Murfie is a modern take on the neighborhood record store. Our Madison, Wisconsin based team works out of offices and warehouse space located downtown on the Capitol Square. We’re growing quickly, with a staff of 45 people: a dynamic crew of music lovers, caffeine addicts, technophiles, audiophiles, geeks, de-clutterers, and music buffs who make kits, answer emails, program to improve our site, catalog discs, recycle, move boxes, whatever it takes to make the Murfie hive hum. We’re just a bunch of music lovers helping humans discover new music through other humans’ awesomely curated collections.
The Murfie universe currently has over 4,300 members with an inventory of 175,000 discs and an average of 8,000 discs added every week. Every disc in our warehouse belongs to a Murfie member, which makes our operation extra special. When you buy another member’s disc, or see a collection, there’s a person behind it, and we think that’s pretty cool.
A Sound Investment
Murfie was founded in May 2011, by Matt Younkle and Preston Austin. Younkle’s product development achievements include the first food ever to be grown in space and Turbo Tap, the world’s fastest retrofittable beer tap. Austin brings to the table over two decades of experience in emerging technology.
In January 2012, Murfie closed a funding round of $1.4 million, which gives us a solid foundation to forge ahead with new phases of development. The funds will help us scale up our technical and operational infrastructure as well as sharpen up our marketing initiatives. There are nearly 2 million businesses created in the United States every year, and only 600 to 800 get venture capital funding.
Murfie has the distinction of being one of 13 companies chosen from hundreds of applicants for TechStars, a program considered to be the top start-up accelerator in the world. Murfie has been featured on National Public Radio’s “All Tech Considered,” in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times Green Blog, PCWorld, as well as received mentions in Fast Company, Springwise and Daily Disruption.
