Travis Scott, Michael Rubin talk failure, entrepreneurship at Hogg Auditorium

Rapper and entrepreneur Travis Scott visited the University on Thursday as a part of a three-stop college tour promoting his brand Cactus Jack’s new collaboration with multi-billion dollar merchandise corporation Fanatics.

The collaboration includes merchandise for 28 universities including UT. After announcing his appearance fewer than 24 hours before, all tickets for the event at Hogg Auditorium were claimed within four minutes at noon on Wednesday. His visit comes as part of a panel discussion on business and entrepreneurship basics with Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin and Texas Athletics Director Chris Del Conte.

Over a thousand students crowded into the auditorium, eagerly awaiting Scott’s appearance after his visit with the Longhorn football team earlier in the day. The panel was led by Melissa Murphy, director of undergraduate entrepreneurship at McCombs. Scott and Rubin discussed their careers and motivations behind pursuing greatness in music, business and the creative industry.

“I knew (Scott) socially for a long time, but I really thought of him as an artist, which was not the right way to think about him,” Rubin said. “I describe him as the single most relevant person in the world for product. Not because of how culturally relevant he is, it’s because of his ability to design a watch, design a car, design art, design merch and make things that are so differentiated.”

The rapper discussed the importance of maintaining artistic integrity when working with big corporate entities.

“I hate corporate things because sometimes it loses a lot of feel and becomes a disconnect,” Scott said. “I always told Rubin, if we create something, as long as it feels natural, it could be something amazing.”

Scott said Texas remains special to him as a former UTSA CAP student and West Campus resident.

“I really fuck with UT. I was inspired to go here because watching UT beat USC was a transition,” Scott said. “It was crazy because this school from Texas ended up beating this overly popular college in California.”

The panel discussed how failure is often an important part of success. Scott shared his own experience when he first broke into the music industry.

“Nothing great ever works out, out the gate,” Scott said. “I would have thought that I was gonna make it two or three times. … That perseverance ended up getting me in front of Kanye (West), eating fucking Taco Bell and shit, (and that led to) working on music.”

Additionally, Rubin shared his own experiences with bounding back from failure after having multiple attempts at startups.

“Every day we got W’s; every day we got L’s,” Rubin said. “You gotta live with that and then turn it into your next success. … That’s what makes a great entrepreneur. (It is) somebody who embraces failures (and) figures out how to learn from them. They’re also unrelenting, and they never quit; they never give up.”