About
The goal of this site is to provide inspiration, information, and a sense of shared purpose for founders who are building—or considering building—a technology business that intersects with and supports the cultural world. In addition, it aims to educate and inspire arts leaders who are interested in keeping up with new technology that may impact/help them run their organizations more effectively. This sector is defined broadly, encompassing all types of arts, from traditional Western art forms like classical music, opera, dance, and visual arts, to global music, experimental music, video, and VR.
The focus on the technology is mostly (but not entirely) on commercial ventures rather than academic studies or research projects. Businesses that identify and serve a true market need and which can generating a profit are poised to have the most significant and lasting impact on the field. Commercial music (as defined by the rock/pop music industry) is excluded, as that sector already has ample capital and entrepreneurs focused on monetizing more mainstream music.
How This Site Supports Founders & Arts Managers
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Blog: Articles, interviews, and guest posts exploring technology trends and their applications in the arts.
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Connecting Founders to Capital: This site serves as a resource for founders seeking funding, offering insights and introductions to a loose network of investors interested in arts-focused technology ventures.
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Encouraging Adoption of New Technology: I believe the best run companies are those that are open to innovation and change, and whose leaders are curious and interested in understanding how new technology can make a meaningful impact in the success of their organization. This site will serve as a resource for managers to keep up with emerging trends through insights in blog posts and interviews with the founders who are creating these new technologies.
My Background
I’ve been working at the intersection of tech and the arts, since the inception of the consumer Internet in the late 1990s. I trained as a professional cellist. I attended Juilliard in high school and then the Oberlin Conservatory.
I got involved in arts management and eventually became executive director of the American Symphony Orchestra in New York city in the early 1990s, producing concerts at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and managed several international tours and worked on grammy nominated recordings. Then after graduating from Columbia Business School and working at American Express, I founded two visionary arts industry focused tech companies. The first, CultureFinder.com, funded by AOL and Comcast’s venture capital arm, which was the first “arts channel” on AOL, and on of the first companies to sell Broadway and arts tickets online.
In the early 2000s, I founded Patron Technology which evangelized the shift to digital marketing in the arts & cultural industry, initially by launching the industry’s first e-mail marketing product, PatronMail, growing a client base of over 1,800 non-profit cultural organizations. We then introduced another product -- PatronManager, (recently renamed Patron Management at Leapevent.tech) a ticketing/fundraising/marketing software system built in partnership with Saleforce.com. And by 2017, PatronManager customer base had grown to over 700+ cultural organizations (theater, opera, orchestra, performing arts centers).
During that time I co-authored Breaking the Fifth Wall: Rethinking Arts Marketing for the 21st Century, a book that was sold into the arts industry and generated over 100 speaking opportunities. The book was also translated into Spanish and marketed in Latin America and Spain. My co-founder had the opportunity to exit Patron Technology in 2017 to Providence Equity, and I remained on for several years as CEO, during which time the company acquired five related businesses.
I became an active member of the NY Angels for several years, and since them have been mentoring/advising several early stage tech startups. I’m on the board of TRG-Arts, a leading arts audience development and fundraising consulting company. And, from 2017-21 I was co-chair of LaunchU, an alumni inspired entrepreneurship program at Oberlin where students, faculty and alumni start-ups participated in a month-long intensive boot camp followed by a pitch competition and a cash prize for winning ventures.
I live in New York City and Great Barrington, MA, where I am founder/excutive director of Community Busk, a non-profit that uses the arts to create community and downtown economic development by producing Berkshire Busk! a 10-weekend summer street performer festival, and consulting with towns and cities across the country that are have interest in doing something similar.