October 28, 2025 |
Becky Fatemi has lived many lives. She’s been a dancer, a club promoter, a short-lived stylist and even an MC. Most will know her, though, as a real-estate titan whose agency, Rokstone, spent more than a decade matching London’s creative elite with the best properties in the capital and beyond. In 2023, Sotheby’s acquired her business following Rokstone’s strongest year, with Fatemi, 49, remaining as an executive partner.
Whether she’s flipping seven-figure houses (in 2024 she sold £400 million in prime property) or hanging with her glitzy inner circle – which includes Edward Enninful, Naomi Campbell and Skepta – Fatemi has always been surrounded by success stories in the worlds of music, fashion and art. “When I left school, I wanted to work in fashion and music, but my dad didn’t allow me to, so I did it as a hobby while I ran two companies,” she says. “I had an entertainment company and did events. I was always around creative people, which was what I was passionate about. But to pay the bills I fell into property and sales.”
Fatemi has been putting her creative expertise and ability to connect people globally into a new venture that she hopes will not only simplify the way creatives show their work, but will put the power into their hands when it comes to both promoting and monetising their talents. Enter BlackBook by Roksia, an app where you not only curate a portfolio of your finest work, but foster a global network of fellow creatives in a myriad of fields. It’s based on the idea of a little black book of contacts, where instead of having to jump between LinkedIn to see someone’s CV, Instagram to see their work and then their website to hunt down an email contact, all of this will be housed in an easy-to-use interface where you can collaborate and build teams in a chat system. In comparison to platforms like The Dots and LinkedIn, BlackBook prioritises building a sense of community among creatives that can move from the app into real life.
“It’s a space to create, collaborate and curate,” says Fatemi. “With BlackBook, if someone comes to you and says, ‘I need a great hairstylist,’ or, ‘I need a journalist to write a feature for me,’ you can simply recommend someone great by sharing their profile, where all their brilliant work exists in one place.”
The idea for the platform came to Fatemi in 2019 when she was in Ghana for the Year of Return, a government initiative built to encourage those of African descent to visit and resettle in the country. “I was with Edward [Enninful] and Ozwald [Boateng], there was a load of us,” she says. “Everyone kept asking me to connect them to certain make-up or hair artists and other creative talents. I was getting so annoyed. At that point, WhatsApp hadn’t been fine-tuned the way it’s been now so I kept on having to screenshot and send people emails and so forth. I just thought, it’s got to be simpler than this.”
entrepreneur Becky Fatemi is building a community and connecting creatives with her new app, BlackBook; blazer and trousers by PHOEBE PHILO, jumper by MAINS, shoes by FERRAGAMO
Back on home turf, she began creating the app with a developer friend. Early on, an investor made an impressive offer to take control of 40 per cent of the company, which Fatemi refused. “It was quite a large chunk of investment,” she says. “Their ideas were very much about how are we gonna monetise creatives? But I wanted it to grow organically, to ensure that the creative is at the forefront of everything, making sure that they are able to monetise [the app] more for themselves.”
Why is now the right time to launch an app like BlackBook? “Most creatives that I’ve met hate the business [side] of being creative,” she says. “Most creative artists [I know] do work and because it’s not liked on Instagram, it’s not what they consider their best work. But the app allows you to showcase what you’ve created in a non-chronological way, so it becomes the point of reference.” The app lets you choose how to show your work in whatever order you please. It’s not dictated by an algorithm, nor how many likes you get on a post. It allows for great work to speak for itself, without the need for endless self-promotion.
The app is divided into four components. There’s a search tab that allows you to look for a skill, person, interest or profession. There’s ‘Be Found’, where you display your work and profile, which comes with a unique QR code that can be shared across platforms with ease. There’s also a ‘Find Talent’ tab, which suggests creatives in your fields of interest, and a private messaging service that allows you to connect without sharing your mobile number or email address.
BlackBook is monetised by its ‘Featured’ tab, where anyone from a photographer to a writer can pay to be seen more in people’s search engine results.
Fatemi admits to overbuilding the app to begin with. She gathered research from a pool of creatives who were the first to try a beta version. They told her it should be a lot simpler, so “we stripped it right back”. What those early users valued most was the slick interface. “The cleanliness of the design,” she adds, “and just how easy it is to share the most important components of who you are.”
The TV presenter and DJ Maya Jama, a close friend of Fatemi’s, was early to invest in the project. She was introduced to BlackBook when she asked Fatemi for a photographer to capture her behind-the-scenes content for Instagram. “I was testing BlackBook at the time and we had a photographer called Alex Piper who had signed up,” says Fatemi. “I showed her his work and she started using him, and then Idris [Elba] started using him. The tool allowed her to see his work very easily.”
A few months later, at a dinner, Jama mentioned the app to Fatemi. “I told her I wanted to work with like-minded investors who actually care about what I’m trying to build,” says Fatemi. “She said, ‘If there’s an opportunity, I’d like to invest.’”
hoodie and top by ALAIA, necklace by BVLGARI
“I’ve always been drawn to [Fatemi’s] work ethic and drive,” says Jama. “Not only is she an incredible mum [to her 10-year-old son], but she’s building her own empire, and that’s really inspiring.” As to why she wanted to invest in the app, the answer is simple. “BlackBook is an essential tool for connecting creatives efficiently, and in the creative industry your network is so important. Having an app that can support so many different people in expanding their connections is so beneficial and something I wish I’d had access to at the start of my career. It would have saved me so much time when looking for creatives to connect with. I also think it is such a reliable source to get a quick understanding of someone’s work so you don’t have to spend lots of time going around asking for everyone’s recommendations or references on individuals.”
I’m keen to know how 16-year-old Becky, starting out in the entertainment business, would have benefited from a platform like BlackBook. “I wanted to find other people who were like me and I just couldn’t. That’s why [having a] portfolio was so important for us, because you’d have to go meet people to show them your work. While social media is so amazing, the way it has mutated has taken away that personal touch. If you are a creative and you’re getting 100,000 likes, that immediately makes you something, right? That’s great, but then, you know what, if you know art and creativity, you know it’s about everybody liking it in their own way. [BlackBook] doesn’t have likes or comments, so if you want to find out more information, you have to message the person.”
With the app set to launch later this year, Fatemi hopes BlackBook will disrupt the tech space in an increasingly male-dominated field. “Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, they’re not women. They’re definitely not women of colour,” she says. “It’s good when people tell me I can’t do something because it’s what fuels me and I’ve done it in pretty much all of my sectors. This is the next thing. This is the thing I’ve felt the strongest about.”
Taken from 10 Magazine Issue 75 – BIRTHDAY, EVOLVE, TRANSFORMATION – out on newsstands now. Order your copy here.
THE CONNECTOR
Photographer JOSH HIGHT
Fashion Editor TRACEY NICHOLSON
Talent BECKY FATEMI
Text PAUL TONER
Hair HAKIM ELHOCINE
Make-up MAHA ALSELAMI
Manicurist ANNIE PHAM
BlackBook co-ordinator DREW SHUTTLEWORTH
