You know that feeling you get when you realize you’ve found your tribe? For many, it feels like everything has clicked, and your journey has finally led you to a community that supports your efforts. This support gives you stronger motivation, you now have people who are counting on you. The people in your tribe want you to succeed, and they are by your side to aid you through the tough times. Sound like something you’re looking for? Good news! These are the core values of Balanced Breakfast!
Balanced Breakfast had its first meeting in 2013, with co-founders Stefan Aronsen and Andy Freeman. The original concept was a support group for their close friends. They envisioned a weekly breakfast meeting of five to ten friends around a small table at a diner in San Francisco. Their small group quickly grew, however, and in a short period of time Balanced Breakfast had spread to 20 U.S. cities and 2 international cities: Toronto and Bogota.
“In an industry where you often do business with friends, Balanced Breakfast is a way to find the friends you want to do business with.” - Andy Freeman
Balanced Breakfast meetings vary by location, but they share the same format; each meeting discusses solutions to the challenges that every professional faces in the music industry. Balanced Breakfast’s community helps launch individual careers by strengthening the city’s existing music scene. While there is a strong networking component to Balanced Breakfast, it is at its core about building community, and the idea that we are stronger together than we are alone—a philosophy that has allowed for its massive expansion in the three years since its inception.
“Breakfast was a good way to bring local communities together to chat about projects and discuss topics in the music industry” explains Aronsen. “When we started, I couldn’t have predicted how much interest there would be, both nationally and internationally. Other cities recognized the power of grassroots collaboration, the music and art that spring forth from that energy, and the meaningful human connections gained.”
In 2017, after nearly three years of eating breakfast and listening to the needs of music industry professionals, Stefan finally realized what music industry professionals needed. In an industry that thrives on who you know, members of BB were hungry for more connections to the scene. After heavy research into how professionals connect digitally, Stefan knew it was time to create the BB app. It was then that he recruited his long-time friend Levi Winkler to help him make Balanced Breakfast an LLC and launch its first product.
"Our city meetups created the physical foundation for Breakfast. The BB Music App provides our members a digital framework to build on that foundation," Levi says.
With the introduction of the brand new BB app, Balanced Breakfast is expanding its reach. They have experienced success with IRL meetings, the app will help increase the network reach, digitally. The goal of the app is similar to the goal of the meetings, aid people with finding community and offer a resource of industry information. Currently the app is a great way to find fans, musicians, and industry professionals in your city and around the world. Users can filter the people in the app based on profession, skill, genre, and specific needs, like “looking for show.” Ultimately, the app makes it more convenient than ever to connect with the community around you. It’s like LinkedIn for the music industry—but cooler … way cooler!
Download the BB Music App to start connecting with industry professionals in your city and around the world!
Check out the interview with Stefan Aronsen in The Prelude Press!