Jingle Punks

(Post: English)
"Back in 2005, indie rocker Jared Gutstadt landed a sweet job between tours: lead editor and composer on Chappelle's Show on cable TV's Comedy Central."

Before long, his ability to quickly crank out tunes earned him the nickname "Jingle Punk Jared."

The nickname stuck. So, too, did his feeling that there wasn't enough culturally relevant music available for producers trying to make their TV shows or commercials feel current.

In October 2008, Gutstadt opened a stock music company out of his New York City apartment as a way for struggling bands, unsung composers, and unpublished writers to get their work on top shows on network and cable TV.

Today, Jingle Punks licenses music from a swath of musicians ranging from Chip Taylor (he wrote the 1960s hit Wild Thing) to Gutstadt himself.

Gutstadt, 31, whose "musical and entrepreneurial hero" is P. Diddy, says TV network clients pay between $10,000 and $20,000 for four months of access to Jingle Punks' searchable database of 10,000 songs, but the real money is in the royalties after a show airs.

He says Jingle Punks has pulled in about $220,000 since its launch, from networks such as Bravo, MTV, VH1, and A&E, and brands such as Coca-Cola, Kimberly-Clark's uggies, and Geico.

After landing a deal in late May to license music to a roster of Viacom properties, Gutstadt embarked on his first vacation since starting the company.

Source: BusinessWeek
Photo: Jingle Punks

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ModCloth for Indie Designer

(Post: English)
"You might not expect an indie clothing e-tailer to get the attention of equity investors."

But Eric and Susan Koger, the husband-and-wife team that launched ModCloth in 2002, near the end of their freshman year at Carnegie Mellon University, have managed to raise a little over $3 million from angels like StubHub co-founder Jeff Fluhr and venture capital firms First Round Capital and Maples Investments.

ModCloth's inventory strategy helps explain its success.

Eric says Susan and her buyers build rapport with independent designers, try to get payment terms of net 30, and normally sell 70% to 90% of the goods within the net-30 period.

"We can turn our inventory faster than we have to pay for it. That's enabled us to scale as fast as we have."

Being online only and located in Pittsburgh keeps operating costs low, too.

ModCloth employs 104 people—mostly young women who, Eric says, "come at it from a perspective that's truly aligned with the customer, because they are our customers" - up from 22 people a year ago.

The company became profitable in 2007 but wasn't in 2008, largely because it spent a lot of money to redesign its Web site - which now gets more than 1.25 million unique visitors a month.

Eric says ModCloth has around $1 million a month in sales and forecasts more than $15 million total in 2009.

INFO:
The Company: ModCloth
What It Does: Online marketplace for indie designer fashion and decor
Founders: Eric Koger, 25, and Susan Koger, 24
Based: Pittsburgh

Source: BusinessWeek

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