Twenty-six-year-old Sam Tarantino, the founder of the music website Grooveshark, spoke on campus Monday evening to students from College Conservatives, the Alternative Music Enthusiasts Club, Delta Sigma Pi and business students about being a young entrepreneur in a recession and starting a business in Florida. The College Conservatives hosted the presentation.
Tarantino was 19 and a pre-med student at the University of Florida when he started Grooveshark. As a musician, he wanted to change the music industry and give people the opportunity to listen to music online for free, so he gathered some of his friends and members from an entrepreneurship group at UF to set his plan in motion.
Based on his experiences, Tarantino advised students to create a job rather than looking for one.
“He started Grooveshark right when the recession started happening, and they realized that Grooveshark was doing better in the recession because people couldn’t afford music and what not,” said Marco Tarantino, Sam’s brother, who is also a UT junior and president of the College Conservatives.
Sam Tarantino also talked about what it’s like to start a business in Florida and how it is potentially cheaper to launch one in the state as opposed to California, in part because the cost of living is more expensive.
He said struggles he had to endure and is still going through include dealing with major record label companies suing him due to concerns about copyright infringement.
In the wake of adversity and amid the challenge of a start-up, his suggestion about confidence: “Fake it until you make it.”