Co-Founder, Growth and Partnerships

Co-Founder, Growth and PartnershipsAbout DeepGrooves

DeepGrooves is software for people who collect physical music.

Vinyl, CDs and cassettes are where we started, but the idea behind DeepGrooves has always been bigger than simply keeping a list of what somebody owns.

A music collection should help you enjoy your music more.

DeepGrooves helps collectors organize what they own, decide what to listen to, manage wishlists and purchases, explore their collection, track listening history, follow value, rate and favorite albums, and rediscover music they may have forgotten about.

The application exists today and is actively being developed.

DeepGrooves Music Technologies LLC has been formed. The product, company, infrastructure and brand are all in place.

Now I need somebody to help me build the business around it.

The Role

I’m looking for a co-founder who can take ownership of growth, partnerships and the customer side of DeepGrooves.

I am a software engineer and will continue to lead the technical side of the company.

I’m looking for somebody whose strengths complement mine.

That means someone who is comfortable getting in front of people, starting conversations, building relationships, following up, showing people the product, and figuring out what gets someone interested enough to actually use it.

The first priority is DeepGrooves.app and building a real base of users and recurring revenue.

You would be involved in things like:

• Reaching out to collectors and music communities
• Building relationships with independent record stores
• Demonstrating DeepGrooves
• Finding and working with early users
• Following up with people who show interest
• Looking for partnership opportunities
• Helping figure out which messages connect with people
• Helping with pricing and positioning
• Finding practical ways to bring in new customers
• Listening to users and bringing that feedback back into the product
• Keeping track of outreach, opportunities and follow-ups
• Figuring out what works and doing more of it

There will be a lot of room to shape how this is done.

There is no sales department or marketing team handing you a playbook.

We are building that part of the company now.

What Has Already Been Built

This is not an idea on a whiteboard.

DeepGrooves.app is a working product with a substantial feature set and an established technical foundation.

There is also DeepGrooves Store, a second product being developed for independent record stores.

DeepGrooves Store is designed for smaller stores that need straightforward tools for things like inventory, sales, used and new records, customers, loyalty, buybacks, consignments and reporting.

DeepGrooves.app is the first priority.

The immediate challenge is finding the people who want what we have built, getting them to use it, learning what keeps them using it, and turning that into a business we can grow.

DeepGrooves Store gives us another opportunity as the company develops, particularly as we build relationships with independent record stores.

There are other directions I believe DeepGrooves can eventually go as well.

I want the market and our customers to help determine which of those are worth pursuing.

Who I’m Looking For

I care more about what you can do than what titles you have had.

Experience in some of these areas would certainly help:

• Business development
• Partnerships
• Product management
• Sales
• Marketing
• Startup operations
• Music or entertainment
• Retail technology
• Record stores or physical media

You do not need to be technical.

You do need to be comfortable working closely with someone who is.

I’m looking for someone who takes ownership and follows through.

Someone who will make the call, send the email, visit the store, schedule the demo and follow up afterward.

Someone who is comfortable hearing no and continuing the conversation with the next person.

Someone who can listen to what customers are actually saying instead of trying to prove that our original assumptions were right.

And someone who wants to help build the company, not simply advise from the sidelines.

An interest in music, vinyl, physical media or record collecting would be a big plus.

It is not a requirement.

Location

There is a strong preference for someone based on the East Coast, ideally in the Philadelphia to New York corridor.

This is intentional.

I want a co-founder relationship where getting together in person is practical. There will be times when it makes sense to sit down together, work through something, visit stores, attend events, meet potential partners or spend a day working side by side.

I do not want every face-to-face conversation to require a plane ticket.

That does not mean someone has to live 20 minutes away, and I would not rule out the right person elsewhere on the East Coast.

But proximity matters for this particular role.

What The First Few Months Look Like

First, you need to learn DeepGrooves.

You should know the product well enough to demonstrate it, explain what makes it different and have a real conversation with a collector or record store owner without needing me beside you.

Then we need to get in front of people.

Collectors.

Record stores.

Music communities.

Potential partners.

People who might love it and people who might tell us exactly why they do not.

We need actual use, not just compliments.

We need to understand who responds to DeepGrooves, why they respond, what makes them sign up, what stops them from signing up and what makes them come back.

At the same time, I want to start building real relationships with independent record stores.

Some of those relationships may help grow DeepGrooves.app. Others may become important as DeepGrooves Store develops.

Over time, patterns should start to emerge.

Which audiences respond.

Which approaches work.

Which messages connect.

Which partnerships are worth pursuing.

Which parts of the product people care about most.

Then we build on what works.

Compensation

This is an equity-based co-founder position.

There is no salary at this stage.

The ownership structure would be worked out with the right person based on the role, contribution, time commitment, experience and the responsibility they are prepared to take on.

I do not want to define that relationship before I know who I am defining it with.

The goal is to find someone who wants to build DeepGrooves with me and who has meaningful ownership in what we create together.

Time Commitment

I understand that the right person may already have a full-time job.

I am not expecting someone to quit that job tomorrow.

I also need to be realistic about what building a company requires.

This probably is not a fit for somebody looking for an occasional side project.

I care less about counting hours than I do about consistency, ownership and progress.

If you take responsibility for something, I need to know it is going to move forward.

Just as importantly, I want someone who genuinely wants to make room in their life to build this.

Where This Can Go

The immediate need is growth, customers and partnerships.

I expect the role to become broader if the company grows and the partnership works.

The right person could eventually take on significantly more responsibility for product direction, company strategy and the overall business.

I am deliberately not trying to define exactly what that looks like today.

Part of bringing in a co-founder is giving that person a real voice in what DeepGrooves becomes.

Interested?

Send me a message and tell me a little about yourself.

I’d especially like to know:

• What you have built, launched, sold or helped grow
• Which parts of this opportunity fit your background
• Why DeepGrooves interests you
• Where you are located
• What kind of time you realistically have available
• What you think you could bring to the company

You do not need to send me a perfectly polished pitch.

• I would much rather start with a normal conversation and see if there is a fit.