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Evan Pollock ’97 &
Matt HuBBall ’97
Evan Pollock ’97 and Matt Hubball ’97
may self-effacingly describe themselves
as “two guys in a basement,” but they
have ambitions to move up to the penthouse.
Working as music producers in Colorado,
they launched a new website called
BlorpCorp in February that offers original
instrumental tracks to advertisers and television
stations ranging from Mercedes
Benz to MTV.
It was only a few years ago, in 2006,
that Pollock, who was attending graduate
school for digital media at Denver university,
and Hubball, who was working as an
ad writer, realized their common aspirations
of breaking into professional music.
a Web of Entrepreneurs
By ADAM CONNeR-SIMONS
There’s no disputing that the Internet has completely and utterly changed the way
we live. CeOs are Twittering, newspapers are going online-only, and grandmothers
are on Facebook. Indeed, businesses have quickly learned that the Web
is increasingly where people turn for news, information, and products and are
acting accordingly.
Rivers is no exception. This past year, the school started its official Riversblog and
launched its alumni Facebook page and LinkedIn networking group. With an ethos of
thinking outside the box, Rivers has always embraced new technologies, and so have its students
and graduates. These three stories highlight recent Rivers alumni who have become
successful web entrepreneurs. The companies exemplify the new and innovative ways in
which we use the Internet, and the fact that, even in a recession, there’s always room for creative
and savvy businesses to prosper.
Music to Their Ears
Cognizant of the industry’s struggles, the
duo dreamed up a plan to start a music-advertising
business that could compete with
the big agencies. Within a year, they had
begun the arduous task of creating original
stock tracks for an online music library.
Simultaneously juggling full-time jobs,
they spent nearly two years working weekends,
and—after connecting with a web designer
and a photographer—officially got
the site up and running this year.
There are two sides to Blorp Corp: the
first part is the “stock library,” a musical repository
filled with tracks organized by
categories that span both genres (“rock,”
“hip hop”) and moods (“thoughtful,”
“quirky.”) Songs can be customized—cut
down to a 15-second clip, for example, or
separated out by instrument—and rented
at different price points depending on
length and extent of use. The other component
is Blorp Corp’s custom work—higherbudget
projects in which Pollock and Hubball
get involved in the pre-production and
Fall 2009 • Riparian • 3