Meet Jack Schoonover

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jack Schoonover. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Jack, so great to be with you and I think a lot of folks are going to benefit from hearing your story and lessons and wisdom. Imposter Syndrome is something that we know how words to describe, but it’s something that has held people back forever and so we’re really interested to hear about your story and how you overcame imposter syndrome.

As someone without a formal degree in my field (electrical engineering), I felt like a fraud often, especially in the very early days. I still grapple with the feeling on occasion, but experience has taught me that when I feel like I’m in over my head, that’s usually a sign that I’m pushing myself and learning something new. The important thing to remember during these times (for me, anyway) is to be patient with my growth and not compare my journey to others’.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

As a small manufacturer of electronic musical instruments, I’m trying to sustain a business with something I am personally passionate about. I really enjoy the act of creating an object that people can use and interact with over time. If I do my job right, people with a SetonixSynth module or instrument get years of use from the item, but can also apply the ideas in my designs to other instruments as well. It’s very hard to achieve this, but through years of experimentation and feedback I”m starting to develop a unique vocabulary built around the creative arrangement of simple functional blocks.

For those on the West Coast, we will be displaying our latest designs and concepts in Los Angeles at an event called Buchla & Friends. This will be the official unveiling of a new analogue oscillator design and concept called the SkyWave, which has been impressing as a prototype at synth trade shows around the Northeast.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

– Constant willingness to learn the logistics of your business, even if the skill or work seems tedious. For me this mostly relates to marketing and social media promotion, but social media is how people learn about new products now so it’s important that I spend time on photography, video editing, and recording alongside the parts of the process I already specialize in and would sometimes prefer to do.

– Empathy with your customers: ultimately, your customers are the experts and even though their preferences may not always align with your own, it’s important to keep in touch with people using yours and your competitors’ products to see how their needs evolve over time. In the synthesizer community there tends to be yearly zeitgeists where demand for a specific type of module or concept quickly comes and goes, always giving rise to the next thing. So, keep talking to customers and industry peers and try to guess that next thing!

– Don’t cut corners on quality: while it may be good for a quick buck, your brand reputation suffers if customers don’t trust that care was put into the thing they spent money on, at least if there is reason to expect it. If you do your best to deliver good work and learn from your mistakes with your head up, customers will generally stick around.

How would you describe your ideal client?

A few of my closest friends and collaborators were clients first, usually with a less technical background but a lot of enthusiasm and strong opinions. These relationships can result in some really interesting discussions because they will ask questions with fewer inhibitions about what’s technically possible. So, my ideal synthesizer buying client is someone who enjoys the never-ending search for new ideas, and understands my commitment to this search as well.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Skye De Baets

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