Brandon Harris launched his music booking app in June, then got into a bad car accident while trying to grow it.
The episode begins with host Stephanie Riegel introducing the theme of apps digitizing various aspects of life, leading to her guests who merge music and tech. Brandon Harris, founder and CEO of Bloom Booking, explains his app as an Airbnb for the music industry, facilitating discovery, negotiation, booking, and payments between performers and venues. He launched in June 2024 and faced a car accident shortly after, but has grown to 120 users with venues in Baton Rouge, New Orleans, and Lafayette. Brandon also runs Hereseca, a software development firm aiming to work with NASA on space industry projects. Tenley Gorman, co-founder and COO of Tipsy, describes her AI-driven service that curates playlists for bars by analyzing song requests and using tags like danceability and BPM to match the crowd's energy. She shares her background as a bartender in New Orleans, which inspired the app to solve playlist struggles for bar owners. The conversation covers technical details, such as Tipsy using APIs to access music libraries and paying licensing fees, and Bloom's internal development through Hereseca. Both founders discuss their funding: Brandon self-funded through event revenues and Hereseca clients, while Tenley won pitch competitions and plans to raise seed money. They highlight support from Nexus Louisiana, including mentorship and incubator programs like Ignition 2.0. The episode explores how AI is integrated into both ventures, with Brandon hinting at groundbreaking uses in Bloom and Tenley explaining Tipsy's pivot from just song requests to full music management. Future plans include scaling up, fundraising, and expanding teams, with Brandon partnering with Full Sail University for production value. The show wraps with reflections on their innovative approaches to enhancing the music experience for businesses and performers.
