Keri Hilson, ambitious young entrepreneur

Every heard of a song writer and singer named Keri Hilson?

Recently, I heard Timbaland’s single featuring Hilson called, “The Way I Are.” To an outsider not paying close attention, Keri looks like a typical overnight hip hop success. She has a great voice and is making music with big shot producer and rapper, Timbaland.

Check out the music video:

Reality is different from perception, the 25 year old “overnight success” has been writing music for A-List singers since she was 19 years old. According to her Wikipedia profile:

Keri Hilson has been writing music for individual artists since 2001. She has written music for Chris Brown, Britney Spears, Lil Wayne, Fat Joe, Toni Braxton, Mary J. Blige, Usher, Ciara, the Pussycat Dolls, Avant, Ruben Studdard, B5, Diddy, Chingy, LeToya, Ludacris, Rich Boy, Shawn Desman, Kelly Rowland, Nicole Scherzinger, Lloyd Banks, and Timbaland. With many of the songs Hilson takes part in writing she also does background vocals, such as in “Runaway Love” and “Wait A Minute”.

It’s great to see a talented singer and writer, as opposed to just another pretty face, rising to the top. Ever since I’ve been watching the show Entourage, the fast paced world of entertainment seems to have a lot of parallels to the tech start-up experience.