The Story Behind October's Surreal "Meet a Billionaire" Event

The self-described millionaire took a long drag from his vape. From behind sunglasses, Kevin Paul Blake surveyed the crowd of 20 or so scattered inside an event space at the DoubleTree Hilton Biscayne Bay in Edgewater.

The hodgepodge group at the October 13 "Meet a Billionaire" event included a mix of eager entrepreneurs and business owners from various industries. Though most were locals, at least a handful had come from as far north as Orlando and as far west as Tampa to learn the ins and outs of raising capital and building wealth.

"Learn from the best & invest in creating your future lifestyle," a LinkedIn event page read.

New Times learned of the seminar from an Eventbrite page that offered tiered ticket packages priced between $99 and $1,000 and guaranteed attendees the chance to “meet a billionaire.” Various ticketing platforms listed the same price info. “How much would you pay to meet a billionaire?” read the tagline on the event-planning website Happening Next.

A few days before the event, New Times had sought out the organizers to gain clarity about the ticketing options.

Almost immediately, the event page was revised to reflect that admission was free.

A promotional video shows a conventionally attractive blond woman looking longingly out the window of what appears to be a private jet. Cue footage of people dancing on the beach and shots of a massive cheering audience inside a jampacked venue. “INVESTORS: MIAMI 2021,” reads the overlay text.
The video and other promotional materials might lead you to expect a flashy event — private jets! pretty people! networking with the rich! — that would draw scores of attendees. It’s difficult, in fact, to imagine a more quintessential example of Miami superficiality.

Then again, could it be — much like Miami superficiality itself — too good to be true?

A cluster of 20 couldn't have been what Kevin Paul Blake had in mind when he trumpeted, “LIMITED SPACE 250 SEATS" on his Facebook event invite.

Blake had flown in the talent: Brad Blazar, a 45-year-old capital fundraiser and purported "billionaire" from Texas, to share his thoughts about the ins and outs of winning over high-net-worth investors.

One image promoting the event showed a sunglasses-clad man in a suit with a private jet and a white Corvette in the background.

A reverse Google Image search for the photo returned results for “rich man with private jet.”
Not unlike the photo, Blake sported a dark navy suit and the confidence one might expect from someone who boasts about the two dozen properties he owns and the millions of dollars he has made by investing in real estate.

The talk was put on by Blake’s investment services company, BillionaireOpen — an organization that appears to have no visible footprint beyond a three-month-old Facebook page and a slapdash website that was created around the same time.

The profile’s header image consists of side-by-side photos of Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk, and reviews featured on the profile were written by Facebook users whose prose style lies somewhere between seventh-grade book report and discarded early bot attempt.
Its YouTube channel (also called BillionaireOpen), boasts more than 100,000 subscribers, though only five videos have been uploaded to the account, none of which have attracted more than 150 views.

There’s also no record of a company by that name anywhere in Florida, according to records from the Secretary of State’s office.

On the day of the event, the show was supposed to get on the road at 4 p.m., but the talk didn't start until an hour later. By then, the antsy posse watched Blake step up to the small stage to offer brief introductory remarks and to introduce the billionaire speaker of the day.

“This is our first event,” Blake told the crowd. “There’s no other way to raise capital than OPM — Other People’s Money.

“I am a millionaire, but my net worth is much higher,” he went on. “You have to have the firm conviction and belief you’re going to get somewhere. You have to put in the work. It’s not easy.”

(New Times could not independently verify Blake's net worth.)

With that, he introduced Blazar.

"I hope tonight, in the next 45 minutes to an hour, I can give you some insight on some things I've learned over my 35 years of raising lots of money," Blazar said.

Throughout the hourlong talk, Blazar — who, despite the assertion on the event flyer, is not a billionaire, nor does he purport to be one — guided attendees through networking strategies and possible conversation points that could be unleashed upon prospective investors.

Prior to wrapping up, he said he'd accept six people from the audience for a capital-raising boot camp he's planning to host in Miami in November.

On his website and social-media profiles, Blazar bills himself as the “$2-billion man.” (Not because he’s a billionaire, he explained to New Times, but because he has raised more than $2 billion in capital.)

Event promos promised a second speaker (a billionaire), but the event ended after Blazar spoke. No other billionaires were introduced.

Speaking with New Times several days before the event, Blazar said he had no hand in planning it and had always been under the impression that it would be free to attend.

A day after the "Meet a Billionaire" during which New Times met not a single billionaire, Blake's brand, BillionaireOpen, posted a photo to its Facebook page.

"The morning group A @11:00 was a Fantastic showing!" read the caption above a photo showing a crowd of group shot what appears to be more than 100 smiling people, their hands raised in the air.
Morning group? Fantastic showing?

Reached by New Times, events staff at the hotel said the seminar offered just one session, which took place on the afternoon of October 13. They had no record, the hotel said, of a "morning group" associated with the conference taking place on any day at the hotel.

Blazar also told New Times he knows of no "morning group" and that he was scheduled to speak only once, in the afternoon.

"[Kevin Paul Blake] was totally 100 percent responsible for organizing the event I spoke at," Blazar said. "All I did was show up, really. I had no part in organizing or promoting."

When asked about the discrepancies, Blake told New Times the morning portion of the event was held at a different hotel, the name of which he could not recall. Nor could he remember the names of the speakers who headlined that session.

"I don't really give a fuck, to be honest. It was free," he added. "Whoever wanted to show up could show up."

Before ending the call, he said he has been in touch with "Elon Musk's people" and hopes to interview the $293 billion man himself ahead of his next space launch and publish the chat. Then he offered to pay New Times $10,000 and to set up an interview with a Saudi crown prince.