TK Petersen, the 27-year-old powerhouse entrepreneur, whose popular private membership club in Atlanta named The Gathering Spot has been the go-to location for many prominent names in a variety of fields — spanning politics, technology, entertainment and everything in-between — recently met with Jack Dorsey, the internet entrepreneur, billionaire and founder of Twitter and Square, the latter a financial services, merchant services aggregator, and mobile payment company.
Mr. Petersen, the St. Croix native living in Georgia, shared the news on his Instagram page Sunday.
“Thankful for the opportunity to host [Jack Dorsey] and his team from Square this week along with the Atlanta Black Chambers,” Mr. Petersen wrote on Instagram. “Had the chance to discuss how to deploy more of Square’s products in the U.S. Virgin Islands and how much I love the other company he co-founded, Twitter. Thank you again.”
Square offers a myriad of useful financial services, including online payments merchant services, among others, but those products are not available in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
“Card payment acceptance with Square is currently only available in the US, Canada, Japan, Australia, and the United Kingdom. We currently don’t support payment card processing outside of these countries or in U.S. or U.K. territories such as Bermuda, Gibraltar, Cayman Islands, Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and Northern Mariana Islands,” the firm said in a response to The Consortium Monday.
Mr. Petersen appeared to have used his meeting with Mr. Dorsey to highlight the issue and provide ways in which it could be resolved.
Mr. Petersen and his partner, Ryan Wilson, were recently featured in Forbes Magazine following the purchase of a major conference in Atlanta and plans of expansion to Los Angeles by the end of 2019.
In addition to hosting some of America’s top brands, including mainstay technology names such as Google, Spotify and Netflix, The Gathering Spot has also worked with entertainers and public figures such as T.I., Drake, Ludacris, Traces Ellis Ross, Will Packer, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and Civil Rights leaders like Ambassador Andrew Young, according to the Forbes interview.
The men recently purchased A3C Festival & Conference in Atlanta, which engages and inspires the artists, entrepreneurs and creatives that shape culture. The conference was founded in 2005 and has grown from a local Hip-Hop showcase to become one of the most important music, tech and culture events of the year.
“We bought it with Paul Judge who is a tech investor and entrepreneur here,” said Mr. Wilson. “The main thing around why we wanted A3C is that the core of what we are doing is about community and experiences. We want to give people a framework to meet people that they otherwise wouldn’t come across. A3C operates on that same premise. It is a community that comes together around a specific experience, mainly Hip-Hop.”
The company also plans to open a Gathering Spot facility in Los Angeles, which Mr. Petersen expounded upon when asked how could people signup. “They can get on our website, thegatheringspot.club. All of the information is there for them to get on the waitlist,” Mr. Petersen said. “In addition, we will be previewing experiences. For example, after the Ebony Power 100 Gala in LA last year, we hosted a curated experience at a home that we rented out where people could get a feel of the types of gatherings we would have. We had people from various industries attend to give them the type of feel we plan to add to the LA community. You can also follow us on social media, particularly Instagram, where we put a lot of our information.”
Founded in 2016 after Mr. Petersen and Mr. Wilson spent years formulating their strategy, The Gathering Spot has profited well over 7 figures, and the founders plan to continue their expansion in other locations.
Feature Image, from left to right: Ryan Wilson, Jack Dorsey and T.K. Petersen (Credit: TK Petersen Instagram)
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