Thrive: FutureLAND founder finds inspiration in his father’s grit and drive

Original Article here: https://www.freshwatercleveland.com/features/FutueLAND_Kumar_Arora_092823.aspx

A generation ago, the prospect of an entrepreneurial life in Cleveland seemed dim for Kumar Arora.

His father, Pramod Arora, the oldest of nine children, grew up in a remote farming village 45 miles east of India’s capital city New Delhi, and worked at his family’s general store, which his father started after the government put restrictions on farm ownership that hurt many residents’ ability to earn a living. Looters raided their store and home often, once shooting and injuring Pramod’s father and eventually forcing the family away.

Pramod wanted a better life. He was a curious and inquisitive boy. He took apart radios, dissected frogs, and read books by candlelight at night because there was no electricity.

Pramod’s drive and aptitude earned him an education that attracted the interest of Case Western Reserve University, which recruited him in the early 1980s to work as a researcher and chemistry professor. He came to Cleveland with his wife Anuradha, an artist. A few years later, Kumar was born.

Today, Kumar Arora models the stories of his father’s determination and perseverance in his own life as a civic-minded entrepreneur, businessman, and one of the developers behind the upcoming FutureLAND—a conference that celebrates diversity in tech, arts, and culture in Northeast Ohio. 

“That grit and those stories that I hear, I carry them, too,” Kumar said over a cold brew latte at Lekko Coffee, a hip coffee shop on Detroit Avenue in Ohio City. “I can’t let him down. He’s come too far for me to just stop.”

Tech+Art+Culture

Kumar Arora seems to never stop. Perhaps best known as one of the judges on LeBron James’ 2016 MSNBC Shark Tank-like program, “Cleveland Hustles,” Arora considers himself a serial entrepreneur.

He’s involved in many businesses, including ILTHY, the Cleveland art and apparel company, and Sora, an Asian fusion restaurant in the Flats, as well as civic engagements in Cleveland, like FutureLAND, which this year carries the theme of “Thrive.”

Now in its second year, this year’s conference will be held in the KeyBank State Theatre Lobby and Gund Dance Studio at Playhouse Square on Thursday, Oct. 5 and Friday, Oct. 6. Speakers include producer, songwriter, and artist Nineteen85; former Progressive Insurance Chief Marketing Officer Jeff Charney; and Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb.

The event resulted from a call early last year prompted by Bibb’s office, Arora says. He was one of about 50 “movers and shakers” in Cleveland asked to join the group.

The goal: how to grow a tech ecosystem in Cleveland.

For months, the group met to discuss what that ecosystem would look like. The result was FutureLAND, and Arora designed the logo and inaugural=year website.

“Through [Arora’s] leadership and guidance, FutureLAND has become a celebration of diversity in tech and entrepreneurship, helping to drive economic growth and create new opportunities,” says Ryan Puente, chief government affairs officer for the City of Cleveland and a member of Bibb’s Cabinet.

Arora says he’d love to see the conference evolve into an organization that attracts “the Googles of the world” to Cleveland.

“Can FutureLAND become the South by Southwest of Cleveland?” Arora asks, referring to the popular annual global conference and festival in Austin, Texas.

From medicine to nightclubs

The 37-year-old Arora has evolved into an influential force since his shy, awkward days at Holy Rosary School in Little Italy and later at public high school in North Royalton, where his parents moved when his father started an eyeglass lens coating business.

Arora says he always hated the question: “What do you want to be when you grow up?”

Instead, he says he thinks the better question is: “What all do you want to be while you’re growing up?”

Arora has been on that journey since his college days at The Ohio State University, where he nervously broke the news to his parents that he didn’t want to be a doctor—the profession they wanted him to pursue.

“Ironically enough, my dad got a PhD in organic chemistry and that’s the class I couldn’t [pass],” he says.

Instead, he became a nightclub promoter. He started designing flyers and that grew into full-fledged marketing. He promoted concerts by Kid Cudi, Big Sean, and Machine Gun Kelly (MGK), who he affectionately calls “Kels.”

Arora and MGK have stayed connected and this past summer collaborated on an event called “MGK Day” in Cleveland. He says they hope to repeat the event next summer.

Getting Back Up

Arora’s passion for Cleveland runs deep, but he says he had to leave to rekindle it. So in 2015, he moved to Los Angeles looking for more opportunities.

“Cleveland wasn’t ready for a guy like me,” he surmises.

In L.A., Arora joined longtime friend Eric Vajda, better known by his DJ name, “E-V,” who is now his business partner at the Cleveland creative agency, Underdogs. Arora pursued several business ventures there, including his now stagnant “Rogue Eyeglass” brand, the now-defunct “Trust Foods” that created egg-white cereal, and “Old City Soda,” his investment from “Cleveland Hustles” that didn’t make it.

Those failures stung, Arora says, but “you have to find a way to get back up.”

Arora’s father Pramod recalls bringing his son to conferences and meetings when he was building his company, “You have to learn by losing something,” says Pramod. “Many people you find are lucky, some of them are not lucky. But you have to try. You may fall, but that’s how you learn.”

A Focus on Giving Back

Arora says the brightest spot that came out of his time in L.A. was meeting his fiancée, Elizabeth, who, ironically, lives in Cleveland. The two met on an Instagram page for dog owners (he has a maltipoo named Toby and she has a covapoo named Sunny), and she drew him back to Cleveland in 2020. They will be married this year.

Arora says there was a different vibe in Cleveland when he returned, even with the COVID-19 pandemic upending the city.

“I had breakfast with my good friend Justin—now the mayor [of Cleveland]—and how things were going to change,” he says.

‘All the crazy things I did’

This past spring, Mayor Bibb’s office tapped Arora to represent Cleveland at a “Young Men of Color” entrepreneurship roundtable in Washington D.C. with Vice President Kamala Harris because “Kumar embodies the grit, creativity, and essence of our great city,’’ Puente says.

The Flats Sora Asian fusion restaurant, which he considers a great sequel to Old City Soda, was recently named Best Sushi (2022) and Best Japanese (2023) by Cleveland Magazine. And his Underdogs agency boasts clients such as Nike, the Cleveland Guardians, Pepsi, and more.

“There's no ceiling for what he’s going to do,” Underdogs partner Vajda says.

Arora simply aims to keep going on his journey to be everything he wants to be while growing up.

“When I’m a grandfather, I want my grandchildren to sit on my lap, so I can tell them all the crazy things I did,’’ he says.