Next Week Rocks Origin Story

I know it was 2016, but I couldn’t tell you what city I was in. I don’t remember the founder’s name or his company either—but I remember the conversation.

At the time, I was running SendGrid’s startup program, sitting down with founders for 20-minute meetings to see if we could help. This guy wasn’t really there, though. He was distracted, barely interested in talking about go-to-market strategy or customer communications. So I gave him an easy out—I’d listen, or I’d give him his time back.

Turns out, he’d just gotten off a brutal call with his lead seed-stage investor. They were pulling out of any future rounds. And we both knew what that meant. Raising more money just got exponentially harder.

He was honest about why—they weren’t hitting their customer acquisition numbers. That’s usually something I can help with, so I asked how bad the miss was. Some early-stage VCs give pretty modest goals, like “get five paying customers.” I was hoping it was one of those situations—something we could brute-force our way through with some well-aimed outreach.

Nope.

They were at the knee of their growth curve, adding thousands of new customers every month. But they needed tens of thousands. They weren’t just missing the mark—they were off by an entire order of magnitude. And with no runway left, there was no way to get the startup off the ground.

The founder kept talking, but I’d already stopped listening.

The Busker’s Business Model

Because I’d seen this story before. Not in a startup, but in a dive bar.

Years earlier, when I first moved to Colorado, I was scraping by—writing software for startups (mostly for equity) and making ends meet by playing music in bars and busking around Denver. This was before I learned anything about how startups actually grow.

Back then, I thought my goal as a busker was to get spare change. Play a song, make a buck. I didn’t realize I should have been collecting email addresses. If I’d done that, I could have turned that one-time 25-cent listener into someone who’d buy tickets, or merch.

My “office” back then was a Craigslist-rented dining nook, complete with a garbage futon I’d found in an alley in Capitol Hill. Pretty sure this was back when the Walnut Room was the only bar/restaurant in RiNo.

That time in my life taught me something: independent artists are basically startup founders, just without the access to fundraising, mentorship, or a safety net. Bootstrapping is brutal when you don’t know how to build a business. And the problems founders face—growing an audience, monetization, distribution—are the same ones artists deal with every day.

The difference? Tech founders get a roadmap. Artists are left to figure it out on their own.

A Different Kind of Founder

It wasn’t that I didn’t care about the founder sitting across from me. I just couldn’t shake the thought that if an artist was growing thousands of new listeners every month, they’d be thrilled—not disappointed.

So I started reaching out to my musician and comedian friends, sharing some of the resources I knew from the startup world. We talked about how owning your digital presence is way better than relying on Facebook, how persona development applies to artists just like it does to companies, and how automated marketing and CRMs can help build and engage an audience.

Basically, all the infrastructure that tech founders use to scale? Artists could be using it too. They just didn’t know it existed.

Next Week Rocks: A Pandemic Pivot

Then the pandemic hit. My artist friends were suddenly off the road, stuck at home with no way to make money. A lot of them started playing for free on Facebook Live, hoping people would Venmo them some tips. It wasn’t sustainable.

There was an opportunity here.

So in July 2020, I launched Next Week Rocks, helping artists produce private, ticketed livestream shows. No more playing for free and hoping people would be generous. No more losing ticket buyers to an algorithm. This way, they could actually build an audience they controlled and keep working—even in a pandemic.

That first year, I produced everything from virtual stand-up shows to variety performances to an original musical view party. It was fun, but more importantly, it gave artists a real revenue stream at a time when they desperately needed one.

Mile High Startups & Music

The City of Denver saw the potential in the idea and awarded Next Week Rocks a grant from the Denver Music Advancement Fund. But I knew we could do more.

The problem wasn’t that artists lacked talent. It wasn’t even that they lacked business sense. It was that the system wasn’t built for them. Meanwhile, the tech world had all the capital, connections, and community support an artist could ever dream of. So I reached out to the startup world and matched the grant funds, creating a sustainable way to support artists while bringing people together.

That led to Mile High Startups & Music, a year-long tech meetup series featuring live music. From summer 2022 through 2023, we hosted events where founders, developers, and investors could connect, all while showcasing local musicians. The goal was to bridge two worlds that had way more in common than most people realized.

Artists got paid. The tech community got better events. Everybody won.

What’s Next?

Looking back, the first four years of Next Week Rocks has been about leveling the playing field—connecting artists with the tools and strategies that tech companies take for granted.

Tech has the playbook. It’s time to share it.

And now? It’s time for the next iteration. Stay tuned.