RECESS Announces Mark Cuban Led Seed Funding and Spring College Tour
RECESS, the startup previously known as GLOWfest, is getting set for their spring college tour with extra impetus from a seed funding round led by Mark Cuban. RECESS describes itself as a "music + ideas festival" but it's more of a hybrid day of career networking, entrepreneurship speakers, college entrepreneurs' pitch competition and end of day concert.
RECESS began as GLOWfest in 2010. I spoke with cofounder Jack Shannon in 2012 as GLOWfest was morphing from a music festival into a version of what they do today. At that point the vision was a bit more sprawling but the core idea of an event for college students connecting tech startups, music and entrepreneurship was already in place.
Since then they've refined the idea and their announcement includes the news that Marc Cuban led a seed funding round. I don't have any more information on the funding but a group of Advisors/Investors including Cuban are identified on the RECESS homepage.
The RECESS Spring 2014 Campus Tour hits 7 campuses beginning with the University of the Pacific on March 21 when Diplo will perform and also be an entrepreneurship speaker. Future plans include building to 50 annual events.
RECESS has four main elements:
"The Playground is an update to what commonly is referred to as a career fair, but one in which students can actually have fun and relate to executives and companies showcasing on site. Much more than just a networking event, students attending the Playground can have one-on-ones with startup companies, land internships, jobs, and build relationships with innovative startups like About.me, Dollar Shave Club, Doctor On Demand, and WillCall."
"Study Hall is a speaker series led by progressive entrepreneurs that share advice and stories on what it takes to be successful; talks this Spring include Shaun Neff, Tony Conrad, Scott Case, and Jeff Hoffman."
"The Pitch Competition is a March Madness-style tournament, where students pitch their business ideas at each campus to a panel of judges for a chance to advance to the national competition in Downtown Las Vegas where they will compete by pitching their ideas to advisors, mentors, and investors. The Pitch Finals will be hosted by Downtown Las Vegas Project and in partnership with UP Global’s annual summit."
"After a day of networking and thought-pushing, RECESS gives students the opportunity to blow off steam and enjoy some live music and entertainment with some of the world’s biggest acts including Calvin Harris, Avicii, deadmau5, Hardwell, Big Gigantic, Krewella and many, more."
More details including tour dates and locations can be found at RECESS.
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Hypebot Senior Contributor Clyde Smith (Twitter/Facebook) is currently relaunching All World Dance. To suggest topics about music tech, DIY music biz or music marketing for Hypebot, contact: clyde(at)fluxresearch(dot)com.