What do a fire-breathing rabbit, 3-D advertising and a downtown, modern office have in common? Belmont bred entrepreneurs Jake Jorgovan (’11) and Kevin Fulda (former Belmont student) would argue it’s a recipe for success. Rabbit Hole Creative, their brain child, backs up that theory.
Born in Jorgovan’s basement recording studio at the age of 15, Rabbit Hole, a name derived from Jorgovan’s interpretation of diving into the unknown, has undergone many changes in the few years it has been operating. From a pre-teen’s recording dream to a young adult’s multimedia design company, Rabbit Hole is making a name for itself.
A company unique to the music industry, Rabbit Hole takes creative multimedia design to a new level. It is not only an industry video company, but Rabbit Hole also specializes in tour design, logo development and specialized advertising.
Jorgovan recorded for Massey Performing Arts Center his sophomore year of college when he met Fulda, a lighting expert. The two were familiar with the Belmont environment and realized that if they would work together to record students’ senior recitals in high quality, then they could sell them for a decent amount of money. They decided to go for it, and the current version of Rabbit Hole was born.
Two years later, the two men have worked with top name clients like Dolly Parton, Cee Lo Green, Paramore, Nashville’s Live on The Green concert series and Cirque du Soleil.
Rabbit Hole is working on a new projection mapping project – a 3-D advertisement done on an innovative canvas, the flat surface of anything. The advertisement comes to life on a scale of 350 feet wide by 40 feet tall.
Jorgovan said the team had seen these types of advertisements done before in Europe but had never seen anything similar done in the U.S. There were no textbooks, theories or guidelines – they figured it out on their own.
Both Fulda and Jorgovan said that they couldn’t have gotten to where they are if it weren’t for the support they received from Belmont and professors who invested in what they’re doing. Dr. Jeff Cornwall, the director of the Center for Entrepreneurship at Belmont, meets with the duo monthly to discuss business decisions and offer his support of the company.
“Both of them [Jorgovan and Fulda] spent hours in our offices getting coaching, ‘just-in-time’ instruction and advice,” Cornwall said.
Cornwall said it’s those out of the classroom experiences that really matter.
“There’s a huge entrepreneurial mind at Belmont. It draws a certain type of person who wants to create – not people who want desk jobs. There’s also a healthy sense of competition that helped us learn our craft,” Fulda said.
It wasn’t easy creating such a company while still being full-time students, but it motivated family and fellow students to work for them for free.
Jorgovan was also aware that the industry they were interested in can be a difficult one to break into.
“Our motivation was realizing we weren’t going to get a job in the music industry so we made our own,” he said.
Rabbit Hole is featured on Belmont’s BeBelmont campaign website and is the newest Belmont billboard on the right side of Nashville’s I-65 Wedgewood exit.
The duo, with their dream-big mentality, sees Rabbit Hole taking on bigger projects.
“We want to be working on the best, most creative, biggest bands in need of creative materials. [We hope] when they think of the industry, they immediately think Rabbit Hole,” Jorgovan said.
