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Entrepreneur Files
MTconnection
UT Connection: Jack Arnold, BBA 01, Business Honors Program
Location: Austin and Los Angeles
The modeling and talent industry is extremely inefficient says model Casey Arnold, who’s been working in the industry for the past three years. “You’d think that an industry based on communication would pick up on the Internet’s potential,” he says. “But they still use very traditional methods of communication. You walk into a modeling agency and it’s mass confusion–couriers in and out, phones ringing off the hook, faxes coming in and going out, and the receptionist is putting you on hold. It’s just so much energy, time, and money spent in the wrong places.”
Casey and his cousin Jack believe MTconnection will revolutionize the industry. No one else is doing this, says Jack, with MTconnection every interaction can be done in real time, from locating and interacting with models to negotiating contracts, and booking events. “This is not just putting photos up on a website,” he says. “We’re verticalizing the industry. The three players–the clients, the agencies, and the models–have been entirely separated and we are bringing them all together for maximum efficiency.”
Jack Arnold’s formal business training at UT coupled with Casey’s charismatic street personality and knowledge of the industry seem to be a winning combination. Casey secured funding while caddying a golf game in New Jersey, met their Web developers while playing fuse ball at a bar in Austin, and is spreading news of the company by word of mouth through his talent agency contacts. The two researched the industry in depth and drew out exactly what they wanted on paper, link by link. With over $700,000 in seed capital in the bank and several agencies already signed on, the venture launched in October, seven months before Jack will graduate.
“The Business Honors program teaches you to think creatively, challenges you to change things and be productive, to do something important,” says Jack. “The whole atmosphere here promotes entrepreneurship. You can leave on an internship and start thinking the corporate road is the way to go, but then as soon as you get back to Austin, you turn right around again and start looking for your own thing.”
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