Find your pathway with a pilot at FoCo StartUp/ArtUp week

Emily Satterlee is Founder of ItyDity, a music production marketplace that incorporates one-of-a-kind music production software and music marketing technology. Emily is adding to her technology portfolio, by Co-Founding Pathway Pilot, with the first launch at Fort Collins Startup Week kick-off in a keynote. Attendees can download the Pathway Pilot beta now, and curate a relevant, unique, conference schedule.

“Any speaking engagement comes with nerves and insecurity. But this isn’t a pitch competition and I’m not there to sell anyone anything. I’ll be there to speak from the heart and to encourage anyone with an idea to answer their call to adventure,” Emily says. “Go out there and do the damn thing. Because there’s nothing else more important that you have to do.”

The new technology tool transforms the old scheduling model by gathering a little intel from the user upfront. As an entrepreneur, Emily relates to the struggle of ‘concept to seed’ and encourages everyone to step into their moment and embrace their purpose despite the obstacles and barriers.

Emily is a singer-songwriter who spent the better part of her twenties playing songs in bars and coffee shops in Los Angeles, California. Emily made an album with a male music producer who discovered her from her live performances. The arrangement ended when Emily refused to date him or give him majority songwriting credits to her songs she wrote in their entirety from chord progressions, lyrics, to melodies.

The producer had a lawyer. The lawyer sent threats to Emily, claiming her refusal to cooperate had caused him to lose money from the potential of money he could have made. He threatened to sue Emily for astronomical amounts of money. He sent demands that the songs be removed from the internet and to cease any reproduction. Emily’s inexperience in the music industry led her to cave. She felt devastated, powerless, and confused.

“I was young and naïve. I had no contracts in place to protect myself. The whole experience turned me off from wanting to make music at all. After that time, I worked with many other producers; some were great experiences, some not-so-great,” Emily says. “Sometimes, I felt overcharged. Sometimes I felt results were sub-par. Sometimes I got lucky and worked with amazing producers and the results were great and the experience was beautiful. But it was almost always a big guessing game.”

Emily saw a need in the music industry, and she wanted control over her creativity. She did not want to lose control over her rights to her songs. Her power was in her freedom to create change and bridge the gaps in music creation and production.

The experience propelled Emily to study music production and music business in college and launch one of the largest songwriter Meetups in Orange County. Emily led songwriting and studio collaboration workshops. She created a boutique production house in Los Angeles in 2014 with other like-minded producers.

“Through these experiences, I saw how many other artists are out there who struggle to find the right producers to work with and struggle to know how to protect themselves and get the best results,” Emily says. “But to be honest, it wasn’t until I saw 99Designs.com – a website where people can receive multiple concepts for their graphic design needs, like a logo and then pick their favorite – that I had the lightbulb moment for ItyDity.”

Emily’s idea was a 3rd party platform where artists can test out different producers. The platform aims to find the best fitting producer for an artist’s project and to protect the safety and rights of the users. She created something that she would have used all the time as a singer-songwriter if it had existed, ItyDity, the professional support of a label, with all the perks of DIY.

Part of Satterlee’s journey of launching ItyDity was going to Fort Collins Start-Up/Art Up week in 2017. Emily sat down with a mentor to road map her week so she could maximize her time and build prospects, network, and learn the most she could. Luckily for her, it was Creative Entrepreneur Andrew Schneider. Andrew knows the creative economy and the Northern Colorado Creative Industry very well and was integral in Fort Collins Art Up week initiatives. “Andrew sat down with me and looked where I was with my idea and what industry I was in. He told me what programs would be a good fit for me. And so I went into startup week totally prepared with this curated curriculum, and it was awesome,” Emily says.

From that experience, she saw a need to have a virtual ‘Andrew, or Mentor’ that anyone could access if they needed it. She took that idea and made it a reality and created Pathway Pilot in partnership with Justin Harlow of Lateral Labs through the City of Fort Collins at a community event held at The Music District last summer. “The Pilot bridges opportunity gaps and assesses the stage and needs of entrepreneurs across multiple dimensions like marketing, customer discovery, thought leadership, emotional intelligence, funding, mental health, and more.”

They are aligning people with relevant startup week programming that fits their individual needs.

Pathway Pilot is easy to use. Complete a simple 15-minute questionnaire. Then, you get an effective schedule for Startup/Artup Week FoCo, tailored with your unique business in mind. It works for all stages from idea to scale up to mature. It works for musicprenuers, creatives, and artists, who have similar challenges of a startup.

“The best part is all the data that the City of Fort Collins will get from survey participants,” Emily says. “By taking the survey, you’ll get your curated Startup Week curriculum, but you’ll also be helping the city – and The Music District – figure out what the pressing needs of the community are, so they can better provide the right support to entrepreneurs and artists year-round.”

“It’s not about the thing, the idea, the startup. There’s risk in entrepreneurship. Something like 95% of startups fails. If it works, and if you can solve a real problem, amazing,” Emily says. “But who you will become as a person during the process and how you will be tested and grow, is the true reward.”