The co-founders of networking hub The Gathering Spot (TGS) made a major announcement Thursday about their multimillion-dollar company not through a slick press release or a carefully planned media rollout, but with a screenshot on Instagram.
“As of today, WE own The Gathering Spot again and will be moving forward as an independent company,” Ryan Wilson and T’Keel “TK” Petersen wrote. The short note marked the end of the company’s ownership by digital banking platform Greenwood, and the unwinding of a headline-grabbing merger of two Black-owned Atlanta-based companies that had hit rough times earlier this year.
TGS and Greenwood now will go separate ways, though they are maintaining a business partnership. Greenwood is still a shareholder, but Thursday’s parting put an end to a $50 million business tie-up that started with hype, landed in court over issues related to money and control and now ends just a year and a half after it began.
Wilson and Petersen’s post garnered thousands of likes and hundreds of comments congratulating the co-founders. Mayor Andre Dickens commented “Amen!”
Credit: Special
Credit: Special
Luminaries like actress Angelica Ross and radio personality Angela Yee offered congratulations.
Acrimony between Greenwood and TGS left many members with hurt feelings. Some left the club. On Thursday and Friday some said they’d return.
Though the two companies settled their disputes, the TGS community remained uneasy about Greenwood, according to Joey Womack, CEO of the nonprofit Goodie Nation and founding member of TGS.
“[It] brings closure to the community to at least know that there is a path forward,” Womack said.
‘Excited about the future’
Greenwood — whose founders also include rapper Michael “Killer Mike” Render and former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young — announced in May 2022 it had bought TGS in a partnership that could help bridge the racial wealth gap and build community for Black and minority people. The purchase price wasn’t disclosed then, but court records later made public pegged it at $50 million in cash and Greenwood stock.
But things turned contentious early this year. In February, Wilson and Petersen sued Greenwood for allegedly withholding payments after acquiring the company.
In June, Greenwood countersued, saying the TGS founders misconstrued the purchase agreement.
Wilson filed a second suit in July alleging Greenwood engaged in intentional misconduct and withheld a $5 million earn-out payment tied to TGS reaching a $15 million revenue target.
Days after that suit was filed, TGS announced Petersen would cease to be the club’s chief operating officer.
The dispute resulted in a public outcry among TGS’s 10,000 members. Shortly after Greenwood and TGS announced they had settled their business disputes.
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Credit: undefined
The Greenwood-TGS pairing combined two of Atlanta’s most buzzed about Black-owned businesses. The business dispute was like a battle within family.
The intensity of the reactions from this summer’s business disputes now to the announcement of TGS’ independence show how important the space has become to many in Atlanta’s Black community, observers say.
TGS has become a community hub. Atlanta venture capital firms Collab Capital and Zane Venture Fund held some of their first meetings in the space.
Then-mayoral candidate Andre Dickens held his election night party at TGS, breaking a tradition that typically saw those events held at big hotels.
Credit: Curtis Compton / Curtis.Compton@
Credit: Curtis Compton / Curtis.Compton@
More recently, after the Fearless Fund, an Atlanta-based, Black women-owned venture firm, was sued by a prominent conservative activist alleging racial discrimination, the business community gathered at TGS to figure out how to support Fearless in its legal fight.
For Greenwood, buying TGS marked the beginning of a series of acquisitions that turned the company from just a banking app aimed at Black and Hispanic people into a larger juggernaut.
Greenwood is the largest individual shareholder in TGS now, according to Greenwood CEO Ryan Glover. A portion of an operating agreement shows Glover will be a “non-voting observer to the board.”
Wilson said Glover has no formal role and Greenwood is not involved in the management of the company.
Glover said the deal that made TGS independent again was orchestrated mainly around stock, but he declined to discuss specifics.
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Credit: undefined
Both TGS and Greenwood have positioned the separation as a move to better position both companies for the future.
“We’re just refocusing our energies on what I believe we all know best,” Glover told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “They do a wonderful job on the hospitality side, we do a great job on the banking side.”
On Monday evening Wilson and Petersen will be hosting a town hall in Atlanta to discuss the change in ownership and what they are planning for 2024: new clubs, an expansion of the programs at the existing locations and new ways to leverage technology.
“Its going to be a conversation about where we’re going,” Wilson said.
For Glover, he is “really excited about the future” for Greenwood, too. In November and December this year, the company launched lending and investment products for the first time. At the beginning of next year, they will have new wealth-building products, though he did not get into details.
Though the two companies are moving forward independently now, they are still linked.
“I’m cheering for them to continue to grow,” Glover said. “We are 1,000% supportive of TGS as I know TGS is of Greenwood.”
Editor’s note: The story has been updated since its initial publication in regard to The Gathering Spot’s board.
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