Ask a New Yorker: Through my dear friend Elaine Kwon, I’ve met David
Drake.
Ask a New Yorker: Where to begin? There are so many places to start this interview.
I’ll start by simply asking, what is Drakelife?
David: Drakelife was the initially concept I had several years ago to bring
friendship, friends, people with good energy, good karma, charity, helping people
together through my dinner parties here at the
loft in Soho. So that’s how it started as a concept. And since then
it has evolved into numerous partnerships with friends, from a private wealth
manager at Deutsche bank, to Goldman Sacs traders who are my partners in private
business outside of the day job. All with the aim to improve their life style.
We continue doing dinner parties three and four times a week. I think I’ve
had over 700 hundred cocktail buffets . Nobody sponsored the parties, it was
just me paying for it. It’s an eight bedroom, four bathrooms, 4000 square
foot loft facing the police building which is right outside that window. The
loft use to be my home for five years .
Ask a New Yorker: I’m digging the fire place.
David: I bought a fake fireplace. They were not going to let me build a fire
place here. It’s better than the TV fire place I use to have. It could
heat but we have a great heating system here.
Ask a New Yorker: Where’s the gold
fish bowl?
David: I had a goldfish. Someone hit their head on the gold fish. The gold fish
fell on the ground. It was hanging in the hall away from an invisible thread.
And they put the fish over there and I was gone for two weeks and the fish disappeared.
Ask a New Yorker: I’m sorry to hear that. What was the name of the goldfish?
David: Artsy, one of my CEOs is called Artsy so it’s Artsy.
Ask a New Yorker: So you’re from Sweden?
David: Yes, born and raised in Sweden with an eastern background in my family.
Ask a New Yorker: What was it like growing up in Sweden… Stockholm?
David: Yes, it was great. It was clean. It was safe. All the girls were blonde.
Ask a New Yorker: I read somewhere that because you were not blonde that you
faced some mean name calling as a kid. How was that?
David: Yes, it was difficult. I felt like not belonging so that’s why
I ended up in the US. I came here as an exchange student in 1986. I was normal,
like everybody else. I wasn’t short with dark hair. I was Swedish with
short and dark hair.
Ask a New Yorker: What are the different businesses in Drakelife?
David: Drakelife concept evolved to Drakelife & Partners which owns 7 different
companies . One is a real estate company called Drakelife Reality. Another is
the Soho loft where we do a lot of events. Barbra Walters did a 20/20 interview
last week airing April 1. The actress Milla Jovovich had her clothing line here
for a week . We’ve had Harvard business club do two, three events here.
The Boston Symphony Orchestra rented this place twice last year. Numerous fashion
shows have been held here. Think about it. Half this space can fit 200-300 people
. We also have an investment with GPS tracking with Brickhouse Security which
has done really, really well. We use finger pad lock which is a security system
for getting into the loft based on their technology that we bought and invested
in. We also have a company called Drake
relocation. We handle 150 corporate apartments in Manhattan and Florida
which focuses specifically on entertainment and production companies housing
nationwide.
Ask a New Yorker: Through all you companies and the way you conduct your life
I read that you’re very charitable and foster the idea of ‘pay it
forward’, explain please.
David: Well some people have seen the movie. Just do a good deed. I’ve
fed maybe 7000 people here because I wanted to find good people. The American
custom is not always that they bring a bottle. I’d say the older generation
forty and above, they’ll bring a gift. But the younger ones won’t
bring a gift. And that’s o.k. But after a while I got tired of people
eating and drinking my food more than once and not really adding value to my
life. So we reduced the events to smaller focusing on better people. People
I really appreciated being around. Part of Drake &Partners is finding all
these wonderful people in New York from every area of life. From Deutsche Bank
to entertainment to luxury products from Roberto Cavalli, a personal friend
of mine. I started doing business with them.
One colleague I had a meeting with today. He’s adorable. He has a wife
same age as my wife. He bought an oil field in Texas and we’re buying
a second one together. His family is buying a cement company in Romania. He’s
a Harvard business grad I’ve known him for ten years. He knows the ministers
of Romania to protect us.
Ask a New Yorker: As an eight year old, I read, you sold cacti door to door
in Sweden? I didn’t even know cacti grew in Sweden?
David: My mom collected cacti and she grew them. She had so many different ones.
We were raising money for school. So she said,’ take these little buds
‘, there were like 20-30 different kinds. We put them into a little plastic
jar. I was cute and tiny no more than 4 feet probably. We just went door to
door knocking, as a 7 year old, and came back home with dollar bills in my pocket
in the late 70’s
Ask a New Yorker: The entrepreneurial spirit was born which mom fostered.
David: Absolutely. I picked a lot up from both my mom and dad.
Ask a New Yorker: How would you describe your entrepreneur spirit?
David: I’m assuming it’s visionary. I’m thinking in circular,
timeless ways where people can’t second guess what I’m trying to
think. That’s why I love my wife. She understands that she doesn’t
have to guess what I’m thinking. If she can’t figure it out, she
just asks me.
Ask a New Yorker: How long have you been married?
David: A year and half. Newlyweds.
Ask a New Yorker: Congratulations. One last question, what do you think of the
concept Ask a New Yorker?
David: I love the concept Ask a New Yorker. People ask me all the time. I spent
ten years making a rule going to three different spots every time I go out.
So I have this knowledge of these fantastic places in the city. It’s a
brilliant concept and it helps everybody. It also shows everybody New Yorkers
are nice unless we’re on the cell phone and your bothering us with a question.
So make sure that when you approach somebody they don’t have a cell phone
in their ear.
In a recent issue of New
York magazine on March 24, David was featured in the Real Estate section.
