How a Twenty-Something Entrepreneur Landed 35% Equity | Episode 68
When her business partner asked how he should pay her, AnnaMarie Davis said she didn't want
an hourly rate. She wanted equity. She was a college student who had been working in his studio
for months, had never been paid a dollar, and didn't entirely know what equity meant. She ended
up with 35%.
AnnaMarie Davis is a partner at Audio and Recording, a commercial recording studio in Salt Lake
City. She got there through competitive dance, door-to-door solar sales, two shipping containers
she bought and returned, an investor dinner she walked into not knowing what an investor was,
and a 2.5-hour phone call with a stranger named Eric. She is in her 20s.
What she covers:
→ Age 12: dad lost his job, dance was too expensive — so she walked into the studio owner's office and negotiated her own free tuition by teaching tap and ballet and cleaning every studio after hours, without telling her parents
→ Knocking doors in Utah selling solar at 18, offering Girl Scout cookies as part of her pitch (she actually bought them)
→ Buying two shipping containers for $6,000 to build a DIY recording studio — then discovering that soundproofing and equipment would cost a fortune
→ Getting the prompting: "Don't bury your talents and don't let your friends bury theirs" — and realizing the music world was full of audio engineers who couldn't get jobs and artists who couldn't afford studios
→ A little girl at a dance recital, a dad who ran investor dinners, and the chain reaction that changed everything
→ Walking into Tyler Jennings' investor dinner, saying "I have no idea how to do this" — and getting put in 10 group chats and invited to four more lunches
→ A 2.5-hour first phone call with her future business partner Eric, not even remembering he owned a studio
→ Working in Eric's studio for three months for free before he offered to pay her — and saying no, she wanted equity instead
→ Earning equity benchmarks tied to revenue milestones, working her way to 35% ownership while still dancing at BYU
→ Vibe coding a custom booking system because no good scheduling software exists for music studios
→ Monthly jam sessions — poets, musicians, audiobook narrators, a random violinist, and one unforgettable rendition of Don't Stop Believin' — as the free event that drove all their word-of-mouth
→ Big artists signing the wall behind a mirror (so the signatures exist but can't be posted anywhere) — and the time she had a full conversation with a major artist and didn't know who he was until after
🔗 CONNECT WITH STU
Instagram: @stu
Website: https://startupswithstu.com
📌 CHAPTERS
00:00 – Intro and growing up with four older brothers
02:30 – Age 12: dad loses his job, dance is too expensive, AnnaMarie negotiates her own tuition
06:00 – Dad stops being a lawyer and becomes an entrepreneur — what watching that taught her
09:30 – High school deal: get your associates, parents pay for everything; graduate, you're on your own
12:00 – Door-to-door solar sales at 18 with Girl Scout cookies as backup
15:30 – BYU, competitive dance, declaring entrepreneurship as a major on a whim
19:00 – The prompting: don't bury your talents, don't let your friends bury theirs
22:30 – Two shipping containers, $6,000, and the moment she realized she had no idea what she was doing
26:00 – The little girl at the recital, Tyler Jennings, and the investor dinner
30:00 – Walking in with nothing but a dream — and getting 10 group chats and four follow-up lunches
34:00 – The 2.5-hour first call with Eric Low, her future business partner
38:00 – Three months working for free, then: "Do you want me to pay you?" — "No, I want equity."
42:00 – Earning her way to 35% through revenue benchmarks
45:00 – Vibe coding a custom booking system and building word-of-mouth through jam sessions
49:00 – Big artists, hidden signatures, and the celebrity conversation she didn't know she was having
52:30 – Advice for aspiring college-age entrepreneurs
#entrepreneur #startups #founderstory #youngentrepreneur #recordingstudio #musicbusiness #womeninbusiness #saltlakecity #collegeentrepreneur #audioengineering
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