VILLAGEx 2022 Founder Friday: Jamm Around
Founder Fridays is a series that spotlights VILLAGEx founders and their startups
What happens when music, innovation, and technology intersect in a cultural hub like New Orleans? Groundbreaking startups like Jamm Around are created. Brent Craige, Donovan Williams, and Marlon Butler are the founders of Jamm Around, a new software that offers music creators heightened and more efficient ways of collaboration, growth, and productivity.
In 2020, Craige and Butler, both with music artist management backgrounds, realized the gaps that artists face in music production and collaboration after working on a New Orleans bounce album that fell through because of supply chain challenges. Soon after, in 2021, Williams, web engineer, approached both Craige and Butler about potential collaborations. That's when the three teamed up and decided to try and solve for the gaps that many artists like themselves face in music collaboration.
Jamm Around is a music career management software that offers tools for music creators to more efficiently manage relationships, streamline processes, and organize content in one place.
Craige, Williams, and Butler have focused their energy on building and scaling up their startup through the 2022 VILLAGEx accelerator program for the last five months. Most recently, the Jamm Around team won IDEApitch’s $400,000 investment prize during New Orleans Entrepreneur Week 2022, making them the first Black-led startup to win the annual IDEApitch while taking home the highest investment prize in the nation. The investment funds will go towards scaling their user base and building their engineering team. Post-Demo Day on May 4th, the team plans to continue refining and improving their product and market goals.
Q & A
(Responses have been edited for clarity)
Why startup in New Orleans?
Brent Craige: “We started in New Orleans because this is our home. We were born and raised in New Orleans and there is a ton of opportunity if you know where to look. New Orleans has cultural assets that can be leveraged if we find better ways to extract value.”
In what ways has VILLAGEx inspired you and or helped so far?
Brent Craige: “When we first entered VILLAGEx, we didn't have anything but an MVP and sticky user base. We were paired with our mentor Julian who made sure that we got our financial modeling done. He also helped us carve out our product. The Idea Village gave us the legal resources we needed to get our business on the right track and helped us identify our market problem.”
What does it take to be an entrepreneur?
Brent Craige: “To be an entrepreneur in 2022, it takes perseverance. Most people think that success comes over night.The truth is that opportunity is abundant. I believe you have to be positioned to receive success and that takes preparation. I also feel that self-awareness is key. In order to stay motivated, you have to know what you can tolerate overtime. You also have to love what you do.”
Top 3 advice for someone pitching their startup for the VILLAGEx judges?
Brent Craige: “My first piece of advice is to take advantage of virtual reality public speaking software. I used Ovation VR for about 20 hours the week of NOEW 2022 and it's very helpful. My second piece of advice would be to keep things simple. Most people won't understand your industry as well as you do so it's best to keep things as simple as possible. The last piece of advice would be to make sure your presentation is visually appealing. Presentation is everything. Make sure your wardrobe is on point!”