I’m pleased to announce that HAAWK has landed at No. 105 on the 2025 Inc. 500 Regionals Pacific list with 63% revenue growth from 2021 to 2023! Thank you to our amazing clients and team for this achievement. We’re proud to be among the fastest-growing companies in the Pacific region!
About Inc. Regionals
Inc. Regionals honor the fastest-growing private companies by region in the U.S. over a two-year period. These companies are driving real impacts in their home regions, contributing thousands of jobs and bringing in millions in revenue. They are dynamic growth engines on an upward trajectory — and nothing is as compelling as a success story.
Companies on the 2025 Inc. Regionals lists are ranked according to their percentage revenue growth over two years, from 2021 to 2023. To qualify, these companies must have been founded and generating revenue by March 31, 2021. Additionally, they must be based in the U.S., privately held, for-profit, and independent — not subsidiaries or divisions of other companies — as of December 31, 2023. The minimum revenue requirement is $100,000 for 2021 and $1 million for 2023. All honorees must pass Inc.’s editorial review.
(New York, NY – October 22, 2024) – SESAC Music Group announced today its acquisition of HAAWK, a media software and services company specializing in copyright management and monetization for independent music, film, television, and video catalogs.
HAAWK (Helping All Assets With Knowledge) provides full-service administration of YouTube’s Content ID system and Facebook’s Rights Manager platforms (including Instagram), serving a broad range of record labels, publishers, and music rightsholder clients. HAAWK will operate alongside Audio Salad as part of the artist and label distribution services segment of SESAC Music Group’s Music Services division.
“This is truly a dream come true. HAAWK already leads the way in providing unmatched opportunities and increased royalty revenue for our clients across YouTube, Facebook, and social video platforms. By partnering with SESAC Music Group, we’re opening the door to even greater possibilities, enabling us to scale globally and offer more advanced royalty collection and administration services to our clients,” said Ryan Born, Founder & CEO of HAAWK.
“HAAWK’s mission aligns with SESAC Music Group in delivering maximum value and transparency to music creators. Their leadership and technology strengthen our services for independent labels and publishers worldwide,” shared John Josephson, Chairman and CEO of SESAC Music Group.
“We’re thrilled to welcome HAAWK to our Music Services portfolio, enhancing our comprehensive asset management and royalty collection services for independent labels and publishers globally,” added Malcolm Hawker, COO of SESAC Music Group.
HAAWK’s headquarters will remain in Los Angeles under the leadership of Ryan Born, who founded the company in 2017. The company has earned repeated recognitions on the Inc. 5000 and Deloitte Fast 500 rankings for its rapid growth in media and technology.
SESAC Music Group is a global, multi-line music company that provides a wide range of data, technology and services to publishers, songwriters, composers, and creators across every corner of the music industry. With its four divisions including Performing Rights, Music Services, Audiovisual Music, and Church Resources, SESAC Music Group drives efficiency in licensing for music users and is home to a wide array of world-class music companies. Learn more at sesacmusicgroup.com.
HAAWK, Inc. is a media software and services company specializing in managing and monetizing the copyrights of independent music, film, television, and video catalogs. The company provides copyright monitoring and monetization tools to assist creators in maximizing earnings on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and other UGC platforms. Signature services include best-in-class YouTube Content ID and Facebook Rights Manager administration, SaaS products for independent video creators to legally and affordably access micro-sync music, publishing administration, and digital music distribution. HAAWK’s roster of clients includes independent music producers, record labels, publishers, songwriters, composers, TV/film studios and production music libraries.
HAAWK, Inc. Ranks #1957 on the 2024 Inc. 5000 With 266% Revenue Growth Over Three Years
Attributes 266% Revenue Growth to the continued proliferation of user-generated video content
Los Angeles, CA, August 13, 2024 — HAAWK, Inc. (“HAAWK”) today announced it ranked number 1957 on the 2024 Inc. 5000, a ranking of the 5000 fastest-growing companies in the United States of America. HAAWK achieved 266% 3-year revenue growth to achieve this milestone. In addition, HAAWK ranked as the USA’s #16 fastest-growing company in the media category, #119 in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA area, and #303 in California. This is the third time HAAWK has made the Inc. 5000 list in the company’s history.
HAAWK chief executive officer, Ryan Born, credits the continued proliferation of user-generated content (UGC) with the company’s 266% revenue growth. He said, “Capturing more watch time than ever before, UGC remains a high-growth segment within both media production and consumption. Music remains a primary focus and integral building block for YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and other UGC platforms. Since inception, HAAWK has been committed to building tools and services that assist music producers, labels, publishers, and video creators with UGC monetization. Our dedication to the creator community will continue to deliver growth.”
About HAAWK, Inc.
HAAWK is a media software and services company specializing in managing and monetizing the copyrights of independent music, film, and television catalogs. The company provides copyright monitoring and monetization tools to assist creators in maximizing earnings on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and other UGC platforms. Signature services include best-in-class YouTube Content ID and Facebook Rights Manager administration, SaaS products for independent video creators to legally and affordably access copyright-free music, and digital music distribution. HAAWK’s roster of clients includes independent music producers, record labels, publishers, songwriters, composers, TV/film studios, and production music libraries.
I recently connected with fellow entrepreneur Ryan Tansom for an interview on his podcast, Life After Business, to talk about my entrepreneurial journey – the failures, the successes, fundraising, changing business models, finding your stride, and more. You can listen to the full discussion here:
and here’s a nice summary (copy / pasted from the GEXP Collaborative Life After Business website):
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The co-founder of HAAWK, Inc. Ryan Born joins me for today’s episode. Before HAAWK, Ryan was the founder and CEO of AudioMicro, Inc. AudioMicro was a media rights management company. Its most successful venture was AdRev. Ryan explains what that service was and why he felt it worked.
We take the journey with Ryan through AudioMicro’s beginnings, the pivots, the changes in the media rights industry, and what life was like after AudioMicro changed owners. This episode is a great example of the struggle and the hustle many entrepreneurs face on a daily basis.
HAAWK monitors, monetizes, and enforces copyrights on user-generated video and audio platforms (YouTube Content ID, Facebook, Spotify, Apple Music, SoundCloud, and more). We’re building fresh technology to help bring accountability, transparency, and newfound revenue to today’s music and video rights holders. HAAWK was co-founded by myself and Ben Barger, an aeronautical engineer and operations specialist who headed up operations at our previous company, AdRev/AudioMicro, Inc..
HAAWK just closed it’s first round of funding, a $2.5M series seed round led by some of Southern California’s top VC firms and HAAWK recently acquired the assets of Dart Music, a music distribution and metadata company to help jumpstart our product offering and expand our distribution reach.
Ryan Born is the Founder & CEO at HAAWK, Inc., which ranked as the USA's #16 fastest growing media company on the 2024 Inc 5000 and was acquired by SESAC Music Group (Blackstone) in 2024. He is also the Founder & Former CEO of AdRev (AudioMicro, Inc.), a VC backed rights management and content licensing network, which was acquired by Zealot Networks in 2014-15 for $25M cash and which today is part of Downtown Music Holdings / FUGA. AdRev ranked as the USA's #5 fastest growing media company on the 2015 Inc. 500 (#162 overall, #5 in LA). Previously, Ryan was an investor in and VP of Finance for WireImage (acquired by Getty Images in '07 for $208M) and an angel investor in NewCondosOnline and InternetMarketingInc. He has been a guest lecturer at Emory University, UCLA, UCSB, Loyola Marymount and various industry conferences and events. Learn More.
