Ayla Kress
Founder + Creative Overlord
Ayla Kress, Founder & Creative Overlord at Brain Candy Management (BCM) and General Partner of Scrappy Capital, is a creative business strategist who works with emerging artists and disruptive startups. As a founder, Kress believes you must go beyond the traditional in all that you do - and encourages her clients to do the same. She has worked with dozens of artists from little bands to legends providing VIP experiences, growth strategies, content creation and more. In addition, she has assisted dozens of startups as an advisor, operator and investor, spanning several industries from packaging to music technology.
In 2016, Kress founded BCM with the goal to ignite innovation in the music industry through providing non-traditional creative development services to startups and up-and-coming artists in Nashville, TN. The following year, she joined the Scrappy Capital team as General Partner to develop a disruptive approach to VC Firms where she focuses on securing funding for music and entertainment based startups in emerging tech hubs such as Nashville.
Kress holds a B.A. in Film and Entrepreneurship from the University of Wisconsin - Madison in addition to an M.A. in Music Business and Audio Arts from Syracuse University. Kress believes in always paying it forward and does so through volunteering for Junior Achievement, advising for Student Startup Madness, and more.
