March 20, 2023 — A lot of hopes have been put on local music app-maker JammAround to lead the next wave of New Orleans tech startups. The 3-year-old company is developing software to help musicians, producers, promoters and others collaborate when making tracks.
Led by CEO Brent Craige and founding partners Donovan William and Marlon Butler, JammAround was last year’s winner of the top $400,000 prize at New Orleans Entrepreneur Week. They also made it through to the final round of hip hop impresario Pharrell Williams’ $1 million Black Ambition startup competition.
Now, the company has reached a whole different level in the startup world. Silicon Valley legends Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz — who together sold Netscape and Loudcloud for over $1 billion each before starting their venture capital firm — invested $100,000 in JammAround through their firm, a16z, and brought the company into their Talent x Opportunity Initiative mentorship program.