Prism Raises $2.2M in Seed Funding to Extend Its Leadership Position in the Live Music Industry

We recently announced that our company, Prism, an Austin-based software company dedicated to simplifying the complex process of booking and managing live music events, secured $2.2 million from angel investors including Kip McClanahan, founder of Pershing and long-time Austin entrepreneur; Mario Fighali, chief operating officer and co-founder at Sparefoot; Bill Babel, co-founder of Capital Factory; and Jay Jensen, President of Clasen Quality Coatings.

The seed funding will be used to expand research and development into new integrations and product features, as well as sales and marketing efforts to solidify its industry leadership position. Fresh on the heels of finalizing seed funding, Prism is hosting the 9th Annual Music Tech Mashup all day and night March 11th and the SXSW Official Live Music Meet-up at Empire Control Room from 4-7pm on March 13th.

“Prism is the only end to end solution for live music organizers,” says Matt Ford, chief executive officer at Prism. “Our investors have given us the momentum to reach more professionals who are ready to ditch inefficient processes and disconnected systems in favor of a streamlined, integrated solution that reduces their workload and helps them increase profitability. Our singular focus on removing the pain and friction from the talent buying and event organization process is key to our success.”  

Prism was founded by Austin venue owner and concert promoter Stephen Sternschein (Heard Presents, Empire Control Room and Garage, The Parish and Waterloo Music Festival), alongside tech entrepreneurs Matt Ford (Solstice Live, Solstice Festival, Spotlight.FM) and Adrian Tavares (Solstice Live, Solstice Fest, and Zappos).

“In my role as a venue owner and promoter, I tried every productivity tool out there to streamline our team’s processes,” says Sternschein. “While each offered a partial solution, I spent a ton of my time getting these systems to talk to each other, moving details from one system to the other at the right time so that my team could do their jobs effectively. Having data in a dozen different places created an accounting nightmare, making it difficult and time-consuming to generate actionable insights. The inefficiency in communicating details cost me time and money. This is why we built a Prism.”

The streamlined software offers calendars management, one-click integrations with ticketing platforms, offer generation, budgeting, forecasting, revenue tracking, settlement, task management systems and financial reporting to provide one source of truth and real-time data for event details. Venue managers, promoters and talent buyers can now leverage a solution that brings all of the various pieces of event management into a single, consolidated system that automates the booking process for ultimate efficiency, productivity and profitability.

In just one year, Prism’s software has been adopted by over 100 promoters and 500 venues around the globe, including Disco Donnie Presents & React Presents (US), Brooklyn Bowl (NY), Ad Hoc (NY), PopGun Presents (NY), MOKB Presents (IL), Noise Pop (SF), McMenamin’s (OR), Laramir Lounge (CO); and in its hometown of Austin, the live music capital of the world, clients like The Paramount Theatre, Antone’s, Come and Take It Productions, The Parish, Empire Control Room and Garage, Vulcan Gas Company, and many more.

“The music industry, like many industries before it, is shifting business operations from spreadsheets and text messages to purpose-built software,” says Kip McClanahan. “By delivering a completely new, purpose-built platform for managing live music bookings, they have become the industry’s preferred software provider very quickly. They have demonstrated strong execution in a complex market from the beginning and their timing is perfect given the live music industry’s readiness for a complete solution.”