Meet Jeremy Burchard of RootNote

 

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jeremy Burchard

Jeremy, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
My brother Jason and I founded our first company in 2016. We were essentially making small investments into musicians, producers, and entertainers in exchange for equity, the same way an accelerator might — with the goal of helping them build their brand and business while maintaining control of their content and copyrights.

We made a few investments, and part of our job was establishing a valuation for these creators — something that proved difficult for multiple reasons. One of the biggest ones is how fragmented creator data is. That experience helped inform what RootNote would ultimately become. Once we knew what we needed to build, we went on the search for a technical co-founder who had the experience and passion to help us iterate on this idea and build a platform that could handle the literally millions of data points for the millions of creators and companies facing this problem. We found that person and more in our third co-founder, Chandler Barnes.

In 2023, we were invited to join the Techstars Sports Powered by Indy accelerator in Indianapolis. That whole experience really supercharged us as a company and helped solidify what RootNote is and can be. Indianapolis is quickly becoming the sports tech capitol of the world, and Nashville is not only a music mecca, but also a burgeoning hub for content creators and influencers. Having our past experience in Nashville and our current support in Indianapolis has helped us really hone in on building a product we genuinely believe will change the way the sports, media, and entertainment industries view and use their data.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
One of the most profound things we heard last year at Techstars came from a very successful founder who was talking about how many different iterations his company went through. He said, “You have to be in love with the problem, not with your product.” That really stuck with us. If you only love what you’re building, you’re probably not going to be very flexible when it comes to adapting in order to truly tackle the problem and help the people it affects. You have to be willing to do what it takes to solve that problem, even if it means significantly changing course on your product — which is something we’ve had to do a few times.

And of course, there are the struggles most founders can probably relate to. Core components of the team leaving. Pennies in the bank. Lots of unanswered emails from potential investors and customers. Feedback whiplash. All of the co-founders were doing this for no money for quite a while, trying to balance our daily needs with our company goals. And of course, trying to raise money in potentially the worst environment for startups ever — it’s not lost on us how fortunate we are to have raised the funding we just did.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
RootNote is a software as a service (SaaS) company serving creative teams and content creators in the sports, entertainment, and media landscape. The company is developing the first comprehensive platform designed to help athletes, creators, media companies, and the teams, organizations, and brands that they work with leverage their data to grow their business. RootNote supports ingesting data from digital content, social media, e-commerce, and other third-party platforms to better understand digital audiences, increase transparency, and maximize revenue opportunities. Early users of the platform include NFL teams, MiLB teams, talent agencies, media and Esports companies, universities, brand name creators, and NIL groups.

We believe every business is a content creator and every content creator is a business,. But creators and the companies that work with them have been woefully underserved when it comes to comprehensive data tools to help them run their businesses. That’s why RootNote exists.

What has been the most important lesson you’ve learned along your journey?
There are several, both when it comes to personal life and business. And I think everybody on the team would have their own answer. For one, there are no shortcuts. And failure is not a dirty word. If you’re afraid of failing at something in the business, you’re probably not taking the risks you need to. In fact, failure is *required* if you’re truly going to have the context you need to run a company. I alluded to this earlier as well, but the idea that, “You have to be in love with the problem, not with your product,” can really extend into your personal life, too. It’s about knowing when to let ego go in order to really achieve something special and meaningful.

Oh, and the money isn’t real until it’s in the bank account : )

Pricing:

• Team accounts starting at $200 per month (annual contract)

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.rootnote.co
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rootnoteco
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rootnotecompany
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/rootnoteco
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0HXX2rfdUvTEVTYWT0_ijQ