BerkleeICE Startup Competes at MIT Beantown Throwdown
BerkleeICE students competed at the recent MIT Beantown Throwdown event for student startups.
Photo by Heather Goldin (Daily Free Press)
Berklee’s Institute for Creative Entrepreneurship (BerkleeICE) was represented at this year’s MIT Beantown Throwdown by Beatlist(Opens in a new window), a startup led by Berklee students Alex Olsen, Keith Chia. and John Smith. The Beantown Throwdown is an annual competition for student startups, with each competitor allotted a three-minute pitch session that is followed by a one-minute question and answer period with panelists. The audience then votes by “investing” portions of hypothetical money in their favorite startup.
Nine colleges competed and the student team from Boston University ultimately won, taking home $20,000 worth of prizes to help boost their startup, Downtyme. The Berklee startup, Beatlist, is an app to help determine music trends by users and is driven by the philosophy that music should be curated by humans rather than data-based programs. The company’s inclusion in the competition furthers its exposure in the startup market and, in the wake of a recent event at Harvard, marks yet another foray into the startup scene for BerkleeICE students.