Andrew was raised in Scarborough, a vibrant community in the east end of Toronto. After his dreams of being a professional basketball player were dashed, Andrew attended Carleton University earned his B.A. in English Lit. and Film Studies.
In 1999, Andrew started a video production company. Working with small businesses to create videos and commercials led Andrew to become an expert in digital video and web production. Andrew was even asked to contribute to Streaming Media Bible’s authoring the book’s “S.M.I.L. with Quicktime” section in 2002. These successes led Andrew to found Confluent Technologies and to develop its flagship software, Fluition. Fluition – a WYSIWYG for streaming multimedia presentations – was bundled with Viewcast Osprey 500-DV, the world’s leading video capture card.
After exiting Confluent, Andrew pivoted from the software business and started working with some of Canada’s largest media companies like the CBC, TV Ontario, and Corus Entertainment. During this time, Andrew produced hundreds of videos – from live-events with Ozzy Osborne, Rush and Tom Morello, to musical performances, radio specials and TV shows.
Having grown frustrated with a lack of a technical vision of the future, Andrew turned away from media and back to the software world. Specifically working with small startups. Andrew was the technical and marketing lead for The Science of Rock & Roll, Appetite Labs, and Transparent Inc. to name a few.
In 2012 Andrew was asked to participate in the Royal National Mint’s MintChip contest where his team placed 4th. This got him fascinated with the promise of the Blockchain for developing better music reporting for artists, which led Andrew to found the Bisantyum project. Andrew quickly realized that it was too soon for this project and quickly moved on to helping companies like CoinSquare, MMH Blockchain, NewsBTC, and Outlier Solutions with their Bitcoin and Blockchain marketing, writing, strategy and events.
At this time, Andrew was coming to the conclusion that the online world that we had hoped to create in the 90’s had been co-opted by the attention-economy. To counterbalance this he launched the Music Tech Meetup, a place for the tech and music communities to meet and discuss solutions to their problems in person, face-to-face. In 2019, the Music Tech MeetUp was acquired by TechTO, Canada’s tech community.
Recently, Andrew has been helping professionals with their personal brands and marketing strategies like award-winning broadcaster Alan Cross’ A Journal of Musical Things.
Other Fun Projects
Co-Founder of The Backstage Project Podcast with Mark Silver. TBP focuses on the stories behind the biggest and best entertainment products, events, and companies. Music Tech Consulting helping bridge the gap between the arts and tech communities.
