First Incubator

The vision for Justified Hype came to Founder, Arash Afshar, two weeks before leaving for Burning Man 2017. He was deeply occupied with his responsibilities as the Sound Lead for The Journey Project so, in order to truly commit to the idea, he sent out a cryptic Facebook event invitation to a group of friends prior to leaving San Diego which was simply entitled: Pitch Brunch. Upon his return, Justified Hype’s First Incubator formulated over mimosas and pancakes in a Mission Hills apartment.

Arash asked the group for one weekend per month. One full Saturday of working on Justified Hype ideation, a Saturday night of fun with no attachments and a Sunday brunch to regroup and spitball ideas. The First Incubator included Dylan Eccleston, Jake Stanier, Leah Anne, Sarah Cohen, Navjeet Sarna, Tori Massie, Marcel ReyeVer, Eddie Bee, James Harrison Reyes-Vermillion, Ian Holaday and Ashley Rose.

On that first brunch gathering, it took Arash a ridiculous three hours to pitch his vision. Everyone’s desire was to jump right in to the content creation but over the course of the next four months, it became apparent that Justified Hype needed to build a stronger infrastructure first. The First Incubator cultivated the general ideas and vision, helping to develop to the cultural guidelines and ideas that would eventually become Justified Hype. The First Incubator was the engine that powered Justified Hype’s founding.