Jonathan Susman accepts the first place award for his startup, Adagio, at Co. Lab's 48Hour Public Demo Night on Sunday, March 30, 2014, at Church on Main in Chattanooga. Susman's startup pushes to give teachers and students an innovative way to teach and learn music.Jonathan Susman walked away with the grand prize Sunday night at the conclusion of the Company Lab's 48Hour Launch.
Susman over the weekend fleshed out an idea that he originally presented as Remote Audio Mixing, a "mechanism for accessing and manipulating multi-track audio recordings via any mobile device, and a methodology for increasing collaboration/instruction from professional educators, regardless of location."
By Sunday, he had renamed his venture Adagio and had come up with a simple statement about what it will do.
Adagio "gives music educators tech that has been available to other areas for years," he said.
Simply, Susman said Adagio will allow music students and teachers to interact with one another remotely, removing scheduling and steep financial restraints of music education.
And it's about time, he said.
Susman juxtaposed his Adagio idea against programs for astronomy students and engineering students which allow them to create, hypothesize and interact remotely, all the while allowing instructors to provide input.
"Where is the innovative, next-gen software" for music students, he asked.
Susman's prize package includes:
• $2000 cash compliments of J.D Frost & Company and the Tennessee Stillhouse Foundation
• 500 AWS credits provided by U.S. Ignite/Amazon Web Services
• 12 hours of legal services from Chambliss Startup Group
• 10 hours of accounting services with Henderson, Hutcherson & McCullough
• 3 hours of consulting with CodeRocket
• 2 hours of technology consulting with Daniel Ryan
• Brand positioning and identity package provided by Bantam
Jean Marie-Lawrence won second place for her startup idea, AccessU, a database of information about colleges and universities tailored to help students with disabilities find the most accessible institution.
Kendall Shipley won third place with 36 University, an ACT preparation program designed to help students study for the college admission exam without spending hundreds of dollars and hours of time enrolled in an e-course.
Both second and third prizes include legal, accounting and tech services as well as Amazon Web Service points. Second prize includes a $500 cash prize.
Read Tuesday's Times Free Press for more on this year's 48Hour Launch.
Contact staff writer Alex Green at agreen@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6480.