Florida Atlantic: Changing Direction

If Hamid Hashemi has learned one lesson about success, it’s this: Don’t be afraid to change direction. The Florida Atlantic University graduate planned to attend medical school, but a willingness to explore new opportunities eventually led him to build two companies that transformed the movie-going experience in the United States.

“FAU gave me a foundation — and exposed me to a lot of different disciplines,” Hashemi said. “I majored in microbiology — but ended up in something completely different, something that I love doing.”

Hashemi emigrated from Iran in 1979, just before the Iranian revolution, and began his higher education in Iowa.

“That was the time after the Islamic regime had taken the American hostages,” he said. “There was a lot of animosity towards Persian students.”

A spring break trip to South Florida changed everything. “Nobody was looking at me sideways in South Florida,” Hashemi said. “I wasn’t the only person with dark hair and brown eyes. South Florida is a great mixing pot.”

He transferred to FAU but realized his prospects to attend medical school were beyond his financial reach, so he pivoted to business. He was especially interested in real estate.

“I took pretty much every course FAU offered in real estate and finance,” he said.

After graduating, Hashemi launched a real estate business that led to him owning a small movie theater in Coral Springs. It was thriving at the time, but it quickly faced competition from larger and better capitalized companies like Loews and General Cinema. He struggled, but he had fallen in love with the business and he liked learning a new industry.

“I then did the research that I should’ve done to begin with, figuring out how to compete with the giants of the movie theater industry,” Hashemi said. “The conclusion was to turn moviegoing into an experience, just as the forefathers of this industry did back in the 1920s and 30s — the heyday of movie theaters. Back then, theatergoing was an event. People used to get dressed up and waited in lines to get a seat to a show.

“The good thing about the theater business is that every theater gets the same movie. It is in how you present and package it that makes the difference. It’s about building a memorable experience and making it an event. It’s about building a transformational destination that makes people drive past other theaters to come to yours.”

So, he began building best-in-class, highly thematic theaters with his company, Muvico Theaters. Between the 1980s and 2005, he grew Muvico into one of the most popular and profitable megaplex chains in the U.S. before selling to Cinemark. The theaters featured themed architecture that harkened back to the golden age of cinema, such as the Muvico Palace 20 near the Boca Raton campus, now called the Cinemark Bistro Boca Raton and XD; and the Egyptianthemed Cinemark Paradise 24 in Davie.

Hashemi then reinvented the concept with IPIC Theaters, bringing the comfort of home into the theaters, with reclining seats encapsulated into pods, and adding highend dining and cocktails. More intimate than megaplexes, IPIC offered “inventive cuisine, handcrafted cocktails, meticulously curated programming and unmatched comfort,” with marquee locations in Los Angeles, New York City and Boca Raton.

After exiting IPIC in 2019 while he was planning his next concept, Hashemi was approached to join WeWork. Once again, he pivoted and took on something different. He found the opportunity to take part in rescuing a company of its size exciting and it was the first time he wasn’t the owner of where he was working.

“We had 750 locations around the world, in every time zone — and 250 locations under construction in 140 cities in 34 countries,” Hashemi said. “It was challenging work in the middle of the pandemic, but very gratifying.”

It paid off. The company’s valuation climbed from roughly $2 billion to $10 billion in 18 months when it went public. He left the company in 2021 and has since been working and consulting for a range of businesses in real estate, retail, health care and hospitality.

Now he’s charting a new course around what he calls “Studio Social” — a third place, beyond work and home. The concept: building communities and belonging through creativity, craftsmanship and art making.

“Loneliness is the largest unaddressed epidemic of the decade,” Hashemi said. “Today we are more connected than ever before through our phones, yet 50% of the adults are chronically lonely, according to the U.S. surgeon general. My goal is to build gathering places where people can come together to connect through art making — a place where they can meet old friends and make new ones. It is what’s missing.”

His message for college students is just as direct. “I hear people say, ‘why do I need to go to school and take classes that I won’t use? Most of the classes I am taking are not relevant to what I want to major in or want to do,’” he said. “The fact is that 70% of graduates end up working in a field different than what they majored in.

“Take different courses, learn as much as you can, because most likely you will end up doing something different.”

As someone who has hired thousands over his career, he looks for people who have diverse work experiences.

“Today the pace of change in business is so fast that if you don’t adapt and pivot, odds are you will be left behind,” he said. “And even more so in the future. As AI does the highly technical and specialized work, those with the diversity and a broad knowledge base will be the ones who will be able to change the world.”

His final thought is simple: “If you want to have meaning in what you do — broaden your knowledge base and your work experience. Don’t pigeonhole yourself. There’s nothing wrong with changing majors or careers.”