Bringing people together is what music does best. It’s also what Steve Hagenbuckle excels at in his role as founder and executive producer of Live Fest—the outdoor music festival held on the driving range of the Tiburón Golf Club in Naples during the annual Grant Thornton Invitational.
Music is an intrinsically human experience, and it has played a tangible role throughout Hagenbuckle’s life. “I’ve always been in and around music,” he says. As a teenager in the late ’70s and early ’80s, Hagenbuckle listened to a lot of music—predominantly classic rock and roll. He joined his first band at age 13 and has performed in seven different groups over the years. Today, he sings and plays rhythm guitar with a homegrown band—Good Intentions—comprising four members who play “originals and bangers from the ’80s, ’90s, and 2000s,” he says, around Southwest Florida. In his free time, Hagenbuckle can be found writing songs and practicing with his bandmates in a specially outfitted “jam cave” in the North Naples home where he lives with wife Maria, twin daughters Hanna and Karina, and an Australian shepherd named Axel.
Born in Sanford, Florida, Hagenbuckle spent his earliest years in Colombia, where his father managed real estate investments throughout Latin America for the Rockefeller family. When Hagenbuckle was 3, the family moved to Illinois. Years later, to get away from the snow, they relocated to Marco Island. Hagenbuckle graduated from Lely High School in 1981 and attended the University of Florida in Gainesville to study computer science and engineering. After a successful first year of school, his father granted the young man the “privilege” of funding the remainder of his studies himself; the elder Hagenbuckle considered this a gift.
“Become a millionaire by the age of 30,” was Hagenbuckle’s answer to the customary question of what he wanted to do when he grew up—which necessitated finding meaningful employment. To pay for his remaining college years, Hagenbuckle worked security at night clubs, music venues, and stadiums, often logging upward of 36 hours a week at gigs where noted musicians and comedians, such as Tom Petty, Stevie Nicks, Cheap Trick, Robin Williams, and Eddie Murphy, performed. During this time, Hagenbuckle came to understand what it takes to organize and produce crowd-pleasing shows, helping set the stage for an opportunity that materialized years later.
Do What You Love
Driven to succeed at whatever he does, Hagenbuckle believes “you should do what you love.” Although music made that list, his jobs in the industry, he recalls, were an eye-opening experience. Music connects people for celebrations and good times, but the dark side reveals rampant drug and alcohol misuse by artists to handle grueling schedules and the loneliness of life on the road. “I discovered it was not a good life. The highs were very high and the lows, really low,” he says. Music remained a passion but would never become Hagenbuckle’s day job.
Computers were also something Hagenbuckle loved. Technology proved to be the avenue where he realized his entrepreneurial success. He says he was “lucky to participate in the dot-com run-up in the ’90s,” admitting, “it was a great time to get involved in the computer industry.”
His first day job was as a computer programmer with health care company Baxter Travenol, where he was quickly promoted into sales. At 29, he became an officer of publicly traded Clinicom, a nursing and clinical assessment software company. By age 30, he founded TechWare Consulting in Dallas, Texas, with a college friend, Jeff Roschman. Although one of 340 companies servicing the information technology field at the time, the pair grew TechWare to 155 employees in just 18 months and, shortly thereafter, sold it to Ciber Inc., now a global information technology services company. Hagenbuckle founded and sold more companies, including Orus Information Services, Fort Lauderdale–based Landmark Bank, and Collegiate Images.
For the record, Hagenbuckle became a millionaire at 31—one year after his predicted goal.
By age 34, following continued business success, he could retire—and his only worry would be whom he would play golf with each day. His father, however, chimed in with some sage advice: “The day you retire is the day you start to die—mentally.” Not ready to meet an early demise, the goal-oriented entrepreneur created what he considers his “most interesting job to date.”
By 2006, as a Landmark Bank board member, Hagenbuckle foresaw the looming credit crisis. Following in his father’s footsteps, he began investing in real estate, purchasing undervalued properties, as well as tracts of land in DeSoto, Charlotte, Lee, and Collier counties—and even Costa Rica.
In 2008, he founded TerraCap Management LLC, a real estate investment firm that targets the acquisition, operational improvement, and leasing of real estate assets. Today the company holds $2.5 billion in commercial real estate and manages investments for 340 investors.
Hagenbuckle maintains an active role as the managing partner at TerraCap. Over the years, he has given many of his employees the opportunities and incomes to reach financial independence. To this day, he remains committed to growing his company and helping his employees achieve success.
Love What You Do
Ever since he was a kid, Hagenbuckle admits he wanted to produce a high-caliber music festival. When he saw the crowds that gathered for the QBE Shootout held in late fall at The Ritz-Carlton Naples, Tiburón, he recognized an opportunity to piggyback on the popular golf event.
First, he had to get the blessing of golf legend Greg Norman, who, in 1989, founded an invitational team competition that takes place on the PGA Tour as an unofficial money contest. Named the Shark Shootout (before the QBE Shootout label), the event moved to Tiburón Golf Club in Naples in 2001, where it is played on the Norman-designed Gold Course. (Eventually the PGA renamed the tournament the Grant Thornton Invitational, a 16-team event that features one male and one female pro golfer on each team). After only one conversation, Norman declared he was onboard.
Plans began in earnest for a Live Fest debut in 2019. Hagenbuckle works closely with Rob Hartman, senior vice president of Golf & Events at sports talent agency Wasserman and tournament director for the Grant Thornton Invitational. Hartman explains that Wasserman manages talent procurement, production, operations, and ticket and sponsorship sales for Live Fest. “Steve and I work hand in hand on all planning, strategic decisions, and talent discussions,” says Hartman.
While Naples may not be the concert capital of the country, Hagenbuckle admits Live Fest is an “easy sell,” especially during season. Popular music stars, including Thomas Rhett, Dierks Bentley, Jake Owen, Darius Rucker, Brad Paisley, Lady A, Little Big Town, and 38 Special, have played the event. Hagenbuckle reports that to date he has donated all profits to charitable organizations, including CureSearch for Children’s Cancer, St. Matthew’s House, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Smile Train, and Tunnel to Towers Foundation.
Live Fest is now one of the largest events in Naples, selling out months before it even takes place. It attracts nationally known sponsors such as iHeartRadio, Dunkin’ Donuts, and First Horizon Bank. The combination of the golf event and music festival seems to be working. It is now duplicated in other locations—helping breathe new life into PGA tournaments.
Early on the afternoon of December 14, thousands of Live Fest ticket holders will begin arriving by the busload, wending their way through the grounds of the Tiburón Golf Club and The Ritz-Carlton Naples, Tiburon to get situated before a mammoth stage for a 5 p.m. showtime under the stars. With a hard stop at 10 p.m., the audience will have to wait another year to hear an encore. But there’s little doubt it will happen, as Hagenbuckle has no plans to retire from his night job.
Dressing the Part
A businessman by day, Steve Hagenbuckle chooses classic garments, favoring navy, black, or gray Canali dress pants or suits combined with crisp, white dress shirts, a luxury watch from his collection, and Ferragamo or Gucci loafers. He recalls what his mother told him when he was starting his career: “dress for where you want to be, not for where you are.” He especially took this to heart when he embraced his hidden rock star and began dressing the part. “Eventually I was able to live the part,” he explains. Read on for more details about Hagenbuckle’s fashion sense.
NI: How do you describe your after-hours style?
Hagenbuckle: Edgy. Renegade classic rocker meets mountain Western wear.
What labels do you love?
John Varvatos, Etro, Rag & Bone, Scotch & Soda, and Wornstar. I love Stallion cowboy boots and funky loafers from John Craig.
What is your favorite place to shop?
Axel’s in Vail, Colorado. Though whenever I visit, they tell me they have nothing left to sell me.
Any fashion advice?
Dress cool but not too crazy. Let your clothes match the occasion—but don’t underdress.
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