The purpose of Music Launch Pad is to provide music artist, hobbyists and business professionals with the most advanced and effective education, tools and opportunities to succeed in today’s market.
Problem
Problem #1
A majority of music artists, hobbyists and business professionals lack affordable resources and education to learn or make music a career. Current online and offline music education models are either cost prohibitive (ranging between $500 and $1,500 per course), limited in their offerings or lacking in real world relevance, creating a market ripe for disruptive change.
Problem #2
Highlighting this problem are a plethora of online companies that offer music artists “gig” or “licensing” opportunities, which only address the symptoms of an underlying problem. For example, a music artist suffers from lack of success and their symptoms manifest as an inability to get gigs. Instead of addressing the root of the problem, which could be related to an artist’s song writing, performance or marketing skills, they pay subscription and submission fees to companies like Sonicbids.com and Reverbnation.com (with over 350K and 2.5MM subscribers respectively) to apply for gigs with no guarantees. With virtually no known major successes to speak of and many disgruntled customers, this industry also appears ripe for disruptive change.
Problem #3
Finally, several high profile companies offer music artist online applications and widgets that can monetize, capture and entertain fans. While these have clearly proven effective for an artist who has an existing fan base and marketing resources to drive traffic to the apps and widgets, 99% of all artists do not have a significant fan base or marketing resources. As a result, no matter how functional the widget or app may be, without fans and resources to drive traffic to them, they are useless.
Solution
Rather than following current education or gig opportunity models, Music Launch Pad has pioneered a disruptive business model that aims to revolutionize the way music artists are taught, developed and discovered.
§ Education
Music Launch Pad offers an empowering solution to aspiring music artists, hobbyists and business professionals desiring to learn or create a career in music by first addressing the root of the problem with affordable education.
Solution #1
Delivered worldwide via online video, a broad selection of “Success Based” training courses is offered through a proprietary system from “artist advisors” (musicians, managers, bands, teachers) who have proven success in the real world. Courses can be accessed 24/7 and are offered through an affordable, all access, monthly subscription plan, creating an affordable option to today’s expensive online education models like Berklee, Musicians Institute and Full Sail University.
Solution #2
For music artist that experience difficulty in getting gigs or fans, as in the “problem” example mentioned above, artists would simply be instructed to take a series of courses that would enable them to create their own gigs, build a fan base, attract more opportunities and eliminate the need for popular “gig opportunity services”.
Solution #3
To better use existing widgets and applications that feature, sell and share music, The Company has educational courses and its own proprietary marketing applications that function to drive targeted traffic for music artists.
Solution #4
For a hobbyist who is looking to learn an instrument, by subscribing to Music Launch Pad, they not only get top level education from a master teacher at an affordable price, but an opportunity to step up with no additional fee and learn to play other styles, write songs, play live or license their music for money, currently unavailable anywhere else.
§ Discovery & Job Opportunities
All courses are tied to a proprietary feedback system that rewards progress with opportunities for advancement and discovery. Opportunities are available to all subscribers based on their career level and include licensing for TV and film, manager matching, career funding and music jobs.
§ Proprietary Apps
The Company also offers subscribers proprietary applications that expedite learning and fan building unavailable anywhere else.
Why Now
A recent 93-page report regarding online education, conducted by SRI International for the Department of Education concluded that, “On average, students in online learning conditions performed better than those receiving face-to-face instruction.”
Inc. Magazine recently named eLearning as one of the 18 best businesses to start right now, which is clearly evidenced by major VC investments in companies such as:
- Coursera.com -Education for College, raised $22 million from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and New Enterprise Associates
- Udacity.com -Education for College, raised $5 million Charles River Ventures
- 2tor.com -Develops online programs for “top 20-type schools,” raised $96 million from Hillman Company, SVB Capital, WestRiver Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, Highland Capital, Redpoint Ventures, Novak Biddle Venture Partners and City Light Capital
- Khan Academy.org -Primarily education for high school, raised $15 million through donations from Gates Foundation and others.
Beyond startup, several publicly traded eLearning platforms have enjoyed major growth over the last 5 years with respectable market capitalizations including:
§ Capella Education $34 Per Share $450MM Market Cap
§ American Public Education $31 per share $563MM Market Cap
§ DeVry Inc. $29 Per Share $1.9BB Market Cap
Market Summary
Total available market (TAM)
“The worldwide market for Self-paced eLearning products and services reached $32.1 billion in 2010. The five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for eLearning is 9.2% and revenues will grow to $49.9 billion by 2015.” (Ref: www.ambientinsight.com)
Serviceable Available Market (SAM)
According to Google keyword tool, there are over 290 million people per year searching for education and information related to music education and music marketing.
Serviceable Obtainable Market (SOM)
The Company plans to service a minimum of 1.45 million users (1/2%) out of the 290 million potential users in its Serviceable market.
Competition
At this point there are no direct competitors offering an affordable, all access, video based artist development and discovery platform. A scattered field of indirect competitors, most of which are either cost prohibitive, under funded, unprofessional or lacking in value will be targeted by the Company as affiliate partners offering Music Launch Pad courses to their subscribers.
The company has built a beta version of the website and is currently looking to raise $5MM to build out its platform in three phases.
All officers and directors below are considered "Founders."
Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer Chad Nellis Over the last 20 years, goal driven entrepreneur and artist Chad Nellis has approached each new business challenge with his intrinsic flair for innovation, creative problem solving and measured risk-taking to drive consistent bottom line improvements and returns in several industries.
Fresh out of college in 1992 as a venture capital consultant he raised over $5MM from individual investors for various startup companies including: Casino Housing Corp, Legends Entertainment and Deer Run Development Partners.
Seeking greater challenges in 1999 Chad found new fulfillment in the pursuit of music. He has since, successfully written and produced 3 critically acclaimed albums released on his label Empower Records, licensed music on MTV, HBO & several commercials, toured throughout the United States and created the successful Feel Good Festival concert series. Throughout this 9-year period Chad saw firsthand, the multitude of struggles a music artist must endure and the lack of resources and education available.
In 2008 with online marketing just beginning to gain worldwide recognition as a lucrative industry, Chad created Shaka Buku Lifestyle Inc. to build market and sell websites in various verticals including: music, yoga, diabetes, computers, & collectibles. With over $1.3MM in revenue from affiliate marketing and website sales in just over two years, Chad went on to combine his key skill sets in music, Internet marketing and personal development to found Music Launch Pad.
Chad has a BA in information decision systems from SDSU where he played wide receiver for the Aztec football team and was appointed CEO to represent SDSU in the International Collegiate Business Strategy Competition. Chad has also completed several personal development studies with a Master Results Certification from the Christopher Howard Leadership Academy and further studies with Anthony Robbins and T Harv Eker. He has been an active member of ASCAP songwriters association for over 10 years and has also been a part time yoga teacher for six years. Chad prides himself as being a person of high moral integrity seeking long-term growth over short-term profit.
Chief Financial Officer Liane Osterholt Liane Osterholt is a management consultant with over 20 years of experience in advising companies ranging from mature publicly and privately held organizations to new ventures. She has participated as an investor in and consultant to several start-ups in diverse industries including airline/airplane mechanical maintenance software, e-commerce sites for a major utility, and new venture subsidiaries for a water engineer firm. With expertise in finance and marketing, Ms. Osterholt has assisted companies in achieving the transition from the start up stage to a fully operational concern. She currently serves as a Member of the Board for two new startup ventures.
Prior to establishing a management-consulting firm, Ms. Osterholt was President and CEO of a manufacturing company, and transformed it from an entrepreneurial venture to a manufacturer of high-end niche products. She designed and launched new products featured at the Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York design centers, created new marketing materials and sales distribution channels, streamlined production processes, and established a system for tracking channel-targeted sales and profitability. Ms. Osterholt began her career as corporate Vice President and manager of the Franchise Bank Consulting Group for one of the nation’s largest banks. Pioneering the franchise concept, she assisted CEO’s and senior manager of banks in nine states to achieve their goals through business planning, cost control, collaborative purchasing, and lending. Liane served on several Boards for the banks’ Holding Companies, and led their Senior Management Advisory Councils, Marketing Directors Committees, and Internal Communications Committees.
Liane earned master’s degree in Business Administration from the Harvard Business School in 1988. She also won a prestigious graduate studies fellowship from the German government to conduct graduate studies at the University of Bonn. She received her Bachelor of Arts from the University of Southern California. Liane speaks German fluently, and has lived and worked in both Europe and Asia.
Vice President, Content Development and Secretary Luke Archer
With 14 years of experience in television production, music industry, and Internet technology Luke will be instrumental in leading and producing The Companies library of educational videos.
Luke has a depth of experience in producing live videos, directing live concerts and producing promotional videos for over 350 artists including Ludacris, Nas, Damian Marley, Bob Marley, The Roots and many more.
Luke was instrumental in creating and producing the “Just Enough” music education kit for guitar, bass, drums and vocals, which sold roughly 500,000 copies with $10MM in sales and included a CD-ROM, DVD, Audio CD, and Book featuring music instruction from Talib Kweli, The Used, The Donnas, Bowling for Soup, & Jessica Andrews.
The instruction series expanded to free and ad supported “JustEnoughTV.com” with over 400 instructional and music videos, which received over 110,000 monthly unique visitors and was syndicated on MSN Video to 13.9 million viewers.
Luke also founded the independent music video channel on MSN Video (11.0 million viewers) and helped establish the music category. Subsequently, he was responsible for bringing the first music videos to MSN and produced and directed the first live streaming concert for the channel.
Luke will assist Music Launch Pad as head of content development and oversee all video production.
Director Amish Shaw
Best described as a “savvy new-age internet entrepreneur,” Amish is considered one of the top 10 internet marketers in the world with expertise in launching online products, building sales funnels, enhancing user experience, branding, messaging and traffic generation. As co-creator of the Magic Bullet System with over $8MM in sales in 14 days and one of the first internet marketers to reach 6-figure daily affiliate marketing earnings, Amish’s businesses have generated over $104MM in sales in under 8 years.
In 2010 Amish delved into application development and grew revenue at his company Digispace from $795,000 to more than $5,600,000 in less than three years and was named the 60th fastest-growing advertising and marketing company in the United States as well as the 10th fastest growing company in San Diego, CA by INC Magazine.
"notable exit that was published in the press"
Recently Amish’s company Digispace was purchased by publicly traded Bitzio.com for $1.95MM.
As an accomplished Internet Marketing Consultant, Amish was largely responsible for over $80MM in sales for clients, which will be instrumental in guiding Music Launch Pad’s marketing and application development.
Director Rob McDermott In a career spanning twenty-years and both coasts, Rob McDermott is best known for his time working with LINKIN PARK between the years 2000 and 2009. During that time McDermott was instrumental in taking the band from zero sales to 50 million albums sold worldwide, achieving multi-platinum status in 34 countries, garnering 2 Grammys, 4 MTV VMAs, and countless international awards and recognition.
Besides Linkin Park, McDermott has gained a comprehensive understanding of cutting edge artist development working directly on or alongside managers of platinum artists such as Rob Zombie, Pantera, Staind, Static-X, Enrique Iglesias Snoop Dogg, Korn, Dixie Chicks and Ice Cube. McDermott was a major force in coordinating groundbreaking projects as the multi-Platinum Linkin Park/ Jay-Z mash-up album “Collision Course” and the subsequent 2006 Grammy performance between Linkin Park, Jay -Z and Sir Paul McCartney.
Rob’s innovative use of online, mobile and technological worldwide platforms rivals his marketing and artist development abilities. McDermott has also helped Artists build and maintain their own Social Media worlds, as evidenced by either his use of MP3s as marketing tools for Static-X in 1999, or Linkin Park’s ability over the last 8 years to reach the unique status of maintaining millions of visitors a month during their album cycles.
Rob will be instrumental in creating strategic partnerships for sales, marketing and content development as well as contribute personally as a course author.
"notable exit that was published in the press"
Director Randell Young, D.Mus.
Randell Young is the co-founder and Managing General Partner of Venture-Net Partners, a business development and consulting group which includes special limited partners Uriel Sokolov, MBA, Ph.D., a former Senior Fellow and Vice President of Raytheon Commercial Ventures; Nelson D. (Doug) Pewitt, Ph.D., the former assistant director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Reagan Administration; and Mario Fiori, Ph.D., the former assistance secretary of the Army in the Bush Administration.
-notable exit that was published in the press
Randell participated as a founder in Accuray Inc. by raising over $30MM and successfully taking the company public.
Dr. Young has previously served as Chief Financial Officer for Web portals MedNets.com, Inc. and TheGospel.com, Inc. and participated actively, as an officer and/or director, in the capitalization and development of numerous other projects including Accuray Incorporated (ARAY), the world leader in stereotactic radio surgery; Home Shopping Latino, Inc., (HSPG) developers of America's first Spanish language shopping channel; Synodon, Inc., (SYD) developers of innovative pipeline surveillance technologies; Telephony International, Inc., a joint venture with Lucent Technologies; Vista Consolidated, Inc., a manufacturer of utility truck covers; and The Orange County Blues Festival, Inc.
A founder and former Orange County Chapter Chair of Boone Pickens' United Shareholders Association, Dr. Young has represented shareholders and, on their behalf, addressed the annual meetings of Northrup Corporation, Allergan, National Education Corporation, Community Psychiatric and Southern California Edison. Private equity partners of note have included Euro-America Partners; Jacques Vallee; Fred Adler; Al Shugart; Jay Keyworth; Copernic Technologies; ZLUH Partners; Good Samaritan Health System/Health Advantage Ventures; Pacific Republic Capital; Fernando Quinonez Meza, H-Quotient; Lucent Technologies; and The Marubeni Group.
Dr. Young has lectured at the graduate level on contemporary issues in venture capital at The University of Phoenix and holds a doctorate in music (D. Mus.) from City University Los Angeles. His Venture Capital Primer has been used by McGraw Hill's On Line Learning Center in support of its textbook Principles of Corporate Finance, Sixth Edition (Brealey & Myers) and by Harvard University in support of KSG PED-328 Community Financial Institutions and Microfinance in Theory and Practice.
He has been the subject of interviews and articles appearing in the Los Angeles Times, The Orange County Register and the Orange County Metropolitan. His commentaries and essays have been published in the Los Angeles Times, The Orange County Register, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The Orange County Business Journal, The Baltimore Sun and Inc. Magazine. His public equities market analyses can be found at The Motley Fool where his All-Star-rated portfolio currently outpaces all professional fund managers and has consistently (on a daily and continuous basis) placed in the top one percent of all participants since August 2007, a span now of over 62 consecutive months.
Currently, he serves on the boards of directors of Colossal Storage Corporation, developers of atomic holographic optical storage nanotechnology; Sprague Astronautics, developers of private space vehicles; America's Hunting Network, developers of the Internet's first virtually-integrated hunting portal; and Home Shopping Latino, Inc., (HSPG).
Director Dewey Reid In Dewey’s three-plus decades as a designer and illustrator, he has worked with branding and packaging studios, ad agencies, web startups, computer giants, digital communications and entertainment companies, which has allowed him to gain a unique grasp of the worlds of digital communications and broadband-based entertainment.
With a specialty in innovating and designing new navigation models for converging media platforms and content to technology applications, Dewey is currently employed as the Vice President for Design for Emerging Products and Technology at Yahoo where he is leading the design teams for mobile, iTV, Flickr, and emerging technologies.
Dewey has worked extensively in film production and interactive communications, winning awards as a commercial TV director and Director of New Media at acclaimed Colossal Pictures, where he led their transition from analog to digital communications. He also served as Chief Creative Officer of the award-winning interactive agency Red Sky Interactive where he organized 90 designers in 4 cities in the US to create a cross-functional rich media team working with lead clients Coca Cola and Absolute Vodka.
While serving as Microsoft’s Executive Creative Director for six years, Dewey led a large staff in the creation and implementation of the first entertainment-programming model for the Web including 3 versions of MSN starting with an entertainment model, and ending with the current portal model.
Through his own company, eat.tv, inc. (an acronym for Entertainment Advertising Technology Television) Dewey has created platforms to drive the quality and direction of device-interface convergence including: (i) Conceived and prototyped the two-time Emmy-winning TV interface for Paul Allen’s Digeo-Moxi box; (ii) Developed, marketed, and licensed the 2006 Emmy-winning ImageGuide interface and associated provisioning tools for broadband, TV, and cell phone, first implemented for Scripps Network’s acclaimed living.com; and (iii) Currently designing and building entertainment social networks and specialty media players, tools and tablet apps for a list of prestigious companies.
Dewey is also actively involved in many consulting projects and lectures frequently at academic institutions, companies, and conferences.
