Milwaukee native Enrique "Mag" Rodriguez has owned several businesses in his young career. From music recording studios to a local plant shop, he's drawn to entrepreneurship.
But it wasn't until working for the well-known Wisconsin-based startup accelerator firm gener8tor that Rodriguez ever considered taking outside investment to help grow one of his businesses.
"I've always done everything just (by) being scrappy," Rodriguez said. "I've never even taken a loan before."
After working for gener8tor for four years and learning about the venture capital industry, Rodriguez left the firm last year to build a music technology startup. He began the company with a $100,000 investment from gener8tor and is now raising additional capital largely from Milwaukee-area investors.
Rodriguez's startup, Even Labs Inc., is building a blockchain-based platform to enable musicians to sell music directly to fans. It soft-launched in October and is already generating revenue, Rodriguez said. The backend will operate like a customer relationship management (CRM) tool for artists, he said, allowing them to engage directly with fans.
Entrepreneurship has long been the path for Rodriguez, who also owns the Maranta Plant Shop in Milwaukee's Bronzeville neighborhood. But he didn't always call himself an entrepreneur.
"I've been an entrepreneur since a very young age," 28-year-old Rodriguez said. "I grew up on the south side of Milwaukee — I called it being a hustler."
In high school, Rodriguez began managing Milwaukee-based hip-hop artist Ishmael Ali, known as IshDARR. After graduating, they toured nationally and internationally alongside popular artists including ScHoolboy Q and Post Malone.
After managing other artists and owning a recording studio for several years, Rodriguez joined gener8tor in 2018 to run an accelerator program for musicians. Working there also exposed him to gener8tor's startup accelerator program, which provides mentorship and $100,000 to early-stage companies in exchange for equity.
"This idea that you can get money for ideas really drew me," Rodriguez said. "I was like, 'I have ideas.'"
In late 2021, Rodriguez was having lunch with gener8tor co-founders Joe Kirgues and Troy Vosseller when they asked about his ideas for his own startup. Rodriguez pitched the concept for what would become Even, and gener8tor funded it as if it were another startup in its portfolio.
Rodriguez started working on Even full time in 2022 and left gener8tor shortly thereafter. He credits the gener8tor team for the startup's launch.
"They introduced me to this world," Rodriguez said. "I had no idea what venture capital was. ... They indirectly taught me how to build a company."
Today, Even has around 14 employees, and the platform has more than 20,000 users and has done eight music releases with six artists, Rodriguez said. Splitting his time between Milwaukee and Los Angeles, Rodriguez intends to build out the product over the next 18 months before focusing on scaling it.
"I want to build this massive company that I think is going to change the music industry," Rodriguez said.
