Born in Maryland at Prince George’s hospital
In 1968, Fenlon was born In Maryland at Prince George’s Hospital (now UM Capital Region Medical Center).
Moving on Up
Sean Fenlon ’90
Founder and CEO of Symphony42
Most people wouldn’t connect even a crooked line between playing bassoon and creating a business-to-business AI-powered customer acquisition service. But to serial entrepreneur Sean Fenlon ’90, they’re in perfect harmony.
“When you have to defend your doctoral dissertation in front of a committee of really smart professors, that gets you ready for the boardroom,” Fenlon says. “Analyzing an orchestral score and having to do transpositions in your head from alto clef to treble clef in real time and seeing how every line relates with every other line gets you ready to evaluate an income statement or a profit and loss statement.”
Fenlon’s first business is the only one (so far) that had anything to do with music. After that, he founded customer acquisition and online marketing businesses. His latest venture—Symphony42, the sales and marketing platform built on top of ChatGPT—may be his opus.
“From the beginning days of Listensmart.com all the way to the intersection of digital ads, performance marketing, lead generation and customer acquisition, we’ve combined that with this incredible world of AI,” he says. “This is the big one. All the other ones were just prelude.”
1968
1986
Enrolled at TU
“If you look at my arc as a bassoon player, the most improvement I made was during the years at Towson.”
1987
Studied with jazz legends Hank Levy and Greg Hatza
“They are two of the most amazing musicians in the world. I don't think I really appreciated the honor and privilege of being able to study with them both then.”
1990
Graduated from TU with a B.A in music
Fenlon purchased his first personal computer.
1993
Earned a Master’s Degree in Music
Fenlon earned a Master’s in Music at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore.
1995
Married his wife Teri ’89
Fenlon's wife Teri is a fellow TU graduate and bassoonist.
1999
Founded Listensmart.com
“I launched my first internet startup with the vision of allowing the independent artists of the world to put their music on the internet and build an audience.”
2001
Earned a Doctorate in Music at Johns Hopkins University and cofounded Theloanpage.com with Jason Goldsmith ’97
“We grew very quickly, and we got over $10 million in revenue and about $3 million in profit with around seven employees.”
2004
Started DoublePositive
Fenlon started DoublePositive, a customer acquisition and online marketing platform.
2011
Ernst and Young Entrepreneurs of the Year Award Winner
In 2011, Fenlon won the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award.
2015
Founded Meta42 and Abovo42
Fenlon founded Meta42, an online marketing platform focused on email, and Abovo42, a service that helps individuals publish on the internet by sending emails.
2022
Created Symphony42, an AI customer acquisition platform. Later that year, ChatGPT debuted and forced a total overhaul of Symphony42.
“It surprised us all. We knew this was 10 times better than anything that we were considering using. So we had to scrap the old product and rebuild on top of ChatGPT."
2024
Symphony42 projected to move from text interactions to AI voice interactions
In the second quarter of 2024, Symphony 42 is projected to move from interactions to AI voice interactions.
Tags: Alumni, Moving on Up