“The teams come with great ideas, fresh perspective, and enthusiasm, and the results are incredible. As a mentor I learn as much from them about where the world is going as they learn from me, it is a highlight of my year.”
On June 19th, Real Industry welcomed five teams of university based startups to San Francisco for Real Startup 2018. Real Startup is an intensive two-week entrepreneurship program for student entrepreneurs pursuing ventures in music, media, and entertainment technology. The cohort spent each day of the program visiting industry-leading companies, connecting with world-class mentors, and progressing their ventures closer and closer to their next milestones. On the last day of the program, each team delivered final presentations, which included their pitches, their lessons learned from Real Startup, and their next steps as they move forward with their startups.
Here's some fast facts and figures on Real Startup 2018:
24 students hailing from universities all over the world
13 fantastic host companies during site visits, including Google, Dolby, Pandora, Eventbrite, Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center, and more
84 mentors from various and diverse areas of industry
Ventures across live ticketing, AR/VR for concerts, wearables for creative expression and performance, mobile music creation apps, and media distribution platforms for cultural institutions.
Real Startup is made possible thanks to our generous corporate sponsors. Thank you to LANDR, Reverb, Stashimi, iZotope, Pro Sound Effects, New York University Steinhardt, Jaunt, and Polsinelli, and to Olivann for supporting Real Industry through a philanthropic grant.
Real Startup included visits to over a dozen amazing companies in the San Francisco Bay Area. Our time spent with companies included facility tours, masterclasses, mentor Q&As, demos, and more. Keep reading for a day-by-day snap shot from our program. For even more detail on the daily activities of the cohort check out the full schedule here: https://realstartup2018.sched.com/
Day 1
Polsinelli
Intellectual Property for Startups; Marketing, Pitching and Storytelling with Dave Hill Jr.
Day 2
Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center and Eventbrite
Milestones Makers Program; Industry Insights with Marty Ringlein, Mentor Meetings
Day 3
Playgrounds and SUBPAC
Fireside Chat with Founders, Facility Tour, Product Demos, and Mini-Design Challenge
Day 4
Dolby
Masterclasses on Hardware, User-Generated Content, and the Music Ecosystem, Demos, and Mentor Sessions
Day 5
Google and Pyramind
Fireside Chat, Mentor Q&A, Masterclass on the World of Outside Investment, and a session with Tribe VR
Day 6
Sandbox Suites
Mentor Madness - Teams meet with 17 of our expert mentors back to back, both in person and virtually
Day 7
Pandora and Avid
Fireside Chat and Mentor Q&A; Masterclass on Avid's Path and Mentor Q&A with Ed Gray
Day 8
Sennheiser and Brilliant Corners
Masterclasses on How R&D Becomes Product, The Basics of Working with Artists, and an Artist Manager and Mentor Q&A Session
Day 9
CCRMA at Stanford University
Tour, Workshops, Mentor Meetings, and a Fireside Chat with Tim Westergren, Founder of Pandora
Day 10
Polsinelli
Final Reception with presentations from each team
Thank you to all of the fantastic hosts of Real Startup 2018!
Real Industry was thrilled by the engagement and focus the Real Startup 2018 Cohort displayed, and our mentors were similarly impressed. For a full list of the amazing mentors who participated in this program, click here: https://realstartup2018.sched.com/directory/speakers
“The passion and drive of these guys is contagious. There is an atmosphere that we are about to be witness to something really big; the joy of being a mentor is getting to share that feeling and knowing you could help make it happen.”
“I think we all went through the rocky transition from college to our first real job. Being a mentor for Real Startup allows you to make a huge impact with the next generation of professionals through your experienced guidance and feedback.”
The two-weeks of jam-packed experiential learning and networking went by fast, but this fantastic group of young entrepreneurs made every day count. Now it’s your turn to meet the cohort:
Curtain Call - New York University
Change the way you discover music. Curtain Call's unique access to last minute discounted concert tickets gives users the chance to ditch digital discovery and bring local bands and artists back to their roots—live music.
Quinn Robertson, Tanya Gupta, Laura Ahmetaj, Carissa Estilo
Website: http://www.curtaincall.us/
Genki Instruments - Malmö University, University of Iceland, McGill University
Technology should feel natural. Their first product is Wave. Wave by Genki Instruments is a ring that lets you control sound, shape effects and send commands with the motion of your hand. Wave is a wearable MIDI controller that adds a creative layer on top of your musical instruments and enables you to do more with what you already have. Use Wave to express your musical intentions using motion in a visual and natural way.
Ólafur Bjarki Bogason, Jón Helgi Hólmgeirsson, Haraldur Hugosson, Daníel Grétarsson
Website: https://www.genkiinstruments.com/
Playgrounds - New York University
Playgrounds is the hub for gamified art experiences for kids and families. A direct channel between homes and art and cultural institutions, Playgrounds gives users the opportunity to engage directly with art, culture, and one another, turning play into patronage. Unlike apps like Pokemon Go, Playgrounds fosters real-life experiences that are intellectually stimulating and built in partnership with art and cultural institutions.
Tyler Bisson, Andre Kostiw-Gill, Willie Payne
Website: http://plygrnds.co/
Merciv - University of Southern California
Merciv is a musical content studio focusing on creating additional revenue streams in live music by integrating AR technologies with existing concert infrastructure. By creating immersive experiences for pre-show, during-show, and post-show consumption, Merciv enables any musical business or artist to differentiate themselves from the crowd and provide unique ways for their fans to interact with their brand. By pioneering the integration of immersive technologies with the live setting, Merciv is ushering in a new age of immersive musical performance and consumption that will fundamentally change how music is experienced in the generations to come.
Cam Lindsay, Bryce Matsumori, Jacob Fishman
website: www.mercive.com
Cherrystems Music - Tufts University, Purdue University
Cherrystems is a tool that lets you turn simple musical ideas – tapped rhythms, hummed melodies, or recorded audio samples – into a complete song in under a minute. Our algorithm is packaged into an app which connects you with music enthusiasts to share inputs and collaborate with producers. Without extensive training, modern production tools are too complicated to use and previous solutions for this problem have come at the expense of creativity. Cherrystems is a musical community that empowers anyone to easily make, share, and listen to music with nothing more than their phone and a little imagination.
David Pearl, Ari Brown, Benson Cheng, Ge Gao, Jakub Walerstein
Website: https://www.cherrystemsmusic.com/
On June 29th, the last day of Real Startup, each team delivered final presentations at our closing reception. You can watch each pitch here: https://www.facebook.com/RealIndustry/videos/1053482388161432/
The Real Industry team could not be happier with the results of Real Startup 2018. Supporting young entrepreneurs is a task we passionately pursue, and doing so with our network of world-class mentors and fantastic partner companies during this program was exceptionally rewarding.
Real Industry aims to bridge the worlds of industry and academia. Our community is always growing, and we’d love for you to be a part of it. Join us today as we continue to support the next generation of industry professionals and innovators.