Citizen Groove latest NCO recipient

Date: 7/10/2009

For Immediate Release
Cuyahoga County
July 10, 2009

CitizenGroove LLC receives a $60,000 NCO Technology Fund Loan

The loan will aid the company in development of a web based networking tool

(CLEVELAND) July 9, 2009 -- The members of the Cuyahoga County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC), Jimmy Dimora, Timothy F. Hagan and Peter Lawson Jones, in association with JumpStart’s TechLift program are pleased to announce a North Coast Opportunities (NCO) Technology Fund loan to CitizenGroove, LLC in the amount of $60,000. This is the fifth NCO loan the BOCC has approved since the program began in the fall of 2008.

At its core, CitizenGroove is an internet-based professional musician’s network that ties together artists, listeners, and the music industry. The company developed an innovative media organization system that enhances artist networking capabilities, provides an interactive music database engine, and aggregates marketing data for music industry professionals. CitizenGroove will use the NCO Technology Fund loan to develop a comprehensive data mining and statistic engine designed to warehouse information that serves the music industry. The project will enable the company to remain in Cuyahoga County and grow its business and attract follow-on investment within five years.

CitizenGroove is the brainchild of Mr. John Knific. Mr. Knific has a deep nderstanding of musicianship, as an award winning jazz pianist/composer, music study at Case Western Reserve University/Cleveland Institute of Music, and international performance experience at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, Netherland’.
Mr. Knific attributes much of the company’s success to his three partners. The CitizenGroove team, comprised of fellow CWRU graduates, has unique and diverse backgrounds in audio recording, music business, computer science, artificial intelligence, entrepreneurship, and finance.

CitizenGroove designed its infrastructure to allow Musicians to create artist profiles and upload their music portfolio. The information from an artist’s profile, the music uploaded, and the collaboration with other musicians is paired with the data of listeners browsing the website. As more interaction takes place, more data is compiled. These valuable statistics will be packaged and made available to sell back to artists as well as
Commissioners. Jimmy Dimora, Timothy F. Hagan, Peter Lawson Jones interested listeners and industry professionals. These packages will be scaled and priced to target every user, from small independent artists to representatives of major record labels.

The Cuyahoga County NCO Technology Fund will provide a payment-deferred loan to help CitizenGroove with the operational beta development of an internet based media content management database system.

Cuyahoga County will fund the project with a $60,000 loan at a fixed interest rate of five percent (5.00%) for five (5) years. Principal and accrued loan interest are due either at the end of the loan term or when the company achieves significant outside investment.

The NCO Technology Fund was developed by the Cuyahoga County Department of Development in collaboration with CuyahogaNext Advisors and JumpStart’s TechLift program. A selection committee comprised of TechLift Entrepreneurs-in-Residence (“EIRs”), MAGNET, Inc. and Cuyahoga County analyzed CitienGroove’s application and recommended the loan to the BOCC.

Cuyahoga County created the NCO Technology Fund to accelerate technology-based entrepreneurship, create new high paying jobs, and increase the flow of private investment to Cuyahoga County technology companies.  By encouraging entrepreneurship and assisting early stage companies, the NCO Technology Fund adds value to Northeast Ohio’s strong technology environment and addresses a critical need for pre-seed capital.

About The Board of Cuyahoga County Commissioners: Cuyahoga County is a Political Subdivision of the State of Ohio, established by the State Legislature in 1808.  Comprised of 38 cities, 19 Villages and 2 Townships with a population of 1,401,552*, Cuyahoga County is largely an industrial, recreational, educational and leading health care community. www.cuyahogacounty.us

About TechLift: TechLift is a JumpStart-led initiative designed to provide unparalleled services to technology entrepreneurs in Northeast Ohio. It is a collaborative effort between JumpStart, Nortech and Northeast Ohio’s Edison funded incubators. (BioEnterprise, and the five regional incubations that comprise NEOinc: Akron Global Business Accelerator, BrainTree, GLIDE, MAGNET, and Youngstown Business Incubator) and pre-seed investment funds (JumpStart, Glengary, NorthCoast Angel Fund and GLIDE Innovation Fund).

In late 2006, the Third Frontier Project created its Entrepreneurial Signature Program to significantly increase the technology-based entrepreneurial commercialization outcomes. NorTech led the Northeast Ohio effort and received a $15M grant from the Ohio Third Frontier Project to fund Jumpstrat’s TechLift services and create
new programs at JumpStart, BioEnterprise, and the NEOinc incubators. For more information about TechLift, visit: www.techlift.org

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