startup.
OUR STRATEGY
This boot camp-style session is delivered in small group sessions (less than 12 participants per session). Our focus is on high school and college students and first-time entrepreneurs. In the session, we will focus on three key takeaways: talking to customers and listening to them, creating cost-effective, non-scalable MVPs (minimum viable products) through the use of Artificial Intelligence, and leveraging social capital to gain early trust and traction before you have investors, revenue, or product.
OUTCOMES
Effectively communicate their company, product, and purpose in 60-seconds
Articulate the value proposition of their product
Identify their ideal customer and develop an ideal customer profile
Leverage learnings to unlock their social capital networks
Keynote by Harold Hughes:
DECODE™: The Deconstructing Companies for Entrepreneurial Development Program
The Deconstructing Companies for Entrepreneurial Development (DECODE™) Program is designed for high school and college students interested in entrepreneurship. Over the years, we have worked with dozens of companies and reviewed hundreds for potential investment opportunities. During that time, we found critical points where the business lacked the proper structure, market validation, and customer research to be sustainable. Our program is built to give an introductory lens of entrepreneurship by evaluating and “deconstructing” businesses – failed and successful – to identify the indicators for success.
At the end of this program, students will be able to:
- Understand the basics of Business-to-Business (B2B), Business-to-Consumer (B2C), and other business models
- Articulate the value proposition for their favorite brands
- Identify the key indicators of the success or failure of businesses
- Implement learnings to test their startup ideas
Our goal is to introduce the core concepts of entrepreneurship in a way that is broadly accessible to students of every background while leaving room for curiosity and creativity for those most interested in the startup journey. One of the most important takeaways from our program is that there are many roles in the startup ecosystem and the value of each role. Each workshop detailed below is designed for high school and college students and first-time entrepreneurs who need the basic building blocks.
Harold Hughes at IBMBlockchain: 10 Enterprise Blockchain Startups to Follow 2019 Event
Watch Harold Hughes in action
