📣 Issue #64: The Power Of Sonic Branding
Claremont graduate Jordan Passman shares the origins of his music production company and the impact sonic branding can have for your company
💬 Welcome to issue #64 of Between the Lines
Good morning & happy Thursday. That burst oil pipeline in the Baltic has us nervous for our readers in Europe. 🥶
In more light-hearted news, in a world where every company feels the importance of visual logos, many brands still don’t take advantage of sound and music as branding tools. This week, after over a decade in the music and sound production industry, Claremont graduate Jordan Passman shares an emergent trend he’s noticing for companies — sonic branding. 🔊
~ Josh & Miles
📢 👥 Community Voices: The Power & Influence Of Sonic Branding
Author: Jordan Passman
Jordan Passman is a Claremont graduate, a Forbes 30 under 30 Music Entrepreneur, and the CEO and founder of the music company Score a Score. Score a Score connects creatives with simplified music solutions and has helped bring together creative collaborators since 2010. As the CEO for over 12 years, Jordan and his team have worked on the soundtracks of ad campaigns for companies including Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, and Google; they’ve created music for blockbuster trailers for major film studios; and music supervised for Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, YouTube, HBO and more.
After graduating from Pitzer in 2008, I found myself like many others: full of energy with nowhere to put it. The crashing economy only made it worse. So, after looking for jobs and then trying on one that wasn’t the right fit, I decided that if nobody was willing to hire me, the best alternative was to create my own opportunity. The hunger to pour myself into something I was passionate about led my charge.
When I started Score a Score back in 2010, I initially set out to simplify the collaboration between the producers needing original music and the composers who create it. With nowhere else to go at the time, directors were turning to Craigslist of all places to find musicians and even soundtracks for their projects. That void inspired a dedicated marketplace for our community to fit into, which I am proud to say still runs today 12 years later. Over the past decade-plus of running Score a Score, living in the music industry, and working with some of today’s most prominent and influential companies, one of the emergent trends I have noticed is the power and importance of sonic branding for companies.
In a world where every company feels the mandatory importance of visual logos, you have to wonder why there are still plenty of brands that don’t take advantage of this incredible branding tool.👇
🚨Claremonster Call-Out: Lewis Johnson
Lewis Johnson is a Claremont alumnus and the co-founder and Chief Science Officer of NLM Photonics — a pioneering photonics company developing computing and networking solutions and devices. NLM Photonics is based in Seattle and has raised a few funding rounds along with grants from the US Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation. Johnson was recently selected as a Puget Sound Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 honoree for his work with NLM!
Dr. Lewis E. Johnson is a scientist, entrepreneur, and life-long Seattleite. With a passion for making a better future, he’s devoted himself to research experience in nanotechnology, computational chemistry, and materials design for cleantech applications.
As co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of the Seattle-based NLM Photonics, he strives to lower energy consumption and improve the performance of communications and computing hardware through efficient conversion of electrical and optical signals, whether in fiber optics or technology like quantum computing, mmWave wireless, or LIDAR.
💼 Who’s Hiring?:
Back in 2019, Claremont alumnus Sam Corcos co-founded Levels – an a16z-backed healthtech company that allows you to see how food affects your health. By leveraging biosensors like continuous glucose monitors (CGM), Levels provides real-time feedback on how diet and lifestyle choices impact your metabolic health. Their members use personalized data to discover their optimal diet, control their weight, and reduce long-term health risks.
Levels raised their $38M Series A this spring, and they’re currently looking for a Mobile Software Engineer to join their fast-growing team:
Founded by Claremont alumnus Alarik Myrin, Zwift is an interactive fitness platform that transforms monotonous solo indoor cycling and running workouts into social adventures. Zwift connects its customers to other cyclists and runners worldwide through its 3D computer-generated platform.
After raising fresh venture funds, Zwift is now rolling out its own branded hardware – a turbo trainer called Zwift Hub. Check out Zwift’s job openings if you're interested to learn more:
Check out the other ~5,000 open jobs at 400+ Claremont-affiliated companies here on our Storyboard. Plus, create a profile and enter your preferences to get alerted to new job postings relevant to you, be they the 1,000+ remote jobs, 100+ internships, or 40+ part-time positions available. We’ve published research that shows that Claremont-founded companies that disproportionately hire Claremont talent outperform — so pay attention, Claremonsters!
If any of these roles catch your eye 👀 , apply and mention Between the Lines. Or, if you are an employer looking to hire tip-top Claremont talent, fill out this form to have your jobs featured.
🗣️ Conversations on the Interwebz:
This week’s Claremont financing 💸
Scratchpay, the petcare financier turned healthcare financier, closed a $35M Series C led by Norwest Venture Partners, Alumni Ventures, and Struck Capital. Claremont graduate Caleb Morse co-founded the company, and they have now raised $108M+ since the company’s 2016 inception. By the end of the year, Scratchpay is expected to have processed over $1B in patient payments across all their markets in over 10,000 practices.
This week’s must-watch 📺
Claremont graduate Joey Krug is the Co-Chief Investment Officer at Pantera Capital, one of the largest crypto hedge funds in the world with $4.8B AUM. He’s also the co-founder of the crypto payments platform Eco, which raised a $60M Series B last summer. He discusses some of his past investments and how to identify underpriced value generally.
Everything else you need to know💡
BeatBox, founded by Claremont graduate Justin Fenchel, is the #1 fastest-selling ready-to-drink cocktail & wine brand in the U.S. In 2014, BeatBox secured a $1M check from Mark Cuban and has gone on to raise subsequent funding at a $200M valuation.
Another college ranking, another Claremont hat-trick. In Washington Monthly’s 2022 College Rankings for liberal arts colleges, HMC came in at No. 1, followed by PO at No. 2, and CMC at No. 8. 🏆
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🍽️ BTL Snacks:
🥩 Making Cultivated Meat A Reality….. Cultivated meat YC startup Orbillion Bio is democratizing access to cultivated meat internationally and announced a new partnership with Dutch specialty meat distributor Luiten Food to go to market in 35 European countries. Orbillion is working on heritage meats such as bison, elk, lamb, and wagyu beef, claiming it will be able to achieve price parity by as early as 2026. The company is co-founded by Claremont alumnus Samet Yildirim.
🆔 Controlling Your Own Digital Identity….. NuID, a decentralized identity and authentication solution, announced the launch of the Nu Identity (NuID) Ecosystem. NuID was founded by Claremont alumnus Locke Brown, and the ecosystem will provide internet users with the ability to own and control their digital identity by using services built upon NuID’s foundational zero-knowledge authentication solution. Kii, a new utility token, powers the Nu Identity Ecosystem.
💵 Overlooked Startups Poised To Thrive In The Downturn….. Claremont graduate Prashant Fonseka is a partner at early-stage venture firm Tuesday Capital. He shares how now, thanks to the recent market correction, many unsexy businesses, such as accounting and logistics, are in the spotlight as investors resort to betting on business fundamentals. Margins, organic growth, and capital efficiency are once more the key virtues of entrepreneurship from the perspective of the VC community.
💻 Why Cryptography Needs to Change….. Skip Sanzeri is a Claremont alumnus and COO and co-founder of the leading quantum security company QuSecure. He shares his thoughts on why cryptography needs to change for the world’s data and communications to remain secure. Sanzeri and others now believe it is not a matter of whether quantum computers come online with sufficient power to crack current cryptography, but when.
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