This West Chester rapper and developer is joining 500 Startups

In two years, Jarrett Abello went from power user on Rapt.fm to member of the founding team.

Abello, 31, has been rapping since he was 17. The former West Chester resident quickly became a power user on Rapt.fm, an online platform for rap battles. When he left his job as a front-end developer for Clique Vodka, he was invited to join the Detroit-based startup’s team as its senior front-end designer and “growth hacker in residence.”

After about eight months of working remotely, he’s now flying to San Francisco to join Rapt.fm’s cofounders at accelerator 500 Startups. (Abello even did a rap about the startup’s launch with cofounder Erik Torenberg.)

Abello was working remotely before 500 Startups but will most likely join the team wherever it settles after the accelerator, he said.

Where will that be?

It’s not yet clear. He said he sees the startup fitting well in Detroit, but he thinks the business will eventually have many headquarters, since their customer base is spread between the East and West coast, as well as Germany, Australia, U.K. and Egypt.

Read more about Rapt.fm on TechCrunch and FastCompany.