Ball State University senior and Indianapolis resident Von Storm has encountered his fair share of obstacles as a filmmaker in the last 10 years. But, he found none more cumbersome than the process of licensing music for film.

So, he created License Guru.

“I discovered that getting the rights to use a song in a film can take as long as a year,” Storm said. “My venture, License Guru, automates this process by analyzing a record label’s previous licenses to algorithmically determine fair quotes for new license requests.”

With the creation of License Guru, record labels will no longer have to manually quote each and every filmmaker’s request from scratch, and filmmakers will experience an easier and more timely process for licensing music.

After developing License Guru, Storm sought funding from the first round of “pre-seed” grant funding offered through the Entrepreneurship Center at Ball State. The grants, which are designed to empower young entrepreneurs in the early-stages of venture creation and development, were awarded to four applicants in March.

For Storm, the grant funds of $1,900 will help him finance the development of License Guru’s software.

“Ball State’s Entrepreneurship Center has helped connect me with entrepreneurs and alumni that have mentored me throughout the development of my business plan,” he said. “In the long term, I hope that License Guru becomes the industry standard for quoting music licensing requests.”

As for his own long-term aspirations, Storm hopes to work for a record label and to become a full-time record producer.