We started this at 17.

It started with fantasy hockey.

Kind of embarrassing but true. Our league got really competitive and we started treating it like a business. Trades, waiver moves, all of it. We got into the habit of trying to find value other people missed, and that turned out to be a useful habit.

Then we tried to buy a Dairy Queen.

Also true. We called corporate, learned how franchising worked, and tried to find an existing franchisee who'd let us take over a lease. Didn't work out, but we came out of it knowing how to talk to people much older than us and how a real deal actually gets put together.

Music was the obvious next thing.

We both grew up playing in bands around Maryland. Jo ended up managing a few local groups in high school — helping with promo, distribution, the business side. At some point starting our own thing made more sense than keeping it scattered across other people's projects.

What BTR actually is right now.

Not really a label yet, to be honest. We haven't signed anyone. What we have is a pretty big audience for two college students (around 25k people across socials), a steady inbox of demos, and a small network of friends on other campuses helping us find artists. Most of our time goes into listening to submissions and writing back.

The plan is to keep growing that audience and that scouting network until it makes sense to sign someone. We'd rather wait and do it right than rush to put a name on the homepage.