Remler: Student turned CEO

Starting a business is never easy, but for Harrison Remler '14 and his childhood friend Joe Duarte, a combination of their love for music and savvy entrepreneurship has paid off. In May 2011, Remler and Duarte co-founded BlueRichard Media, LLC, a music marketing and tour management company that Remler operates out of his Lathrop dorm room. A self-described homespun talent management start-up company, BlueRichard Media currently promotes nine musical groups and is continuing to grow.

Remler and Duarte founded BlueRichard last Memorial Day weekend after hearing their two friends perform their hip-hop act, Upper West, in Remler's Port Washington, N.Y. backyard. Disgruntled with their unpaid internships and looking for a more fulfilling way to occupy their time, Remler and Duarte offered to manage them. Although both had considered pursuing various business ideas before this, their decision to manage Upper West proved to be their entrepreneurial break.

"Truthfully we had no idea what to do at first," Duarte wrote in an emailed statement. "Harrison and I always half-heartedly came up with entrepreneurial ideas about what the next big thing was going to be, and then that one day we made it a reality."

Duarte is currently pursuing a dual degree in economics and public policy at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn.

Named after Remler and Duarte's friend Richard Blue, the company strives to encompass what Remler describes as "360 media," which incorporates music production, tour-consulting, concert planning and booking.

"While BlueRichard has its roots in management and booking, we are quickly growing, hoping to stay at the pinnacle of all facets of media. We believe the idea of having a PR firm, marketing, booking and event team in different places is archaic and stagnant, and our goal is to incorporate all facets of production," wrote Remler in an emailed statement.

Since agreeing to manage Upper West, the company has expanded. It currently employs four of Remler's friends from home, as well as Vassar's Ripley Sellers '14, who was named BlueRichard's chief financial officer last fall.

"Harrison does amazing work setting things up and thinking of new ideas for the company, but he and Joe can't be responsible for everything. I make sure we are making the smartest, most efficient use of our money, so Harrison can focus on the more innovative aspect of the business," wrote Sellers in an emailed statement.

Sellers is currently in the process of rewriting BlueRichard's business plan. His other responsibilities include frequently meeting with Harrison to discuss tour dates, artists and fiscal policies, and traveling to shows on weekends to help represent the company.

"It hasn't been easy, but it has been an amazing experience and I have learned a lot," stated Sellers.

In addition to Upper West, BlueRichard manages and promotes The Fates, a self-described pop rock band from Boston; JHirsch, an electro-pop artist; and Levi Bazilio, an up-and-coming hip-hop artist. Other musical groups that they organize tours for include Aer, The Dean's List, Dylan Owen, Aziz and Tate Tucker.

"There is a whole up-and-coming scene of music driven by blogs, so I reached out to a bunch of other artists and before you know it, we participated in our first New York City event on Aug. 10 in the Canal Room. It sold out—600 people attended," said Remler. The Canal Room event was sponsored by CamelbackMusic.com, a music blog dedicated to promoting various new artists.

After their first New York City event, BlueRichard then focused its efforts on orchestrating a tour featuring Upper West; The Dean's List, a hip-hop group based out of Boston; and Aer, a rock with reggae roots group from Wayland, Mass. This tour was targeted toward prep school students across the Northeast. The largest concert they organized, as Remler noted, attracted 800 people.

"[Prep school students are] a great market because they are always online and sharing things," said Remler. "The whole method behind it was to get them before they get to college so when they finally do go away to school, they could bring our artists to universities and colleges across the nation."

Over the past few months, Remler and Duarte have spent their weekends traveling to over 15 prep schools in New England and New York while promoting their artists. A few of the venues included Tabor Academy located in Marion, Mass.; the Milton Academy located in Milton, Mass.; and Choate Rosemary Hall, located in Wallingford, Conn.

"Between Harrison and I, he mainly handles booking for the tour we're running with these prep schools. He cuts the deals, books the artists and handles the finances," stated Duarte. He continued, "I mainly oversee the production of the show. I manage the artists backstage and make sure they are ready to go on. I also hype up the crowd for each show we run. On top of that I oversee the music production of Upper West."

"We compliment each other really well," Remler added when commenting on his working relationship with Duarte.

Although BlueRichard does not currently promote any Vassar-specific talent, Remler noted that he and Duarte are always looking for new, exciting groups and are open to the possibility of extending their reach into the liberal arts college music scene.

While both Remler and Duarte enjoy helping recently discovered talent cultivate a fan base, both admit that touring during the academic year has not always been easy.

"It definitely is a struggle to balance everything I have on my plate. Between playing baseball for Trinity College, taking five classes, running this company and trying to squeeze a social life in, it has been tough," stated Duarte. "However none of these are things that I would want to sacrifice so it is worth the struggle and the lack of time."

The difficulty lies primarily in the fact that the tour would force both Duarte and Remler to frequently leave their respective campuses. "For the first semester I was only here one weekend. I would leave on Friday and usually go to Manhattan for a meeting and Saturday we would usually have a show or an event," Remler said. "Every other weekend I was in Connecticut or Massachusetts for the tour, so it was rough."

Both Remler and Duarte plan on turning this mutual passion for promoting artists into a long-term career.

"Without a doubt this is something I would want to pursue after graduation," stated Duarte. "On multiple occasions Harrison and I have both spoke about how this is something we want to build a life around."

We both have grinded out those long, Nine to five days and know how much we love doing what were doing now... As long as we can adjust and make intelligent decisions in this early stage of our company I feel like there is no limit for how big we can become," Duarte continued.

As Remler noted, setting long-term goals is an essential aspect of promoting the company's future growth.

"A lot of people get caught up in short term goals when managing a company, but we are trying to look ahead to the next three or four years. We spent the last six months building a network, so I know a bunch of new artists coming up," said Remler.

Sellers is also excited at the prospect of potentially continuing his role as BlueRichard's CFO after graduation.

"If Blue Richard continues to grow and be successful, I will absolutely continue to work with them. It is such a family environment at Blue Richard, and I could not ask for a better group of people to work with," stated Sellers.

He continued, "At this point in time we're making money doing what we love. As long as Blue Richard remains a viable company, I am more than happy to stick around and watch our business grow."