Sherry Saeedi, Mark Hoppus & Nick Lippman Launch Venture Capital Music Startup Verswire 

Veeps co-founder Sherry Saeedi, blink-182 founding member and lead vocalist Mark Hoppus, and veteran music manager and Lippman Entertainment Partner Nick Lippman have teamed up to launch venture capital music startup Verswire, which is being called a game-changing new model that is led by artists and for artists.

Founder Saeedi is CEO of Verswire, with Lippman named as partner and Hoppus serving as partner of A&R. Fall Out Boy founding member and bassist Pete Wentz is on board as a strategic advisor while Myia Ingoldsby holds the role of Director of A&R and Branding. The team also includes several music veterans as advisors and investors including Kevin Lyman, founder/operator of the Kevin Lyman Group and founder of the Warped Tour Founder, and tour manager Gus Brandt (who has worked with Hoppus and Foo Fighters).

“The countless tech solutions that allow artists to make extra money have merely been a bandaid, while no one has fixed the root of the problem: that unfavorable deals do not allow artists to make money or own their music,” Saeedi said in a statement. “In witnessing my closest friends put on the back-burner or trapped within the deals they signed while going bankrupt, I didn’t feel like anyone out there was providing the right solution to artists, but rather an iteration of the same archaic business model we’ve seen fail artists time and time again. I decided to build Verswire with an incredible team to re-envision the industry and provide musicians with an alternative that’s truly created with their well-being and careers as the priority.”

She adds, “Seeing documentary after documentary about multi-platinum, arena-selling artists coming forward with their experiences of unfavorable label deals. I was tired of hearing the same horror story over and over again: that musicians are struggling to make a dime off their work, while their label partners rake in millions.”

Verswire’s official launch was announced today, coinciding with the release of the new single “Assassin” by the startup’s debut signing, pop punk/rock band Beauty School Dropout. The Los Angeles-based trio also released an official video for the tune, featuring appearances from Hoppus, Wentz and Paris Jackson.

“I am very excited to help build a new way for bands and artists to create music for communities, while retaining ownership of their work,” Hoppus says.

Lippman adds, “The artist and label relationship needs to be a symbiotic partnership in order to garner absolute success. Verswire is the culmination of this ideology and something I’m proud to be a part of.”

Finally, Wentz says, ““I’ve been a fan of Sherry and the work she’s done for years, and look forward to being part of Verswire’s journey.”

Saeedi was honored as part of Pollstar‘s 2021 Impact 50 list.

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