When her business partner asked how he should pay her, AnnaMarie Davis said she didn't want an hourly rate. She wanted equity. She was a college student who had been working in his studio for months, had never been paid a dollar, and didn't entirely know what equity meant. She ended up with 35%. AnnaMarie Davis is a partner at Audio and Recording, a commercial recording studio in Salt Lake City. She got there through competitive dance, door-to-door solar sales, two shipping containers she bought and returned, an investor dinner she walked into not knowing what an investor was, and a 2.5-hour phone call with a stranger named Eric. She is in her 20s. What she covers: → Age 12: dad lost his job, dance was too expensive — so she walked into the studio owner's office and negotiated her own free tuition by teaching tap and ballet and cleaning every studio after hours, without telling her parents → Knocking doors in Utah selling solar at 18, offering Girl Scout cookies as part of her pitch (she actually bought them) → Buying two shipping containers for $6,000 to build a DIY recording studio — then discovering that soundproofing and equipment would cost a fortune → Getting the prompting: "Don't bury your talents and don't let your friends bury theirs" — and realizing the music world was full of audio engineers who couldn't get jobs and artists who couldn't afford studios → A little girl at a dance recital, a dad who ran investor dinners, and the chain reaction that changed everything → Walking into Tyler Jennings' investor dinner, saying "I have no idea how to do this" — and getting put in 10 group chats and invited to four more lunches → A 2.5-hour first phone call with her future business partner Eric, not even remembering he owned a studio → Working in Eric's studio for three months for free before he offered to pay her — and saying no, she wanted equity instead → Earning equity benchmarks tied to revenue milestones, working her way to 35% ownership while still dancing at BYU → Vibe coding a custom booking system because no good scheduling software exists for music studios → Monthly jam sessions — poets, musicians, audiobook narrators, a random violinist, and one unforgettable rendition of Don't Stop Believin' — as the free event that drove all their word-of-mouth → Big artists signing the wall behind a mirror (so the signatures exist but can't be posted anywhere) — and the time she had a full conversation with a major artist and didn't know who he was until after 🔗 CONNECT WITH STU Instagram: @stu Website: https://startupswithstu.com 📌 CHAPTERS #entrepreneur #startups #founderstory #youngentrepreneur #recordingstudio #musicbusiness #womeninbusiness #saltlakecity #collegeentrepreneur #audioengineering