Tulane grads win $100,000 for music collaboration startup
A company that started as a capstone project at Tulane University won $100,000 in a pitch competition at Baton Rouge Entrepreneurship Week. The company, DAWn Audio, produces a software that allows musicians to collaborate remotely by bridging compatibility on digital audio workstations (DAWs), which are what artists use to produce their music.
“We bridge compatibility between these tools artists use so that artists can make music online together live from anywhere in the world across whatever tool they're most familiar with or they prefer,” said CEO and co-founder Diego Pinzon.
Pinzon started working on the software for his capstone project as an engineering physics major in the School of Science and Engineering in 2020, and it was because of that project that DAWn Audio was able to get off the ground. “We happened to have the infrastructure through the engineering capstone class to pitch this idea,” said Pinzon.
The DAWn Audio team consists of Pinzon, Leo Simanonok, who also graduated from Tulane with a double major in engineering physics and computer science, and Mandy Ortiz. They plan to put the money won in the pitch competition toward their larger fundraising goals – using it to support product development and grow their student ambassador program. Three Tulane students served as their student ambassadors this spring, part of their longstanding relationship with the university.
This is not the first pitch competition DAWn Audio has participated in, nor even the first they have won money in. In 2022, the team earned second place in the Tulane Business Model competition, where they received $30,000.
DAWn Audio is looking to the future and plans to bring its software to the public in the coming months. It intends on building a community of artists who use the technology they have developed. “Really a lot of what we're doing is leveraging that technology as an engine to fuel the community and audio experiences that we're looking to build on top of it,” said Pinzon.
