Country Music is the Startup Soundtrack

Is there a profession more entrepreneurial than the singer/songwriter? Just like today's tech founders, they scratch out a living while pursuing a passion against great odds. Creating something new out of thin air, they are originators hoping to strike a chord that leads to viral success. Their product is pure intellectual property — untouchable but infinitely scaleable.

What musical genre most epitomizes the startup journey?

Ben Horowitz has made his best case for hip-hop. I am joined by Nick Rodieck, former radio host of “America’s Country Music Hour” to suggest that country music is the soundtrack for startups.

What Defines Country Music

At its core, country music is defined by storytelling, basic chord progression, and themes of struggle and contentment.

Country music rules radio, surpassing Top 40 as America’s most popular music format. Industry analyst Russ Crupnick says, “Country music has become America’s favorite music genre, mostly because of its diversity and accessibility”.

Country is the music of the US heartland. It is way more Friday Night Lights than 90210, more fly-over country than coastal media centers.

What Defines the Startup Journey

Twenty percent of the startup journey gets eighty percent of the press. Product launches, funding, partnerships, hockey stick charts, pitchfests, and incubator cohorts are the coastal media centers of Startup Land. Between these milestones lies the great interior of the startup journey.

The interior of the startup journey begins with an idea and an ambition. It moves through nurturing and exposing the idea, scraping by with another job, cutting the family budget and finding like-minded travelers. It is often dusty, grinding, struggling and thankless.

Many entrepreneurs leaving a career track for a startup could spin Dolly Parton or Johnny Paycheck.

“Workin’ nine to five, what a way to make a livin’. Barely getting by, it’s all take and no giving. They just used your mind and they never give you credit. It’s enough to make you crazy if you let it.” — Dolly Parton

“Ya better not try and stand in my way, cause I’m walkin’ out the door. Take this job and shove it! I ain’t working here no more.” — Johnny Paycheck

Almost all gratification is deferred at this stage of a startup. However, this stage offers a currency that no other part of the journey can provide: the gathering and camaraderie of the startup team. This will be a reference point to future hires. These people are the family picture you will show future generations. Together you are dreaming, doing, eating, and surviving. It is irreplaceable.

“Start a band, Scrape up some money, buy a van
Learn Free Bird and Ramblin’ Man
Never buy another beer again

Just get you a guitar and learn how to play
Grow out your hair, come up with a name
With a little bit of luck you’ll be packing the stands
Find a few good buddies, start a band.” — Brad Paisley

“Some dreams stay with you forever,
Drag you around but bring you back to where you were.
Some dreams keep on gettin’ better,
Gotta keep believin’ if you wanna know for sure.

Ohhh, I can hear ’em playin’.
I can hear the ringin’ of a beat up ol’ guitar.
Ohhh, I can hear ’em singin’,
“Keep on dreamin’, even if it breaks your heart.” — Eli Young Band

Should the startup journey be successful, then the genre changes to pop, rock and other success-centric motifs. Just ask Taylor Swift.

But what happens when things get tough? When the hockey stick points down instead of up? Therein lies great temptation for the founding team. How far will you stretch the capabilities of your product? How long will your financial projections defy gravity?

“I keep a close watch on this heart of mine
I keep my eyes wide open all the time
I keep the ends out for the tie that binds
Because you’re mine, I walk the line”. — Johnny Cash

Where other music genres idolize the good life and are focused on self-aggrandizement, country music takes an authentic look at the tradeoffs of life decisions. Any startup owner with a family can identify with Dierks Bentley’s “Damn These Dreams”.

“Well, I remember hearin’ my song on the radio
The first time it felt like some kinda drug
Out there on the road playing show after show
Me and the boys just burnin’ it up
It was all fun and games ’til the little ones came
’Cause it makes my heart bleed
When I gotta drive away and listen to ’em say
Hey daddy, why you gotta go, please don’t leave

Well, damn these dreams
Playin’ my heart just like a guitar string
Pullin’ me away from you and everything I really need
Well, damn these dreams
Chasin’ that same old whiskey melody
All up and down every small town street
It’s hard to look true love in the eye and leave
Well, damn these dreams”

Finally, what happens if the startup follows it’s statistically probable outcome? Will pop music console you when your startup joins the ninety percent that fail? Is glam-rock the music playing in the background to a car ditched on the side of the road? Only country can help you with the ending of a consuming passion.

“So if the ties that bind ever do come loose
Tie ’em in a knot like a hangman’s noose
Cause I’ll go to heaven or I’ll go to hell
Before I’ll see you with someone else

Well,
It won’t be whiskey, it won’t be meth
It’ll be your name on my last breath
If divorce or death ever do us part
The coroner will call it a broken heart.” — The Band Perry

“Love is a burning thing
And it makes a fiery ring.
Bound by wild desire
I fell into a ring of fire.
I fell into a burning ring of fire,
I went down, down, down and the flames went higher
And it burns, burns, burns,
The ring of fire, the ring of fire.” — Johnny Cash

Post-Mortum

Is this all just a little too negative, a little too depressing? Country has an answer for that as well. It’s also the genre for people with a past. Just take it from Hootie…I mean Darius Rucker:

“Maybe it didn’t turn out like I planned 
Maybe that’s why I’m such, such a lucky man.
For every stoplight I didn’t make 
Every chance I did or I didn’t take 
All the nights I went too far 
All the girls that broke my heart 
All the doors that I had to close 
All the things I knew but I didn’t know 
Thank God for all I missed 
Cause it led me here to this.” — Darius Rucker

Country may not match the most visible parts of the startup journey, but just like the American heartland, it occupies the most real estate. Country music is the startup soundtrack.