{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Owl Have You Know","title":"The Business of Live Entertainment feat. Javier Simons ’25","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":1987,"description":"If you told a young Javier Simons that he would one day own his own talent agency and hold an MBA from Rice Business, he would have been in disbelief.\nGrowing up in Panama, Javier’s path into the music industry was anything but conventional, he says. After years of waiting tables, Javier taught himself the business of entertainment from backstage, and fell in love with the in’s and out’s of talent booking and artist management. It was this passion that drove him to creating KOQ Agency, a global touring and talent agency representing independent artists. With the help of an MBA from Rice Business, Javier has scaled KOQ internationally, even booking Danish band Aqua’s first U.S. tour.\nJavier joins co-host Brian Jackson ’21 to talk about his path from club promoting to entrepreneur, what it really takes to build an artist's career from the ground up, how the MBA gave him the financial and leadership toolkit he was missing, what leading the Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition Conference meant to him, and why staying “delusional” is the key to chasing and achieving your dreams.\n\nEpisode Guide:\n00:00 Javier Simons Introduction\n01:03 Early Spark for Live Entertainment\n03:59 Hard Knocks Education\n06:53 Founding KOQ Agency\n09:42 Earning Artist Trust\n12:30 Booking Aqua U.S. Tour\n18:16 Riders and Show Crises\n21:06 Leadership at Denver Pride\n23:37 Why Rice MBA\n26:01 Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition Conference Legacy\n29:01 Advice for Breaking Into The Music Industry\n\nThe Owl Have You Know Podcast is a production of Rice Business and is produced by University FM.\n\n\nEpisode Quotes:\n\nOn taking the risks to discover your potential\n15:20: One of the things that entrepreneurs need to have is take the risk, because I didn't know my full potential until I did that. Once I did Aqua, that's when I realized that there was no challenge big or small enough that I couldn't achieve. It was really an eye-opening moment, especially when I was going through launch week and starting my...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/TJ_bP9v1zp60qvMRjx8jTuTiOVRFDdgjR-9C4xy2Tmg/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9zaG93/LzE1ODMyLzE2MDM5/OTczNzQtYXJ0d29y/ay5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}