I hope you enjoyed our interview with The Skillery last week. This week we are excited to share our interview with Mike Reuther, CEO and founder of OurVinyl.
A gregarious individual, Mike Reuther’s love for music and film brought him to Nashville, when he decided to pursue a degree in film and video production at Belmont University. After a life changing experience writing music content for a Y Combinator start-up, Mike knew he would one day return to the accelerator world. However, this time he would be launching his start-up, OurVinyl.
What was college like?
I went to the University of Dayton. I had no idea what I wanted to do but I was damn sure I was going to figure it out by trying everything I could. After a brief stint as a political science major and an internship on Capitol Hill, I decided the game of politics wasn’t for me. I then majored in finance, but I didn’t find numbers all that exciting. I ended up graduating with a degree in marketing.
What is one of your proudest accomplishments to date?
During my junior year at Dayton, I founded Spike for Charity. Spike for Charity was a charity volley ball tournament that raised money from teams consisting of professional student organizations. The whole experience of launching Spike for Charity really helped me see that I was capable of executing on my ideas. Spike for Charity is currently in its sixth year and has raised almost $100,000.
What was your first entrepreneurial experience?
Technically my first entrepreneurial experience was probably the lawn company I owned as a teen. However, I think the most meaningful entrepreneurial experience I had before JSF was during senior year at Dayton. I had been writing a music blog when I was invited by a recent Dayton grad, Dan, to write music content for his startup, TicketStumbler, which had just been accepted into Y-Combinator. At the time, I had no idea what an accelerator was but it sounded exciting and so I agreed. I was amazed at the “change the world” mentality of the start-up culture. The whole experience was life changing.
What have you learned from JSF thus far? Would you recommend the program? Why?
I really feel like JSF forced our company, in the short span of 3 months, to learn everything we needed to learn in order to efficiently start and maintain a business. I believe that the skills I have acquired through JSF would have probably taken me years to acquire had I not been a part of this program. For example, I have learned a great deal about music licensing, how to structure a financial model, how to motivate employees, how to manage a team, how “not” to pitch, that people are always willing to help, and most importantly I have learned that no task is unreachable; anyone can change the world.
I would absolutely recommend this program to anyone interested.
Describe OurVinyl in three words or less?
The new MTV.
—
Did you know that OurVinyl recently surpassed their total Kickstarter goal to raise funds for equipement? Clearly, there is sincere interest in this young startup.
Attendees at Investor Day on August 23 will be able to meet the OurVinyl team and see their pitch. Don’t miss it.