On The List is Winning Over Music City

From our friends at Southern Alpha

Bands, Brands, Free Beer and Fans: On The List is Winning Over Music City

“We are in Baton Rouge Louisiana this morning, sitting in a coffee shop trying to get our stuff off the ground.”

 I called to check in on the Startup Bus with Grayson Carroll, one of the members of the Startup Bus, who has been working with a team to build a product called On The List. 

On The List its a platform that empowers music fans by turning every concert into a unique and memorable experience by personalized support of brand sponsorship.

“We want fans to have cool experiences at concerts – free t-shirts, posters, meet & greets, drinks, etc. – and let the brands pay the tab.” Said Grayson. 

Music festivals and concerts bring in significant revenue for bands. On The List is empowering fans to have an extra special experience without having to spend extra money.  It is a valid way to generate additional brand exposure and, by the same token, organically foster an enduring relationship between bands and fans. On The List is just one of several music/branding startups out of Nashville. Others that started in Music City include Jamplify, Artiphon, ListenUp and TweelX. If you want to follow On The List’s journey on the Startup Bus, click here. 

The team is full of talented friends whom you’ve probably read about before: 

• Grayson Carroll- Business dev/ pitching/ product dev. (CoFounder, CEO Poliana) 
• Patrick Cason- Front end web and design. (CoFounder, COO Poliana)
• David Gilmore- Back end programmer. (CoFounder, CTO Poliana)
• Jack McCann- Concert promoter at the MarchOne Music Collective. His primary role is Sponsorships. 
• Ben Blackburn- Graduate of Nashville Software School’s third cohort; formerly of WME; background in music booking, contract negotiation and artist management.
• Steve Wilkison- Professor at Watkins College of Art Design and Film- owner of Digital Vision Media.

While refining their MVP, the team has stopped at several accelerators, coffee shops, and co-working spaces along the way, talked to numerous mentors about their product, and even had a short stop at The Peabody in Memphis. 

 ”I’ve had eight hours of sleep in the span of time between 7 am Sunday and now,” said Grayson. 

But sleep is only part of it. The team has much more to think about- marketing and distribution, selling to brands, creating a great user experience, and making sure the product technically works are just a few typical startup challenges On The List faces.

They just launched their website this morning and already, they’ve received tons of user feedback. Still, the things we take for granted when we have a bigger space to work, with wifi and resources at our fingertips are some of the biggest challenges for this team. 

“The biggest challenge has been developing an internet application on a bus with wifi 10% of the time. All of our phones have wifi tethering and we have a local network setup. That’s how we have made progress,” 

But that doesn’t stop them according to Grayson.

“It’s total hacker mentality, you can’t do it unless you are clever enough to start a company on a bus.” 

If you want to learn more about On The List, and cheer on our friends on the StartupBus, click here. 

 Website: onthelistapp.co
Facebook: facebook.com/onthelistapp
Twitter: twitter.com/onthelistapp
Instagram: instagram.com/onthelistapp
g+: onthelistapp@gmail.com