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Vantage Spotlight on Justin Whitman of UMuseUs

Vantage Ventures Entrepreneur Spotlight Series | Innovation & Entrepreneurship

We are extremely fortunate at Vantage Ventures to have a growing community of entrepreneurs building impactful companies here with West Virginia roots. By supporting teams of creative thinkers and problem-solvers—and leveraging the untapped talent and resources that exist in West Virginia—Vantage Ventures aims to build companies across data and IOT, infrastructure, life sciences, and security sectors. This initiative was born out of the John Chambers School of Business and Economics at West Virginia University and serves to launch high-impact, scalable businesses to tackle complex challenges. We are home to a fearless new generation of entrepreneurs.

Today, we highlight Vantage Entrepreneur Justin Whitman of UMuseUs. Learn how his hard work and perseverance is creating an impact and activating communities with music education.

What inspired you to create UMuseUs?

At a young age, I was fortunate to not only be introduced to a wide spectrum of music via family and friends, but also to a plethora of instruments with live events and concerts. My love of music and being able to just pick-up and “jam out” on all the instruments I could get my hands on pushed me into creating bands with friends. Many of those bands were short-lived — but they spanned many different musical genres. 

My good friend George and I started up a band with friends in high school that really took off. During those years, I was lucky to take an elective guitar class both my junior and senior years. Our guitar teacher, Mr. McCarthy was truly inspirational. His wealth of knowledge and level of patience was amazing. These experiences changed my life for the better. At the time, I was unaware of the overall benefits and impact that playing an instrument had on education. Discussions regarding STEM and STEAM were not as prolific as they are now. I learned so much about music and myself while touring, performing, as well as what Mr. McCarthy was teaching us. I wasn’t able to grasp reading sheet music, but I could figure out just about any instrument I wanted to play by listening to the music and remembering the chords/structure.

As I grew older and worked my way through countless impactful projects as either an employee or consultant for Fortune 100 / 500 companies, I always knew I wanted to do more with music and musicians. In 2006, we started a tiny musician friend finder site called RockOutTheShow.com. We had larger than life plans for that platform, but we were young and naïve which led to the project getting shelved. In 2015, I suffered a life-altering injury to my dominant left hand that impacted my sympathetic nervous system. This injury made playing instruments both painful and difficult. Prior to the injury, I toyed with the idea of revamping the musician friend finder site, came up with a newer name and started working on it. In late 2015 I made the decision that it was time to pursue my passion to create a niche and robust social media platform for musicians to music lovers…and UMuseUs.com was born.

The benefits of music can help people cope with the challenges of COVID-19 lockdowns. How is UMuseUs planning to make a difference with this as well as helping with musical engagement as an effective strategy for socio-emotional coping during the pandemic?

Our mission at UMuseUs is to provide platforms, venues and resources that empower everyone from musicians to music lovers to share, create, discover and interact. With the COVID-19 lockdowns, we all felt the impact from not being able to attend concerts or visit a local venue to enjoy live entertainment. Talented artists and musicians felt that impact directly and immediately began flocking to different platforms / social sites to share their music with their family, friends and fans. The entire pandemic shed some light on the fact that everyone from musicians to music lovers both needed and deserved a free centralized platform. Our platform also provides the ability to upload videos, share music, create groups, post events/classifieds, chats/blogs and interact via a live feed wall. We offer a contest/competition element that’s a true differentiator from other sites and platforms. I can’t wait to share more about that element, since it’ll be a game-changer!

What challenges will you be addressing with the UMuseUs platform?

UMuseUs plans to address the fact that there’s a lack of a truly free and centralized social platform for everyone from musicians to music lovers. We’ve created a user-friendly process from the very beginning. When you sign up as a user, you’re able to pick from a list of different profile types that help you express what instrument you play, if you’re a music lover/fan, are you a singer/lyricist/songwriter, do you own a studio/Indie label, do you operate a music based business? Prior to the lockdowns we spent quite a bit of time meeting with hundreds of fellow artists / musicians as well as visiting music shops, classes, studios, and locations openly asking what they would like to see from a centralized platform. The first response from almost everyone was a FREE platform for the end user. Additional responses ranged from better data protection, to being able to share content more easily. All external input was reviewed, and changes took place within the platform that was being developed. It’s important to me that we deliver an experience that’s memorable as well as helpful.

Music programs in schools have been proven to keep students engaged in the classroom; improve early cognitive development, math and reading skills; develop critical thinking skills; and foster confidence among students. Despite the lasting impact music education has on students, many children in underserved communities still don’t have access to it. How can UMuseUs move the needle on this issue?

This one is most near and dear to my heart. As a child that directly benefited from having access to both music and instruments in and out of school, I look forward to further developing my platform to better equip music teachers with the ability to upload content that’s directly beneficial to their students. Imagine a middle school teacher being able to upload a video of basic instrument maintenance, or a high school music teacher loading content regarding chord progressions that are important to an upcoming concert? Now, imagine how much more time they might have in class if they could answer many of the basics and more by uploading videos and tutorials via a trusted social platform that’s free from all the cluttered content found on other platforms. This is important since it’s my understanding that many school systems still reduce and cut music program budgets across their districts, counties, cities, etc. I’ve read articles where school officials have blamed these cuts due to a lack of productive classroom education as well as many other excuses. However, if we can even remotely help by being a safe and secure place for music educators to upload content that directly benefits their students, why wouldn’t we offer that? It’s also my hope that our platform becomes large enough that we can develop not only music scholarship/grant programs but other avenues to assist underserved music programs in communities that need it.

How will UMuseUs create employment opportunities for others?

I moved to the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia in 2008. Prior to that I was living in Northern Virginia which was and still is home to a massive tech hub and yet only 45 miles from my current doorstep. After moving here, I began to realize I wanted to start a tech company within West Virginia. I believe in the long-term potential that our great Mountain State has to offer. There are so many reasons to start a business in West Virginia. We have talented individuals both in-state and just across the state lines, not to mention a handful of state agencies that are solely focused on development and employment opportunities in West Virginia. We have the ability to work with and then hire students from amazing universities and colleges throughout West Virginia such as West Virginia University and the John Chambers College of Business and Economics. I’m currently a Vantage Venture Entrepreneur and with that comes an additional level of West Virginia pride and a desire to be successful within our state, for those that we would hire. UMuseUs will need to hire a multitude of skilled and talented individuals and my goal is to make sure a large percentage of those hires come from within West Virginia and/or individuals willing to relocate to our beautifully scenic state. This is all important since success has the ability to breed success. I hope that other tech startups see what’s possible in West Virginia and they in turn make the decision to say #YesWV.

Could you share an experience with our readers when you faced failure and didn’t give up? What did you learn from failure?

It’s important for everyone to know that everything is essentially a life lesson, whether it’s in your business or personal life. I look at a failure as an opportunity to learn. An old mentor of mine used to constantly tell me to “Be Like The Swan.” He used to engrain in me that it was important to be smooth and graceful above water, but paddling like crazy below water. It didn’t matter if I was struggling or succeeding, both require the ability to compartmentalize and stay focused on all the tasks in front of you. What’s even crazier is that it’s possible to be failing while you’re also succeeding. 

Prior to moving to West Virginia, I was working with a massive telecommunication company that was going through a merger and acquisition (M&A). The job required a tremendous amount of due diligence and prep work. Prior to the public M&A announcement, I was working with the Executive Team to bring a side project of mine to life that would benefit from the tech within the telecommunication company in addition to their working relationship with an industry leader in internet services. Once the M&A was announced I made the poor decision of not solely focusing on what I was employed to do and instead pushed back with concerns about my side project. My side project was the last thing anyone in the Executive Team cared about and I took that personally when I should have let it go. My failure to recognize and understand the bigger picture cost me my side project and at that particular time the relationship I could have had with that internet provider. I experienced a real-life example of both failing and succeeding at the same time, which was extremely rough to accept. Due to all the projects I worked with in my career with Fortune 50/100/500 companies, sports teams, national/regional brands, etc., I felt I could do or say just about anything. I was served a full plate of humble pie, which I can look back on now and say that I absolutely needed.

What’s one piece of information you know now that you wish you had known when you started UMuseUs?

I’d like to pretend that I was fully ready by my mid 30’s to start UMuseUs, but I’d be lying to myself and all of you. No one is truly ever fully prepared or ready to create a startup or any business. Entrepreneurs must make a conscious decision to literally eat, breathe, and sleep their startup. We must tell ourselves that we are prepared for anything, even when we might not be. We must be humble enough to accept guidance and advice, since sometimes we can have those horse blinders on way too tight. So, when it comes to advice or information, I wished I had known, I’d say it would have been to “always be expecting the unexpected.” Don’t get me wrong, I love being an entrepreneur. Creating something from scratch that others will be able to utilize is an amazing feeling. But there’s a price that’s paid at the beginning, in order to see your startup succeed. The sooner you’re willing to accept that price, the sooner your focus changes for the better.

What kind of an entrepreneur do you want to be known as, and what do you want your legacy to be?

I’d like to be known as a compassionate and thoughtful entrepreneur, as well as an encouraging and engaging entrepreneur. Some of my favorite startups were founded by individuals with similar qualities. But it’s also important to be a leader that’s respected and revered among your employees, peers, colleagues, and most importantly those that utilize your products. Regarding a legacy…that’s a tough one. It’s hard to think that far into the future, but I can say that I have massive goals for UMuseUs. In addition to a centralized platform for everyone from musicians to music lovers, I envision UMuseUs disrupting aspects of the music business for the overall betterment of both the musician and the music fan.