So you want to be a startup, but between presenting your idea to a panel of judges and spending a weekend with a few strangers hashing out your hopes and dreams, I’m sure deep within there may be some nervousness. Never fear, this blog is meant to calm your nerves! I did a little research on the humble beginnings of one of Startup Tampa’s sponsors: Grooveshark.

Grooveshark started with a sole mission:

To provide a “digital music environment to help bridge the growing gaps between artists, consumers, and those in between who distribute, market, and promote music.”

It all began at the University of Florida. Sam Tarantino, a musician and economics student at the time   was driving by a used records store and he saw a “buy-sell-trade” sign. He had the idea to apply the same concept to digital media to legalize piracy. After meeting Josh and Andres, two students with an already established web development company, they decided to start Grooveshark.

Their first employee, Paulo Da Silva, tells a great story about his first interview:

“My first interview was at the first Grooveshark office. It was a tiny room in a shady part of Gainesville.

The only indication that it was the Grooveshark office was a business card taped to the door.

When I walked in, there were 3 college kids using cardboard boxes as desks. The interview

went well, but the whole time I had a feeling it was some sort of scam, specially when they pulled

out the NDA.”

What convinced him it wasn’t a scam?

“I could tell that the founders were really passionate about the idea, and they were adamant

that they were going to succeed where everybody else had failed. Sam, co-founder & CEO, is one of the most inspirational and persuading people I’ve ever met. Also at the time I wanted to start my own  software company and I figured this was the best way to learn how to do it.”

From there Grooveshark hit exponential growth!

“It was almost like overnight we went from unknown to one of the top music streaming services.

When you take into account that we started with nothing, just a bunch of college kids with little to no money, no prior experience, and no connections, and yet we succeeded where literally hundreds of other start-ups failed, because we are passionate about what we are doing.” – Paulo Da Silva

So never fear Tampa entrepreneurs! This weekend will be a fostering environment full of like-minded and supportive people!

Want to know what kinds of ideas/presentations Paulo will be rooting for?

“I am big fan of real-time interactive web apps so I would love to see more projects like that,

or any project that creates at easy to use platform or framework for other developers  that would

lead more projects and ideas,” he says.

Between our sponsors and our all-star cast of mentors we are bound to have a successful and fun weekend!

See you there!

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BallywhoSocial Grooveshark Paulo Da Silva Startup Weekend Tampa