Mentor Session: Vanessa Ferrer (Merch Cat)

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  "publish_at": "2026-01-16T10:00:00.000-06:00",
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  "date": "2026-03-15",
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      "details": "Vanessa Ferrer is the founder and CEO of Merch Cat and has been a successful businesswoman for over 15 years in finance and the music business.  Armed with the heart of an artist, the belief that she could make a difference, and the drive to make it happen, Ferrer founded InFocus Artist Management in 2009. After managing several touring clients and consulting for high profile industry professionals, she realized a market need for emerging artists and their business teams. Using her multi-faceted background, she developed and launched Merch Cat (http://www.merchcat.com), a musician friendly platform for artists to sell and manage merchandise at live shows. Following on Merch Cat, Ferrer launched Merch Cat FAN, a connected direct to fan app to help artists further capitalize on the artist-fan connection driven merch opportunities at live shows.\r \rBeing passionate about education, Ferrer has participated in over 30 speaking engagements about merchandise as an artist revenue stream, fan engagement, and other music business interests at SXSW, Music Biz, AmericanaFest, A2IM Indie Week, and more. Ferrer is a member of the Recording Academy (NARAS) and Women In Music.",
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  "description": "Meeting with this mentor is highly recommended if you're interested in Music Tech, Merchandise, Startups.",
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