Ryan Dils has known two things since his days at Hamburg High School.
First, he wanted to study computer engineering. Second, he wanted to build his own tech startup someday.
The University at Buffalo student will graduate in May with a bachelor’s in computer science. He’s also preparing to launch Open Beats, a collaborative music production tool.
Most production software makes online collaboration cumbersome – saving files and sending them to one another. But Open Beats is a web-based tool that makes it possible for multiple people to work on a project simultaneously.
Think of it like Google Sheets for musicians and producers.
“It’s a one-stop shop for production and musical collaboration,” Dils said.
Open Beats is almost ready for public consumption, but it’s been a long road to this point. As a UB freshman, Dils poured himself into hackathons, attending one nearly every week. He was a software engineering intern at M&T Bank in summer 2018, then immediately went to work as a software intern at ACV Auctions, where he was introduced to current mentors Joseph Peacock, Dan Magnuszewski, Phil Schneider and Jonathan Ebel (Ebel left ACV to become co-founder and CTO of Verivend, where Dils would later intern).
Dils was working tirelessly toward his twin goals. Then disaster struck. In October 2020 he was diagnosed with secondary psychosis after having hallucinations and admitted into Erie County Medical Center, where he stayed for two months.
He described the experience as a “schizophrenia-type” state where he imagined that songs were being directed specifically to him.
He regained his clarity in late 2020. Through a new appreciation for work-life balance and a startup that is immersed in the process of making music, he has regained his agency.
“I went from being afraid to listen to music to raising money for my music startup,” Dils said.
Dils, a Western New York Prosperity Fellow, hasn’t stopped his impressive run of collegiate accomplishments. He did a second internship at ACV Auctions, then became a software engineering intern at Walmart in summerr 2021 and then took the same role at Verivend, a payments startup, in the latter half of 2021. Around that time, he started his own software consultancy, Emerald.
But it’s Open Beats that is set to become Dils’ major project post-graduation. Though competition exists, he said Open Beats sets itself apart through the quality of its production suite and its social media component, which will use software to connect potential collaborators. Early adopters across the music industry have given the company high marks, he said.
He built the framework of Open Beats during a UB software course, and is finishing development work before its public debut. Open Beats is also competing in this year’s Panasci Competition at UB and has been accepted into UB’s Cultivator accelerator program. He said Open Beats is in line for a $50,000 investment through Cultivator.
Dils’ eventful collegiate career is coming to a close. Now he’s ready to start building in his hometown.
“I love the culture, the snow and everything about this city, including the technology scene that’s emerging here,” he said. “The startups that are coming up are inspiring each other, they’re seeing optimism and they’re envisioning themselves as pioneers.”
