Open Sesame Media, Inc.
B2B platform providing low-latency synchronized audio to app developers via patented SyncStage technology.
Website: https://www.opensesame.media
Cover Block
PUBLIC
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Name | Open Sesame Media, Inc. |
| Tagline | B2B platform providing low-latency synchronized audio to app developers via patented SyncStage technology |
| Headquarters | Marina del Rey, CA, United States |
| Founded | 2019 |
| Stage | Seed |
| Business Model | B2B |
| Industry | Media / Entertainment |
| Technology Type | Software (Non-AI) |
| Geography | North America (with German subsidiary) |
| Growth Profile | Venture Scale |
| Founding Team | Co-Founders (2): Julian McCrea, Steve Lyons |
| Funding Label | Undisclosed |
Links
PUBLIC
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/opensesamemedia
- AWS Marketplace listing: https://aws.amazon.com/marketplace/pp/prodview-hzl7vsqvgv3me
Executive Summary
PUBLIC
Open Sesame Media is a Marina del Rey-based seed-stage company commercializing SyncStage, a patent-pending audio pipeline that aims to deliver ultra-low-latency synchronized audio to application developers over 5G networks [LinkedIn] [AWS Blog]. The company was founded in 2019 by Julian McCrea and Steve Lyons and emerged from the USC Viterbi Startup Garage program, with a team that draws on prior experience at Sony, Nintendo, Sony Pictures, Disneyland and the BBC [Built In Los Angeles]. Its most concrete public proof point to date is a joint demonstration with Verizon and Amazon Web Services at AWS re:Invent 2023, in which the SyncStage platform was used to run a real-time remote music collaboration session over Verizon's 5G network using AWS Wavelength [Verizon, 2023]. The company's backers include Quake Capital Partners, Fuel, EvoNexus and Emerging Ventures, with the most recent disclosed activity being an undisclosed-size round logged in January 2023 [Tracxn, Jan 2023]. The SYNCSTAGE wordmark was registered with the USPTO under Serial Number 97260038 in October 2023, indicating a deliberate effort to build a defensible brand around the audio synchronization layer [Furm, 2023]. A German subsidiary, Open Sesame Media GmbH, has been registered in Cologne (HRB 103429), suggesting an early international footprint targeting European telecom and media partners [Northdata]. Over the next 12 to 18 months, the questions investors should track are whether the AWS and Verizon relationships convert into paid commercial deployments, whether SyncStage finds a defensible developer-platform niche, and whether the company raises a priced round to fund go-to-market beyond pilot work.
Data Accuracy: GREEN -- Confirmed by Verizon press release, USPTO trademark filing, AWS Marketplace listing, and multiple database profiles (Crunchbase, Tracxn, LinkedIn).
Taxonomy Snapshot
| Axis | Value |
|---|---|
| Stage | Seed |
| Business Model | B2B (developer platform / API) |
| Industry / Vertical | Media and Entertainment, Telecommunications-adjacent |
| Technology Type | Software (Non-AI), low-latency networking |
| Geography | North America HQ, German subsidiary in Cologne |
| Growth Profile | Venture Scale |
| Founding Team | Two co-founders, entertainment-industry backgrounds |
| Funding | Undisclosed seed and non-equity assistance |
Company Overview
PUBLIC
Open Sesame Media, Inc. was founded in 2019 by Julian McCrea and Steve Lyons and is headquartered in Marina del Rey, California [Tracxn] [Crunchbase]. The company describes itself as "a B2B platform and tools business making applications to increase social connection in the New Normal, using 5G technology" and identifies the USC Viterbi Startup Garage as its founding accelerator program [Built In Los Angeles]. Steve Lyons is listed as Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer in third-party directories [RocketReach].
The early company milestones that can be verified through outside sources are concentrated around its SyncStage product. In 2022 the company was selected as a Top 8 finalist in the HARMAN-XTC Startup Challenge held at the HARMAN Tech Forum, an event focused on connected audio technology [LinkedIn, 2022]. In 2023 the company executed a joint live demonstration with Verizon and Amazon Web Services at AWS re:Invent, using SyncStage over Verizon's 5G network and AWS Wavelength edge infrastructure to run a remote real-time music collaboration session [Verizon, 2023]. Later that same year, the SYNCSTAGE wordmark was formally registered with the USPTO (Serial Number 97260038, registered October 3, 2023) [Furm, 2023].
The company has also extended its corporate footprint into Europe. Open Sesame Media GmbH was registered in Cologne, Germany, under commercial register entry HRB 103429, with reporting suggesting the German entity is intended to support European business operations and partnerships [Northdata] [NRW.Global Business]. Capital structure is only partially disclosed publicly: Crunchbase records two rounds, the most recent of which is categorized as Non-equity Assistance, with Fuel and Quake Capital Partners listed as the most recent investors [Crunchbase].
Data Accuracy: GREEN -- Confirmed by Crunchbase, Tracxn, Verizon press release, USPTO via Furm, and the German commercial register via Northdata.
Product and Technology
MIXED
SyncStage is the company's core product and the asset around which all public technical claims are organized. The platform is described as a low-latency synchronized audio pipeline delivered to application developers, with a stated focus on enabling music collaboration, social audio, and other latency-sensitive multi-user experiences [LinkedIn] [PUBLIC]. According to AWS's own engineering blog, SyncStage is positioned as "a patent-pending platform providing low-latency synchronized audio over 5G to music creators" and is integrated with AWS Wavelength edge zones and carrier Quality of Service APIs to manage end-to-end latency [AWS Blog] [PUBLIC]. The platform is also listed on AWS Marketplace as a deployable component, branded "SyncStage - MainStage" [AWS Marketplace] [PUBLIC].
The most substantive technical validation in the public record is the November 2023 demonstration with Verizon and AWS, which routed a live multi-musician collaboration over Verizon's public 5G network and AWS multi-access edge infrastructure to achieve a synchronized playing experience between geographically separated performers [Verizon, 2023] [PUBLIC]. The architecture, as described jointly by Verizon and AWS, combines Verizon's 5G Edge with AWS Wavelength compute zones and the SyncStage audio sync layer, with carrier network APIs used to prioritize the audio session [AWS Blog] [PUBLIC]. The SYNCSTAGE trademark registration adds a brand-protection layer to the technical work [Furm, 2023] [PUBLIC].
Beyond these verified items, public information on the broader engineering organization, SDK surface area, paid-tier pricing, and customer roster is limited [PRIVATE inference about absence]. No active careers page postings were surfaced from major ATS hosts during research, so the technology stack cannot be inferred from job descriptions in this case. Investors evaluating the platform should ask directly for the SDK documentation, supported client platforms, current latency benchmarks under production load, and the list of paying developer customers.
Data Accuracy: GREEN -- Confirmed by Verizon, AWS Blog, AWS Marketplace, and USPTO trademark filing.
Market Research and Opportunity
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The market that matters for SyncStage is the intersection of real-time communications infrastructure, 5G mobile edge compute, and creator-facing collaboration tooling, three categories that have each attracted significant investment over the past five years.
Real-time communications as a developer-platform category has been defined publicly by companies such as Agora, Twilio, and Daily, all of which sell APIs that abstract latency-sensitive audio and video transport away from application developers. Open Sesame Media is targeting a narrower slice of that surface: latency low enough that musicians or other tightly-coupled performers can interact as if co-located, which is a meaningfully harder technical bar than the conversational latency tolerated by typical voice and video chat. The Verizon and AWS partnership demonstrates that the major US hyperscaler and at least one Tier-1 carrier view this use case as a credible showcase for 5G edge compute [Verizon, 2023] [AWS Blog].
Demand drivers cited by the partner ecosystem center on three tailwinds. First, the rollout of 5G standalone networks and operator-exposed network APIs (under industry initiatives such as CAMARA and GSMA Open Gateway) is making it possible for third-party developers to request prioritized network slices, which is the substrate SyncStage relies on [AWS Blog]. Second, hyperscaler edge offerings (AWS Wavelength, Azure Edge Zones, Google Distributed Cloud Edge) push compute closer to the radio access network, reducing the round-trip time floor that defeated earlier remote music collaboration attempts. Third, the post-pandemic normalization of distributed creative work has sustained demand for tools that allow musicians, podcasters, broadcasters and gaming communities to collaborate in real time across cities.
Adjacent and substitute markets are worth naming. WebRTC-based collaboration tools (including JackTrip Foundation's open-source stack and SonoBus) compete on the open-internet path; professional broadcast contribution networks (such as those built on AES67 or Dante) compete in studio settings; and consumer social audio platforms compete for end-user attention even if they do not solve the same engineering problem. Regulatory and macro forces include the pace of 5G standalone deployment by carriers, the willingness of operators to expose Quality of Service APIs at developer-friendly price points, and the competitive economics of edge compute capacity.
| Sizing reference | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Verified third-party TAM/SAM/SOM for ultra-low-latency audio APIs | Not publicly available in the cited research | Research engine |
| Public proof of carrier and hyperscaler interest | Joint Verizon and AWS demo at re:Invent 2023 | [Verizon, 2023] |
The analyst takeaway is that the addressable market for ultra-low-latency synchronized audio cannot yet be bounded with a credible third-party number in the public record, but the willingness of Verizon and AWS to co-market a live demo is itself a leading indicator that incumbents in 5G and edge compute see a category worth seeding.
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Demand-side tailwinds confirmed by Verizon and AWS publications; quantitative TAM not available from a named third-party report in the cited research.
Competitive Landscape
MIXED
Open Sesame Media is positioned as a developer-platform layer for latency-bounded synchronized audio, sitting between general-purpose real-time communications APIs and open-source remote music collaboration tools.
| Company | Positioning | Stage / Funding | Notable Differentiator | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Open Sesame Media (SyncStage) | B2B audio sync platform delivered over 5G and edge compute | Seed, undisclosed | Patent-pending sync layer; Verizon and AWS co-demo; SYNCSTAGE trademark | [Verizon, 2023]; [Furm, 2023] |
| Elk Audio | Low-latency audio operating system and collaboration platform for musicians | Privately funded, Sweden-based | Embedded real-time audio OS used in instruments and studio devices | [LeadIQ] |
| SonoBus | Open-source peer-to-peer low-latency audio streaming application | Open-source project | No commercial gating; community-driven cross-platform client | [LeadIQ] |
| JackTrip | Open-source and foundation-backed audio bridging for remote music ensembles | Foundation / non-profit and commercial offshoots | Long research lineage from Stanford CCRMA; widely used in academic music programs | [LeadIQ] |
The segment-by-segment map breaks into three groups [PUBLIC]. Incumbents in real-time communications APIs (Agora, Twilio, Daily) own the developer relationship for conversational audio and video but do not market a sub-conversational-latency audio product tuned for music. Open-source and academic projects (SonoBus, JackTrip) have credibility with musicians and educators but are not packaged as commercial APIs that an application developer can embed with an SLA. Specialized commercial players (Elk Audio) compete most directly on the technical promise of sub-perceptual latency, but Elk's center of gravity has historically been embedded device software rather than a pure cloud-delivered developer platform.
The place where Open Sesame Media has built a defensible edge today is the combination of a registered SYNCSTAGE brand, a patent-pending architecture, and a documented joint deployment story with both a Tier-1 US carrier and the largest hyperscaler [Verizon, 2023] [Furm, 2023] [PUBLIC]. That is a non-trivial moat for an early-stage company because it is exactly the kind of partnership reference that enterprise buyers and other carriers ask for before they will pilot. Whether that edge is durable depends on whether the patent issues, whether the Verizon and AWS relationships convert into a productized partnership program (rather than a one-off marketing demo), and whether SyncStage gets embedded into more than one carrier's developer offering. Each of those is perishable on a 12 to 24 month clock.
The most exposed flank is distribution to developers. Twilio and Agora reach hundreds of thousands of developers through documentation, free tiers and self-serve billing; SonoBus and JackTrip reach the musician community through open-source channels. Open Sesame Media does not yet have a publicly visible self-serve developer funnel of comparable scale, which means customer acquisition is likely to depend on enterprise and carrier partnerships rather than bottom-up adoption.
The most plausible 18-month competitive scenario is bifurcated. Winner if Verizon (or a second carrier) productizes SyncStage as part of a 5G developer offering: that distribution would be very hard for an open-source project to match and would let Open Sesame Media own the ultra-low-latency niche by default. Loser if WebRTC stacks plus commodity edge compute close enough of the latency gap that a generalist platform like Agora or Daily can credibly cover music-collaboration use cases without a specialized sync layer.
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Subject row confirmed by Verizon and USPTO sources; competitor rows drawn from the structured competitor set with limited public funding data per competitor.
Opportunity
PUBLIC
If SyncStage becomes the default audio synchronization layer that carriers and hyperscalers ship inside their 5G developer offerings, Open Sesame Media has a credible path to owning a small but strategically important piece of real-time communications infrastructure.
The headline opportunity. The single largest outcome this company could plausibly become is the embedded ultra-low-latency audio layer for 5G developer platforms, sold through carriers and edge clouds rather than directly to musicians. That outcome is reachable rather than aspirational because the cited evidence already shows the two most important channel partners (Verizon and AWS) co-investing marketing energy into a public demonstration of exactly that architecture [Verizon, 2023] [AWS Blog]. Carriers globally are searching for monetizable consumer-and-developer use cases for 5G standalone networks; an audio sync product that requires the network slicing and edge compute they are already building is a natural anchor tenant.
Growth scenarios.
| Scenario | What happens | Catalyst | Why it is plausible |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carrier-channel platform | SyncStage is bundled into one or more Tier-1 carriers' 5G developer programs as the recommended low-latency audio API | A formal commercial partnership extending the Verizon re:Invent demo into a productized SKU | Verizon and AWS already co-published the joint architecture [Verizon, 2023] |
| Creator-tools embed | A music-collaboration, podcasting or live-broadcast app embeds SyncStage as the underlying transport, generating per-session usage revenue | A flagship customer reference in the creator-tools space | The team's prior experience at Sony, Nintendo, Sony Pictures, Disneyland and the BBC gives plausible reach into media and entertainment buyers [Built In Los Angeles] |
| European telco beachhead | The Cologne subsidiary lands a Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone or Orange developer-program partnership and expands across EU operators | A pilot signed via the German entity Open Sesame Media GmbH | Open Sesame Media GmbH is already registered in Cologne (HRB 103429) and the company has signaled European go-to-market intent [Northdata] [NRW.Global Business] |
What compounding looks like. The flywheel that turns one win into the next is a partnership-and-standards loop. Each carrier or hyperscaler that productizes SyncStage gives the next carrier a reference architecture and reduces the integration risk of adopting it; each integrated developer customer creates a session-volume base that justifies the next carrier's network-slice investment; and each public co-marketing event (the Verizon and AWS re:Invent demo being the canonical example) shortens the sales cycle for the next. The patent-pending architecture and the SYNCSTAGE trademark together make it harder for a carrier to white-label a substitute without engaging with Open Sesame Media [Furm, 2023]. There is no public evidence yet that this flywheel has reached self-sustaining velocity, but the first turn of it (the Verizon-AWS demo) has been executed in public.
The size of the win. A useful comparable, though imperfect, is the public market capitalization of the broader real-time communications API category, where Twilio at scale built a multi-billion-dollar business on developer-distributed communications APIs. Open Sesame Media is not building Twilio: it is building a much narrower, latency-specialized layer that would more plausibly become a feature inside a larger platform than a standalone giant. A reasonable scenario, not a forecast, is that a successful execution of the carrier-channel scenario produces an outcome in the range of an infrastructure tuck-in acquisition by a hyperscaler, carrier, or RTC platform looking to own the ultra-low-latency audio category. That outcome would be small in absolute hyperscaler terms but a strong return on a seed-stage entry price.
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Scenarios anchored to confirmed Verizon, AWS, Northdata, and Built In Los Angeles sources; outcome sizing is explicitly scenario-based and not a forecast.
Sources
PUBLIC
[LinkedIn] Open Sesame Media, Inc. company page | https://www.linkedin.com/company/opensesamemedia
[Tracxn, Jan 2023] Open Sesame Media - Raised Funding from 4 investors | https://tracxn.com/d/companies/open-sesame-media/__P3aqP2QjhGtKxbTqYBnq07_I9vo71nk-4x6qkMT2S00/funding-and-investors
[Tracxn] Open Sesame Media - 2026 Company Profile, Team, Funding & Competitors | https://tracxn.com/d/companies/open-sesame-media/__P3aqP2QjhGtKxbTqYBnq07_I9vo71nk-4x6qkMT2S00
[Crunchbase] Open Sesame Media - Crunchbase Company Profile & Funding | https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/open-sesame-media-inc
[Crunchbase] Open Sesame Media - Financial Details | https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/open-sesame-media-inc/financial_details
[Crunchbase] Julian McCrea - Co-Founder @ Open Sesame Media | https://www.crunchbase.com/person/julian-mccrea
[Built In Los Angeles] Open Sesame Media Los Angeles Office: Careers, Perks + Culture | https://www.builtinla.com/company/open-sesame-media
[Startup Seeker] Open Sesame Media - Funding profile | https://startup-seeker.com/company/opensesame~media
[LinkedIn, 2022] Extreme Tech Challenge - Open Sesame SyncStage Promo 2022 | https://www.linkedin.com/posts/extreme-tech-challenge_open-sesame-syncstage-promo-2022-activity-7135542118546055168-piOn
[AWS Marketplace] SyncStage - MainStage on AWS Marketplace | https://aws.amazon.com/marketplace/pp/prodview-hzl7vsqvgv3me
[Verizon, 2023] Verizon & Open Sesame Media work with AWS to demo real-time remote music collaboration session | https://www.verizon.com/about/news/verizon-open-sesame-media-aws-collaboration-session
[AWS Blog] Remote Music Collaboration Using Multi-Edge Audio Sync and Network API | https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/industries/remote-music-collaboration-using-multi-edge-audio-sync-and-network-api/
[Furm, 2023] SYNCSTAGE Trademark of Open Sesame Media, Inc. - Serial Number 97260038 | https://furm.com/trademarks/syncstage-97260038
[LeadIQ] Open Sesame Media, Inc. Company Overview, Contact Details & Competitors | https://leadiq.com/c/open-sesame-media-inc/5e42d0bf626d3b6fe0c72c08
[VisualVisitor] Open Sesame Media, Inc. - Company profile | https://www.visualvisitor.com/companies/3792109/Open-Sesame-Media-Inc.
[Northdata] Open Sesame Media GmbH - German commercial register entry HRB 103429 | https://www.northdata.com
Articles about Open Sesame Media, Inc.
- Open Sesame Media Wants Every 5G Tower To Carry A Live Band — The Marina del Rey company's SyncStage platform is courting app developers who need musicians to play in time across cities.