Shachar Oren
Founder of Sound Media Ventures
Shachar Oren
Founder of Sound Media Ventures
Atlanta, Georgia
Overview
Work Experience
Founder & CEO
2020 - Current
Sound Media Ventures' vision is that as web3, Metaverses, blockchain, streaming, UGC, and other novel technologies proliferate, media is growing increasingly pervasive in our lives. We use media to create, communicate, learn, exercise, entertain, transact, and beyond. Our mission at Sound Media Ventures is to offer broad coverage of emerging media technology companies. Our investors include post-exit entrepreneurs, engineers, data scientists, professors, operators, and risk managers. Our investments (from early seed through Series A) reach across the globe, reflecting our commitment to finding and supporting emerging talent based on merit and regardless of location. We invest in visionaries and disruptors who transform how media, in its broadest forms, is created, distributed, and monetized. We seek companies that leverage novel technologies to drive scale and where we add strategic value to influence performance outcomes. Our objective is to generate strong investment returns for accredited investors, adjusting risk through diversification and driving high returns with a well-curated crop of companies.
Discovering, investing, and mentoring media technology startups worldwide.
VP Music
2018 - 2019
Transitioned Neurotic Media tech and team into Peloton. Got our mission completed, establishing the Peloton music platform ecosystem end to end. Led global music innovation, including a partnership with Techstars Music.
Peloton is an interactive fitness platform reinventing fitness with live and on-demand boutique studio classes.
Raised $2,169,707,000.00 from TCV.
Founder, President and CEO
2001 - 2019
On June 2018, Neurotic Media was acquired by and became a subsidiary of NY-based Peloton Interactive Inc. At Neurotic Media, we drove consumer behavior with popular artists and songs. Our B2B services (i.e. SaaS) utilized our proprietary, patented software platform for distributing and marketing music online in white-label and bespoken configurations. We provided brands with control over how they commercialized digital media using private-labeled UX and API services. Some used to refer to this as an "iTunes in a box" or a "Spotify in a box", to help illustrate some reiterations. Those are but two example use cases of how brands used Neurotic Media. We worked with over 5,000 brands during the company 's life. This was a wonderful, 18-years journey shared with an amazing group of colleagues, partners, and investors.
Neurotic Media helps brands and mobile companies influence consumer behavior using popular songs and artists.
Senior VP, International Business Development
1998 - 2001
I was the 5th hire at Amplified, a startup that at its highest point included about one hundred and fifty. After a week of training (my boss and mentor Frazier Hollis shared his "Frazier's Business 101" on a whiteboard and then unleashed me), I ventured out to try and sell an idea, a vision. It worked. We inked the first-ever digital distribution deals as a B2B SaaS provider in early 1998 with Tower Records, Warehouse Music, and Transworld Entertainment. I spent three years running point on business development globally. I learned a ton at Amplified, worked with an amazing crew, and built a fantastic network of colleagues who, in the following decade, rose across the music ecosystem as leaders and executives.
A&R & Radio PR
1995 - 1997
I promoted various priority releases to radio stations across several genres. In 1997, I spearheaded the creation of Altered Records, an alternative music imprint, as an A&R representative. We released recordings by Drivin n Cryin, The Fleshtones, Pineal Ventana, and more.
Business Owner
1995 - 1997
I launched an indie label in ATL with my partner James St. James (of The Point fame). We released albums by William Carlos Williams, Pineal Ventana and Tweezer. This was my first foray into running a newco right out of college.
Education
B.S. cum laude
1990 - 1995