“You’ve got to combine the talent with the technology,” declares eSession’s CEO, Gina Fant-Saez.

This idea has obsessed her for more than a decade.  A studio owner and respected Pro Tools engineer and author of Pro Tools for Musicians & Songwriters, Fant-Saez has been an early evangelist of digital recording – not to mention an artist, songwriter and musician.

As a digital audio consultant to countless producers, engineers, songwriters and studios, Fant-Saez sanetlsw the growing trend that was making music production affordable and accessible to the masses. And now, the masses included the incredible talent that she had spent the last 20 years working with in her studio. No longer were these high caliber musicians flown around the world, put up at 5 star hotels while recording in large commercial studios and being paid top dollar by major record labels – the industry had changed -  many world-class musicians and engineers were now struggling to make ends meet – however they all had or were in the process of creating, personal studios. Fant-Saez put two and two together and came up with eSession.com, a concept allowing the public to hire these previously inaccessible talent members from their own studios and allow the site to handle all the financials and file transfers required between the client and talent. She explains, “it was just so obvious to me that the concept would be a huge win-win for both potential clients and talent.”

Her first step was finding a design firm and web development company who could embrace her vision. She chose David Landa and Mike Piliero of the New York-based multimedia design and branding house Coolbirth in the Fall of 2004 and working closely with Fant-Saez, they spearheaded the design and external construction of the site with their team of designers and programmers.  “They’ve been truly instrumental in the design and flow of the site. Coolbirth helped take a good idea and make it great. They are young and hip and innovative and they consistently deliver cutting edge work.” Fant-Saez volunteers.

Spending her career collaborating with other musicians, songwriters and working one on one with her clients, Fant-Saez now wanted to find the perfect partner to help her take eSession into the future.

She made a beeline to friend and esteemed producer/engineer, Kevin Killen. Best known for his work with Peter Gabriel, U2 and Elvis Costello, Kevin also recently garnered three Grammy’s for his work with Shakira.

Fant-Saez recalls, “When eSession was just beginning to take form, I really wanted a partner, someone to bounce ideas off of and someone with strengths that I lacked. There was sincerely only one person on the planet that I wanted to partner with and that was Kevin. I’ve known Kevin for 10 years now. Not only is he a brilliant producer and engineer, but he is someone who I deeply trust and respect and who I know also has the trust and respect of the entire music industry. From musicians, fellow engineers, management, labels etc, Kevin’s reputation in the industry has really made people take notice of what we’re doing and his experience, input and insight has been invaluable in creating this site.”

So, Fant-Saez in Austin, and NYC based Killen and Coolbirth’s Landa began the long arduous task of designing the eSession work flow and creating flow charts for the entire site. “We three spent almost 6 months on conference calls while dragging and dropping documents to each other using chat apps. I initially thought eSession was just going to be a simple web site. What I slowly realized is that we were creating a web application – we were actually developing software. When I started this, I was so naïve, I really didn’t understand the difference.” Fant-Saez confesses.

A chance knock on her studio door in November of 2004 turned out to be one the most fortunate days for Fant-Saez and eSession.com. Phoenix Conservatory graduate Ryan Chahanovich had flown to Austin, found Gina’s studio in the Texas Hill Country, somehow made it past the electric gate and six barking labrador retrievers to knock on her studio door and proclaim, “I have come to work for you for free.”

Fant-Saez admits to putting Chahanovich through a grueling trial internship. “I’m hard to impress but Ryan impressed me immediately and I decided to give him a shot and put him through what I now call Studio Boot Camp.  I tested him in every way possible. After 3 months working him 12 and 15 hour days, he never tired or lost enthusiasm, he consistently gave anything he did 150%. So then I started giving him tasks on eSession. He took to the site immediately. Like me, he was enamored with the talent members who were signing up and I noticed that when they called and needed help signing up, Ryan had an immediate camaraderie with anyone who called. By the end of the call, the talent member was sold on eSession and Ryan. So, in January 2005, I officially hired him, put him on salary and after two years of hard work putting up with me, he is now eSession’s Director of Talent Relations. The talent members love him and trust him. When a talent member signs up, it’s Ryan’s job to validate their credits and help them create and maintain their profiles. He has been my right arm for two years now and is a crucial part of creating eSession. I am so grateful he took the initiative to knock on my door.”

In March 2005, eSession.com was opened so talent members could begin signing up and creating online profiles. Fant-Saez began calling longtime friends and colleagues such as Tony Levin, Jerry Marotta, Pat Mastelotto, Mark Egan, Mike Barbiero etc. They wholeheartedly supported Fant-Saez, signed up enthusiastically and gradually word of mouth traveled as more and more musicians and engineers started signing up. “We require 15 major label credits to be part of our talent database and we still get signups almost every day now. We hope to launch eSession with around 600 talent members in 2007” says Fant-Saez.

With a solid workflow and flowcharts of eSession defined and solid graphic designs created by Coolbirth, the next step in creating a commercially viable version of eSession was to hire a company to develop the software.

Fant-Saez says candidly, “We made so many mistakes in our first year.  We kept hiring the wrong companies to program this site. No one shared our belief that form should equal function. Their view was ‘as long as it works, who cares what it looks like’. This drove me nuts and I butted heads with countless software development companies until finally I met Brian Vetter, former CTO of Austin-based Motive.com. He took me under his wing and explained, ‘Gina, you need to build your own internal team of programmers.’ I was terrified at first. How would a Pro Tools geek and musician manage a team of software developers? Brian convinced me that I was up for the task and that eSession was worth the effort.”

So, Fant-Saez let go of the company developing the site and started a team from scratch. Brian Vetter made a call to Motive’s former Chief Architect, Duke Browning and explained the eSession concept. Knowing Duke was a rare breed – an architect and brilliant programmer with a keen eye for design, Vetter hooked them up and after one meeting, Fant-Saez knew that eSession had its perfect Chief Technological Officer.

“Duke is the missing ingredient that has kept this site from launching so far. We always had a great concept and a great design, but without the engine to move the car forward, it didn’t matter how cool the car looked from the outside, it had to move and move fast and efficiently. Duke is making that happen. He has the technical knowledge, experience and strict design aesthetic to make this company a success. I am honored he accepted this position. ” says Fant-Saez.

Browning explains, “I've done software startups before, and the really difficult part is not the technology -- it's getting interest, building the user base, and understanding what people want.  eSession was already way ahead on those fronts.  Building software systems is relatively straightforward, I can handle that.  It was the culture, passion, intelligence and imagination of Gina, Kevin and eSession as a company that made me jump onboard and want to be part of this.”

Fant-Saez “I feel like we finally have the team in place that we have always needed. The energy and efforts from everyone we have hired is so inspiring. I am so grateful that all of these talented people have taken a leap of faith and believe in this idea as much as I do.”

eSession is slated to launch in Q1 of 2007 and hopes to make a huge positive impact on the music industry and the quality of music as a whole.