Our Story

In November of 2018, a sophomore trumpet player in the Iowa State University Marching Band was sitting in a pitch black, 2,500 seat auditorium waiting for their annual performance at the Extravaganza Concert to begin. As the drum line rose from the pit playing a cadence, sound-activated lights attached to each drum lit up the stage. The audience went nuts and that sophomore trumpet player, Jacob Schmieder, who would become Varsity Music’s founder and CEO, couldn’t help but think “wouldn't it be cool to have those on my trumpet.” That idea grew to not just sound-activated lights but sound-reactive lights that change color when you play a different note.

That following year, Jacob needed to find an idea for his honors project. He took the idea of sound-reactive lights and presented it to the honors department and they said it sounded unique and innovative enough to bring to market. After working with the Pappa John Center for Entrepreneurship, he was encouraged to join, and was accepted into a startup accelerator program called CYstarters. During this program Jacob, a Biochemistry major, learned as much about business as he could and developed a real passion for entrepreneurship. After the program ended, Jacob set out to find a well-rounded team of people to help him bring his vision into existence.

With an initial prototype and a foundation for a business, then called Varsity Instrument Lights, Jacob began looking for people to help him with the technical side of creating the lights. Who better to create technology for instruments than band kids? After reaching out to a few members of the band studying engineering, Nathan Paskach and Sam Lavin joined the team as Systems Engineer and Software Engineer respectively. The next role to fill was that of a marketing director. Fortunately, Jacob already knew a music education student with an interest in marketing and shortly thereafter, Logan TeKolste joined the team. Around the same time, fellow marching band member Jack Evans was working on a project of his own: affordable lyres that hold your smart phone in place of a flip folder. With the addition of Jack, the team decided to make the switch from Varsity Instrument Lights to Varsity Music. After a few months of working as a team and lots of paperwork, Varsity Music legally incorporated in November of 2021.

Getting to the point of incorporating has had many ups and downs along the way. The original lights were designed in collaboration with Dillon Jensen. It was prototyped on a breadboard with Jacob’s extremely limited knowledge of code and electrical engineering. After the team began working together, we took another path. We reworked the circuitry and the method we were using to identify the pitch. Within a couple of months, we had a new prototype working. While we developed our technology, we also spent time building our professional network. Legal and financial barriers were a particularly large battle, and we worked with many fellow entrepreneurs and professionals to find the path and resources that worked best for us. Another important resource for the development of our technology is the input from music educators. After the addition of Jack and the change in company title, we also had a change in values. We realized that our company is more than just our products and realigned our goals to prioritize bringing technological innovation to the music industry. Since incorporating in November, we have been further developing both the lights and lyres as well as creating our company logo and brand. In February, the team welcomed our newest member, Sam Hauser, to help us build our brand and a consistent social media presence.

We believe that the music industry currently leaves a lot of room for innovation. Just as other fields have begun to find ways to use technology to improve what they do, we hope to foster that development in any field of the music industry. From teacher to performer, to producer. Whether it is in the classroom to improve how we teach and learn, as a musician to refine how we practice and perform, or as an audience member to redefine the musical experience, Varsity Music is dedicated to creating new possibilities. Our goal is to become a brand that musicians trust to enhance any part of their craft.

As a brand founded by student innovators, we want to encourage innovative thinking in students, teachers, and anyone with an idea. Looking forward, we hope to start a funding program to help like-minded individuals in the music field bring their ideas to life. We understand the financial challenges that are required to see an idea through, therefore the goal of this program will be to break down those barriers and propel the music industry forward.

Varsity Music is dedicated to propelling music forward by creating new possibilities for musicians and developing new tools for teaching music.