V (Five) Questions for Veteran Small Business Owners Featuring Broderick Neel-Feller, Founder of Jammin’ Together

November 5, 2021

To commemorate National Veterans Small Business Week (November 1-5, 2021), an initiative of the U.S. Small Business Administration and the Office of Veterans Business Development, and also celebrate National Veterans And Military Families Month (November 2021) AAEDC is publishing an interview series that highlights some of the many great Veteran-owned businesses in Anne Arundel County:

“V (Five) Questions for Veteran Small Business Owners”

Heading into a weekend in always music-filled (or shall we say jam-packed) Anne Arundel County, our second Q & A features Broderick Neel-Feller, Co-Founder and CEO of Jammin’ Together.

 

What’s the name of your business and how did you come up with the name?
The name of our business is Jammin’ Together. Matt Feller jams together with other musicians and this was the original idea of the business. We initially were looking at simply connecting musicians with other musicians to jam together and have jam sessions. After doing some product research, we discovered that the bigger issue is helping artists and bands get gigs. We still felt the name was appropriate and look forward to helping the local music community.

What does your business do and what motivated you to start it?
Jammin’ Together connects local bars and restaurants with local musicians and promotes their shows. Matt Feller is a local professional musician and he expressed his frustrations about how hard it was to connect with local artists to simply play with him. My non-musically inclined self thought that was ridiculous with everything the internet has to offer. It turns out that I was wrong and we found a bigger problem than we had expected especially in regards to booking.

If you had to name just one, what quality or skill from your service most applies to being a small business owner?
The Navy and the submarine community in particular taught me to not settle for something at face value and attempt to understand the reasoning behind things. I’ve found myself constantly asking why things are the way they are in order to find ways to improve them. Having a research mindset and collecting data on this problem truly opened my eyes to what exactly our solution needs to be to help local bars, restaurants, and artists.

What aspect of your business are you most proud of/what’s your favorite part of running it?
I love working with my brother and working with small businesses in the community. While on sea duty, I was based in Seattle, WA which was three time zones away from my brother. With the distance and sea time, my relationship with my brother suffered. Starting this has forced us to communicate more and our relationship has never been better. It’s funny when an hour into a “business meeting” we’ve simply been catching up and talking about everything but business. Also, being able to support the local community and the small businesses that really bring a community together is extremely rewarding.

What’s the top piece of advice you’d give a veteran who’s thinking about starting a small business?
Don’t be shy and reach out to those that are in your field or have also started a business. My brother and I had no idea what we were doing at first, but I got accepted into Project Opportunity which helps veterans, active duty, and military spouses start their own business. From there, the networking connections and resources really opened up. We wouldn’t be where we are today without our early mentors and those at Project Opportunity.

 

To learn more about Jammin’ Together, visit: https://jammintogether.com/

To learn more about Project Opportunity, visit: https://www.project-opportunity.com/

To learn more about AAEDC’s Inclusive Ventures Program – an initiative that aims to help small and minority-, women-, and Veteran-owned businesses in Anne Arundel County succeed and grow by providing their owners with the resources that early-stage entrepreneurs so often lack: business education and training, access to capital, and mentorship – visit: https://www.aaedc.org/minority-business/

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