Q Prime

Q Prime is a music management company that has been in operation for 30 years.

They started with no outside funding.

Rather than get cell phones they hired an assistant.

Their business model is simple:

• Keep operating costs low. "I worked out of my house for six years with a telex machine in my basement next to the washing machine."
• Diversify your revenue base
• Use your network. "But if people had thought all along that we sucked, no level of personal contact would have helped that."
• Ask colleagues to recommend recruits

The two founders, Cliff Burnstein and Peter Mensch, are practitioners of what is known as creative friction yet are close enough that they work together in one room and finish each other's sentences. According to industry consultant Peter Lubin, being managed by this duo is "like having an Hasidic scholar whose partner is Attila the Hun."

There are few music entrepreneurs that last. The market is too volatile. By carefully monitoring risk in both activities and operations Q Prime has survived, the two founders are multimillionaires, and they have fun doing what they like to do. 

David Sneed