He’s a fire dancing financial rainmaker extraordinaire and a UO donor. Nothing thrills music technology pioneer Paul Anthony Troiano more than lighting the way for student entrepreneurs from his alma mater.

“Light me up,” says Paul Anthony Troiano, as he stands outside his home in Vancouver, Washington. With finesse honed from years as a professional drummer, he swirls chains attached to burning poi—gas-soaked spheres the size of baseballs—and creates spinning paths of light in the darkness.

Troiano first learned fire dancing as a surprise for his bride at their wedding five years ago. Now it’s a way to unwind after a day in his downtown Portland office, where he delights in lighting the way for student entrepreneurs from the UO—ambitious innovators who (like himself not so long ago) could use some practical advice and relatively little capital to ignite their business ventures.  

Troiano was an undergraduate music major at the UO when he founded Rumblefish, the world’s largest independent music licensing company, with help from professors in business and law—including one who made a financial investment. Now he’s paying that forward through the RainMaker Fund, the endowment he set up to help UO students in any major become entrepreneurs.

Music—playing it and composing it—was Paul’s life as a kid growing up in Fremont, California. He played his first gig as a drummer at age 12 in a Bay Area nightclub. By the time he entered the UO as a freshman, he received commissions to write music for movies, TV shows, video games, and events. It was the mid-’90s, the Napster era, when people started downloading songs en masse without paying for them. That’s when Troiano dreamed up a quick way to legally license songs. He dubbed his idea Rumblefish and set about building it in his dorm room.

Realizing he knew little about intellectual property and less about starting a company, Troiano convinced law and business professors to let him audit courses. Philip Romero, then dean of the Charles H. Lundquist College of Business, was impressed by Troiano’s work ethic and his passion. He listened to the young composer’s wild idea, introduced him to industry leaders, and said yes when Troiano asked if Rumblefish could be the guinea pig for the UO’s first student business incubator. Ultimately, Romero wrote a check for $5,000 to help Troiano set up a real headquarters in downtown Portland.

“I knew nothing about music publishing. But I invest in people, not businesses,” Romero says. “Paul had a spirit and a vision that I wanted to encourage more students to have. He meets all challenges cheerfully and transcends even the greatest obstacles.”

Romero’s modest stake put Troiano in the position to compete for a $50,000 Angel Oregon grant. The night he won, he lingered in the parking lot trading war stories with the other young CEOs who had just competed against him. As they talked, the idea of forming an unofficial support group began to take shape. They named it StarveUps, not dreaming that it would eventually become the nation’s most successful startup accelerator.

“It’s like a Jedi council of business friends who help each other succeed,” Troiano says. A StarveUps member can call for a “hot seat” at any moment and a bunch of CEOs will show up to help. Years ago, a panicked Troiano called for a hot seat when a fire destroyed his building.

“We were homeless as a business, but a StarveUps member said, ‘I’ve got extra office space,’ and another said, ‘I’ve got extra computers.’ They put us up for free for six months and we didn’t lose a beat,” he says. “That’s the power of the group. That’s why it’s so important for young entrepreneurs to be surrounded by supportive peers through those awkward first years.”

Troiano’s awkward phase ended with the advent of YouTube. Demand for legal music licenses soared overnight, and Rumblefish had the only platform capable of keeping pace. When Troiano sold it to a private equity firm in 2014, Rumblefish was instantly issuing one-time rights to any song in its catalogue for a dollar a pop, millions of times a day. 

Mindful of how he got his start, Troiano decided to use part of the proceeds to launch the RainMaker Fund. Each year, it awards the same amount of money that Romero had invested in him to five UO students with promising business ideas.

RainMaker grant winners also are welcomed into StarveUps, where they gain access to business leaders that money cannot buy. It’s as if Troiano has translated his talent for composing music into the ability to orchestrate the conditions to support a new and intensely collaborative model for extreme entrepreneurial success—on an endless loop.

Now he’s hunting for other Ducks with a passion for helping student entrepreneurs.

“RainMaker is structured to make it easy for Oregon alumni to support the UO’s most innovative young people by contributing any amount, large or small, to the fund,” he says. “Our goal is to raise another $500,000 to $1,000,000 for the endowment so we can light the way for as many students as possible. Let’s pool our resources and make a difference.”

—Melody Ward Leslie, BA ’79

Make It Rain

Rumblefish founder Paul Anthony Troiano remembers what it’s like to be a student with a big idea, great timing, and zero capital.

“My business could not have taken off without that initial $5,000 investment from UO finance professor Phil Romero, who was dean of the UO business school back then,” he says. “His investment made it possible for me to make the giant left turn that launched us on the path to success.”

Now Troiano is calling on fellow Ducks to join him in providing a similar jump-start for future UO entrepreneurs through gifts to the UO’s RainMaker Fund. The endowment, which he set up using proceeds from the sale of his company, currently provides five UO students a year with $5,000 awards and mentorship.

“It’s so exciting to see a student grow their idea into a successful business that employs people, brings revenue into the state, and highlights innovation that’s coming out of the UO,” he says. “Let’s light the path for as many students as we can.”

For information about supporting the RainMaker Fund, contact Matt Hutter, 541-346-2837, matth@uoregon.edu.