Student entrepreneur’s creation came from a vision to solve her own problem

Young entrepreneur Kiley Grimes became a business owner in October, and she hasn’t even graduated college yet. Her business, Soundcheck Practice Studios, is a practice space for local musicians to record and perform their music. It’s located at 110 Orr Street in Columbia’s North Village Arts District.

Still a student at the University of Missouri, Grimes said she had the idea for the project since last December when she was struggling to find a space to practice piano. She recalled that her father is a musician, and he used their home’s basement as a practice studio. Her dad is now using a storage unit to practice with his band back in their hometown, and that idea clicked for Grimes during her involvement with the Entrepreneurship Alliance at MU. The business accelerator program was capped by a pitch competition.

Grimes said she first conceived Soundcheck as a recording space for solo musicians, like herself. However, while doing customer discovery for her business, she realized that bands may use the space more often because of their need for recording space. Grimes said that she also talked with music instructors, who expressed unhappiness with the music shops where they are currently teaching.

“I’m excited,” Grimes said. “And I hope that this is the start of a kind of music renaissance. I know that sounds cheesy. But I think that musicians deserve better. Musicians give so much to the world, and we need to be giving back to them in a bigger way.”

Originally, her name for the business was the Music Den, but she had to pivot because that name was already trademarked by a business in New Jersey. Grimes said the name change occurred late into the project, after she had already won the seed funding, signed a lease, and started moving into the location. She had to find an official name before she could go into social media and general marketing.

She came up with the new name, Soundcheck, after brainstorming with her father.

“I honestly didn’t want to change the name from Music Den to Soundcheck at all,” she said. “I think it took me so long because I was internally battling with myself — I was really stubborn about it. But I think in hindsight, Soundcheck is a better name. Maybe the whole name change thing was just a sign from the Universe: you can have a better name than this.”

October was a big month for Soundcheck. The official ribbon cutting was on October 9, the grand opening house show was on October 12, and its first official day of business was on October 14. Grimes said her goal for November was to find her target audience by going to a lot of music gigs and meeting with musicians and instructors at the college and high school levels. From there, she wants to host more house shows and open the studio to non-musicians as well, such as podcasters trying to record their content.

“I see many possible events in this space,” Grimes said. “I’ll be nailing down some events that I want to do, nailing down my target market, and my frequent customers.”

Grimes is set to graduate from MU in May 2025. She is currently taking online classes, which allows her to have the time to balance her other work and to pursue her dream of becoming an entrepreneur — though she didn’t expect that would happen while she was in college.

“I’m extremely grateful that I can comfortably say, ‘No, I’m not going to their career fair (at MU). I’m going to work for myself,’” she explained. 

After graduation, Grimes will work to make Soundcheck her full-time job.

“I can’t see myself working full-time for someone else,” she said. “I think I really want to take this full-time and make it bigger.”

She hopes to open a second location within a year.

“That’s the plan,” she added. “And, at this rate, I think we might just pull it off. We’ll see. I’m going to have to eat Ramen noodles for a while. That’s okay. Doesn’t every founder have a Ramen noodle phase?”

In addition to her work with Soundcheck, Grimes said that she has internships with EquipmentShare and Redbud VC. She is also the president of Mizzou Collegiate Entrepreneurs Organization (CEO). Grimes said that she loves meeting other student entrepreneurs and tries to mentor as many as she can. For entrepreneurs, she said that being a college student is a big “superpower,” as other people are more willing to help them.

For her advice to other potential entrepreneurs, Grimes recommends keep going and not give yourself time to doubt your idea.

“Be ridiculously optimistic, that’s the first thing,” she said. “Be optimistic about what you are capable of.” 

From there, she said, entrepreneurs need a support system.

“I’ve never started a business before, I don’t know what I’m doing,” she said. “But it’s the fact that I’m surrounded by people who do know kind of what I’m doing, where I’m going; they’re able to help guide me in the right direction.” 

Grimes recommends that entrepreneurs forge close ties with their banker, go to local networking events, and talk to a variety of sources to discover a customer base — and keep everyone’s phone number for follow-up conversations. Furthermore, she said, it’s important to surround yourself with people who are smarter than yourself and know more about entrepreneurship.

“Be super optimistic, because you can do it if you believe in yourself,” she said. “If you don’t believe yourself, that’s just like downhill from there.”

During the opening house show on October 12, two bands were featured. One of those bands was The January Lanterns, an American indie-folk-pop band founded by the husband-and-wife duo, Andrew and Kristen Camp. Grimes describes the Camps as being like a big brother and sister to her, having helped her practice for her pitch competitions.

The Camps said they first met Grimes six months ago when she came to their studio to do market research for her project. Grimes asked them questions about what musicians might need in a practice space.

“We were on board from the moment that we met her,” Kristen said. “She just has a special spark that is really awesome.”

Kristen and Andrew said that they would help support Grimes in the future with the project, including assisting her with how the space is used, and the musical equipment, and addressing the needs of the bands in Columbia and the surrounding area. 

“A lot of times, it’s tricky for bands to practice all together,” Kristen said. “Because you need a sound system, and then you have to set it all up every single week. It’s a big task. And so to have everything set up and ready to go in a safe, clean space is huge.”

Andrew said that having a safe space for bands to record is important and it allows them to not be frustrated before they start practicing.

Kristen described Soundcheck as an “innovation” for Columbia.

“Honestly, there is no space like this in Columbia,” she said. “It’s a new concept, and I think it’s going to be an amazing concept for Columbia.”