Alan Chang has spent nearly two decades building a career inside the nightlife and hospitality industry, rising from the corporate side of the business to running his own group of Las Vegas venues. He joined Sean Kelly on the Digital Social Hour to talk about how he got there and where he plans to take the company next.
The conversation moves quickly from Chang's own path into the industry to the bigger business questions behind it — acquisitions, scaling a hospitality brand in a notoriously tough market, and the disruption OnlyFans has brought to the space he's built his career in.
About Alan Chang
Alan Chang is the CEO of Peppermint Hippo, a Las Vegas-based nightlife and hospitality group he has worked to grow through acquisitions and rebuilding existing venues. Before taking the top job, he spent a decade in the corporate side of the industry as Director of Business Development at Spearmint Rhino, from 2005 to 2015.
That corporate background shaped the way Chang approaches the business today — treating hospitality and entertainment venues as scalable operating companies rather than one-off clubs, with an eventual goal of taking the company public.
What Alan Chang and Sean Kelly Talked About
- How Alan Chang built a career in hospitality, from corporate development to CEO
- His path from Director of Business Development at Spearmint Rhino to running his own company
- Why Chang is rebuilding and acquiring venues under the Peppermint Hippo brand
- His long-term plan to take the company public and what that requires
- How the rise of OnlyFans has reshaped competition and demand in his industry
- What running hospitality venues in a market like Las Vegas actually takes
- The leadership lessons Chang carried from a corporate role into ownership
- Why he sees scale and structure as the future of the nightlife business
Why This Conversation Matters
This is a rare look inside the business side of an industry most people only see from the outside — Alan Chang's path from corporate hospitality to company ownership, and his plans to scale and eventually go public, make for a candid conversation about running an unconventional business the right way.
▶ Watch the full episode on YouTube
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About Sean Kelly & the Digital Social Hour
Sean Kelly is an entrepreneur and the host of the Digital Social Hour, one of the fastest-growing interview podcasts in the world, where he sits down with entrepreneurs, athletes, creators, and cultural voices for candid, long-form conversations. The show draws over 100 million views a month across platforms. Explore more guest features on SeanKelly.io.
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