Jonathan Stone

Dreaming in handpan beatbox loops 🛸🎤🔁 #beatbox #handpan #loopstation #throatsinging #livelooping #rc505

If at first you don’t succeed…Thai, Thai again. 🇹🇭 So much to share about my last week in this magical land but, for now, I leave you with this real life rendering of my strategic approach to 2024. 🧗‍♀️🌊🚀 Special thanks to @alechess for his unintentionally prophetic “Keep exploring until you find a good hold.” Words to live by.. Happy New Year my friends 🥳 🎥 @jeriksantos #Thailand #StoneOnStone #ParadiseFound

🎤✨ 15 years ago today - January 20, 2010 - I made my national television debut. It was the result of a last-minute decision the prior summer that would change my life in unexpected ways. While visiting family in South Florida in July 2009 before moving to NYC in August, I saw that the American Idol Season 9 auditions were happening in Orlando the following week. I thought, Why not?, hopped in my car, called my buddy @bgellous and asked if he wanted to be my one allowed guest. His response? “F**K YEA!”* 🤣 From 16,000+ hopefuls in Orlando alone (one of 7 audition cities nationwide), I made it through round after round across 3 total trips to Orlando that summer - from 16,000 down to 1,000, then 300, and finally one of just 70 people who got to sing in front of the celebrity judges. It was wild: you couldn’t tell who was being progressed based on merit and who because they made for hilarious TV gold (who could forget William Hung’s “She Bang”?). By the time I hit the Hollywood Week finals and flew out to LA January 2010, I had signed a 70-page contract that basically handed over all my music rights to The Man...but what I gained was far more meaningful: a deepened confidence in my musicality, thicker skin (f**k you Simon!), a life motto of “Who cares? Why not!” and one helluva story to tell decade and a half later! So today, I’m finally sharing this with Instagram, realizing most of the friends I’ve made on this platform since then are probably unaware of this chapter! It’s a reminder that sometimes the best decisions come from following your gut, taking a leap of faith, embracing the moment, and letting life surprise you. ✨🎶 #AmericanIdol #HollywoodWeek #Throwback #WhoCaresWhyNot #AmericanIdolBeatbox

Shabbat Shalom from @Summit at Sea 🫶🕺🚢

Today, I join Hypha as Founding GTM Lead. 🚀 But here's how I actually got here. I interviewed for the Head of GTM role. Made it to the final two. Didn't get it. So I sent a genuine thank you note to the founders. No agenda. Just gratitude for the opportunity and respect for what they're building. They responded immediately -- and introduced me to the person who got the role. Today, Chris is now my partner in building and scaling Hypha's go-to-market engine. Sometimes the role you're meant to have just doesn't exist yet. Asset management firms are still making decisions using archaic systems across thousands of documents, Excel models, and email threads. A trillion-dollar industry still operating on 20th-century infrastructure. Hypha is changing that with AI built from the ground up, purpose-built for how these firms actually work. And for anyone with a nonlinear career who's worn a lot of hats and wondered if it all adds up: It does. Management consulting. Google. Meta. Startups. My own ventures. I spent years questioning whether my range was an asset or a liability. Now I can see it was the foundation. If it were 1848 and you just heard about gold discovery in California, the only rational move was to get on the first train west. We are in that moment with AI. Time to build. 🚀 #NewRole #AIStartup #GTM #FintechAI #Hypha #TimeToBuild

On Sunday, I took my 12-year-old son to see @theaidocfilm 🤖 At his age I was collecting rings in Sonic the Hedgehog on a Sega Genesis 🎮 He’s growing up building things with voice prompts into machines that may one day reach superintelligence. After the film, we debriefed. His take: “It’ll be positive as long as people make the right choices.” Not bad for a 12-year-old. Then we went deeper. We talked about a world where AI handles the mundane while 25% of the planet still lacks clean water. About who’s actually making the decisions that shape the world he inherits. We talked about why “just pause AI” doesn’t hold when adversarial nations aren’t pausing. That’s when it crystallized. The more powerful these systems become, the greater the demand for what they can’t replicate: Presence. Discernment. Self-awareness. 🧘🏻‍♂️ 👁️Real eye contact 🌿Time spent in nature 🫂Physical connection. This moment is asking something of us that no model can answer: can we simultaneously derive as much value from this technology while developing the internal capacity to keep up with them? Time will tell… P.S. Fun fact: there was no billboard poster to take a photo in front of so I actually used Flux2 to generate an AI image of us standing in front of the movie poster. It even added the popcorn 🍿unprompted! What a time to be alive! 😎 Original image ➡️

Shalom Alechem in India’s oldest synagogue, 458 years... if this song has been sung once a week every Shabbat since opening, that’s 23,816 total 🤯 Wait til the beat drops 😎🕍🎶 #shalomalechem #jewishprayer #jewishindia

Anyone who knows me knows my love for serendipity. Nazaré was already on the list - surf or no surf. Then I land and boom: biggest swell of the decade + big wave competition announced the same day. Luck? Timing? Alignment? Whatever it is, I’m grateful…for the waves, the natural beauty, and the incredible humans who turned this into an all-day adventure. Take the trip. Chase the curiosity. Because when you ask, “What are the chances?” The answer is always 100%.

Two days into a five-week global adventure…and a return to Instagram after a 2.5 month hiatus. While gearing up for my move back to Williamsburg in October, I noticed I was scrolling instead of packing. So I gifted myself a temporary deactivation to focus on being more present, grounded, and connected to what was actually unfolding in my life versus narrating it in real time. This trip was catalyzed by an invitation to a dear friend’s wedding in India, but shaped by a year that asked me to slow down and pay attention. 2025 began with a skin cancer diagnosis, surgery, and recovery. A moment that brought deep gratitude for my health… and a clear reminder that life is too short to over-analyze, hesitate, or ignore the opportunities the Universe places in front of us. This five-week arc looks like: • 1 week in Lisbon • 2 weeks in Israel • 2 weeks in India If you have people I should meet, places I shouldn’t miss, or experiences that shaped you along the way, please share. Going forward, I’ll be sharing more selectively and intentionally. Less performative. More grounded. And always with the reminder that real life isn’t happening on this tiny screen - it’s out there in the world, where we stretch ourselves beyond our comfort zones.

Just wrapped a beautiful weekend at @thethyme_ - a new 85 acre retreat space in The Berkshires - and wow, what a central nervous system reset. ❤️‍🩹 🙏🏼 Grateful for the space, the kind-hearted people, and the stillness that made room for sonic exploration. Sharing a few clips of my my handpan x beatbox session - freestyles from the soul. ✨A gentle reminder to share your gifts. The world is waiting to receive them (and, in some cases, laugh hysterically because they don’t know how else to react! 😝). 🎥🫶 @alicepanikian #handpan #beatbox #thethyme #musicismedicine #shareyourgifts

One month ago, I underwent skin cancer surgery. 
And oh what a ride it has been! Starting in early January, from my initial detection to the biopsy results through to the past month’s recovery, this has been a true test of surrender. I realized I could turn a double surgery hospital visit into a spiritual reclamation. In mindfulness, we always say “Let go of that which no longer serves us…” well, this time, I literally felt it. 💡Insights gleaned: ❤️‍🩹 We’re not meant to heal in isolation. For surgery day, I created a WhatsApp group of my inner circle and turned it into a real-time lifeline - sharing updates throughout the day, receiving love and virtual hugs that genuinely helped calm my nervous system. 🙏🏼 Stay grateful. Stay humble. For a cancer story, I realized this about as lucky as it gets - 100% curable from day one. No chemo. No risk of spreading. Just 7 hours with two incredibly skilled surgeons who removed the tumor from my eyelid which they then rebuilt in a matter of hours. Modern medicine is nothing short of a miracle.
☀️ Sunscreen. Hat. Sunglasses. There’s no such thing as too much protection. 🏞️ Time spent in nature absolutely accelerated my recovery. Thank you Central Park (5th photo 🌳)
📅 If you see something, go to the damn derm. Twice a year, maybe three. 🌹 Red-tinted glasses are great for recovery (last photo). They hide the scars a bit and help you see the world through the rose-colored lenses 🤓 
💗Life is precious. Take care of your body. And let the people who love you... love you. #healingjourney #skincancerawareness #gratitude #mindfulness #letgo

NYC can be electric, but it can also be…a lot. There are days when this city feels like the most exhilarating place on earth, and others when it feels downright lonely. For my birthday this year, I decided on a different approach: invite a few dozen friends for a 2-hour sweat and cold plunge at @othership , followed by a prix fixe dinner at one of my favorite NYC spots, @boqueria . I was left reminded of the real magic of this city: the people. Where else on Earth can we find ourselves surrounded by such brilliant, kind, hilarious, and downright good humans? A tribe like this, one that shows up, celebrates, and brings out the best in each other…isn’t something I take for granted. So, to anyone who has positively influenced my life this past year, thank you. Thank you for the laughter, the deep talks, the freestyle raps and musical jams, the spontaneous dance parties, and the unwavering support. After 15 years, you make this city feel like home. Here’s to another lap around the sun filled with love, abundance, adventure, and friendship. 🙏🏼💙🚀 #Grateful #NYCLife #ChosenFamily