The Gathering Spot founders Ryan Wilson and TK Petersen are reclaiming independence, and charting a new chapter.
By Adell Henderson
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On December 18th, 2023, a buzz of excitement filled the Atlanta location of The Gathering Spot as co-founders Ryan Wilson and TK Petersen hosted a town hall meeting. The purpose? To address the recent news of their reacquisition of the club, bought back from Greenwood Financial just months after its initial acquisition. This unexpected turn of events left the community, both members and Atlanta residents alike, curious about the future of this popular cultural hub.
The evening unfolded with an air of transparency and optimism. Wilson and Petersen, acknowledged the challenges and uncertainties of the past months, but emphasized the positive energy surrounding regaining their independence. They reiterated their commitment to The Gathering Spot’s core values: fostering connection, celebrating Black excellence, and driving economic empowerment within the community.
AcknowledgeMINT: My initial thought is to say welcome back, although it doesn’t feel like you physically never went anywhere. Are you guys approaching this new chapter as if it’s a reboot?
Ryan Wilson: This is a total rebuilt from top to bottom. The thing is there’s a foundation there. If you use the analogy of (being as good as) your last album, we had a good project, we had two, but it’s right now. You got to have the energy like you did when no one heard your music before, and I’m back there. I’m back in that mode. I feel like there’s a lot to prove.
Back in July of 2023, there were reports alleging that TK was fired from TGS by Greenwood Incorporated, the company that acquired you May of 2022. How did that separation affect the business then? And where does that leave you with moving forward?
TK Peterson: So financially where the business is at, we lost over a quarter of the membership this summer, and a business of this magnitude, we don’t have the margins that are able to sustain that. So our first step is we’re trying to reclaim as many of the members that we lost as possible.
It’s terrible for business, but that has to be humbling to see how many members left when you were no longer at TGS.
TK: I am grateful for each and every member that stood up on behalf of me as an individual, and stood up on behalf of the community because they saw that it was not reflecting the ideals that they invested in by virtue of their paying their dues and donating their time and their talent to it. And because of that, the lesson I learned was that the community was truly there for me. Not just as TK, the founder of The Gathering Spot, but there was a multitude of people who genuinely just loved TK Petersen.
True indeed. What were some of the lessons learned coming out of the previous business partnership that didn’t work?
RW: Entrepreneurship is a journey, and it’s life right? It’s ups and downs. They’re good chapters and bad. There’s winning seasons and losing ones, so I try to take that approach to my work every single day. It can’t always be up. You won’t really be able to define what a good year is if you don’t know what a bad one was, so I look at the peaks and the valleys as a part of the process, and try to weather the storms as best I can.
Facts! When it was time to explore the option of regaining the independent status of TGS, TK you initially told Ryan you weren’t interested in returning to TGS. Why the change of heart?
TK: This was something that I said I wanted to last for generations to come, and that if I thought that me being there was important for that to happen, that I should return, and this was an opportunity to return. And the reason we’re here is because I’ve always believed that the ultimate thing we can do is create an institution.
Well said. You guys have over 12k members that are down to rock with you in your three physical clubs and five connected cities. That’s not too bad for an exciting company in a rebuilding stage.
RW: It’s easy to look at where TGS is now, but the folks that took that bet 8 years ago, 7 years ago, 6 years ago, we’ve been able to really grow something special together. I’m looking forward to continuing on with that same thought process and tradition. You don’t get a chance to start over in a sense in most instances, we’re able to kind of re-pour the foundation, and build the house again.
