Earbits, Inc.

Earbits (www.earbits.com) is a marketing platform for music related products and live events built around interactive radio experiences.  Labels, artists and live music promoters bid for airtime starting at $0.01 per stream, with geo- and demographic targeting on Earbits.com, its mobile apps, and affiliate stations like Nashville.com and SFGate.com Radio.  This model eliminates the need for commercials or listener subscription fees and provides the music industry with a powerful performance based marketing platform driven by its #1 discovery tool - radio.

We soft launched in September and have had over 70,000 visits to our website.  We have royalty free agreements with 95 record labels and 1,300 artists, including Wu Tang Clan, Weezer, and numerous Grammy winning and platinum artists.  We are funded by Y Combinator, Ron Conway's Start Fund and former Lala CEO Geoff Ralston.  We have affiliate stations on 15 sites like Nashville.com and SFGate.com.  We have mobile apps for iPhone and Android.  We power radio programming for world famous Viper Room.

Joey Flores, Chief Executive Officer

Joey Flores has over 13 years of experience in online marketing and startup management.  Most recently, he was Managing Partner for Startup Army (www.startuparmy.com), a professional services firm providing early- to late-stage startup companies with solutions in business, marketing, product design and technology development.  Prior to cofounding Startup Army, Flores was Director of Online Marketing for Mota Motors, a BusinessWeek Top 50 Most Promising Startup of 2009 and TechCrunch50 Finalist.  Flores previously led business development for Affiliate Fuel, leading to its acquisition by Experian in 2005.  After the departure of its cofounders, he took over management of the company during its tri-merger with LowerMyBills and ClassesUSA.  During that time, he grew the affiliate marketing division from $19M to $48M in just under two years.  His experience in online marketing and business development, combined with his passion for music and experience as front man, manager and executive producer of an original band makes him an ideal leader for Earbits. 

Yotam Rosenbaum, EVP, Music and Artist Relations

Yotam Rosenbaum is an award winning composer, producer and owner of Personal Note Productions (www.personalnotepro.com).  He attended world-renowned Berklee College of Music in Boston, graduating Magna Cum Laude.  He also provides marketing services for a number of music products, including the patented Slapstik (www.theslapstik.com).  He is well respected in the Los Angeles and Boston music community and works with leading musicians across the U.S.

Benjamin Bryant, VP of Technology

Benjamin Bryant brings a total 14 years of software development, technology and finance experience to the Earbits technology team.  He was the Head of Technology at Armatus Capital Management, where he greenfielded the hedge fund’s proprietary high frequency trading platform. Benjamin’s experience ranges from small rapid prototyping for startup EnvisionTec and hedge fund Johnson Stewart, to Fortune 500 giants Time Warner and Deloitte.  Benjamin has worked internationally in Lille, London and Dubai. He is a published award winning academic in the field of computer vision, was an integral member of the 1st place 2003 American Solar Challenge solar car team M-Pulse, and is an avid guitar player. Benjamin holds a B. S. in Computer Engineering, cum laude, from the University of Michigan, and a M. S. in Finance from London Business School.

Bands, labels, venues, festivals and music merchandisers bid for radio airtime starting at $0.01 per stream.  They can target by region and demographic.  It is like Google Adwords for the music industry.

Our competitive advantage over radio sites like Pandora are that our direct licenses allow us to provide a more flexible experience for our listeners, as well as cross-broadcast with partners like SFGate.com.  Our model eliminates the need for commercials, and yet provides better targeted marketing for our clients, since a live event for a band is a better sponsor for that band than a fast food or car advertisement.