About laavi: Built by a
20-Year DJ Industry Veteran
DJ. Founder. Builder.
Alex Nepa is a Penn State Computer Science grad ('01), 20+ year DJ industry veteran, and the founder of both Mint DJ & Event Group (one of central Pennsylvania's largest entertainment companies) and laavi, the all-in-one platform he built to solve problems he lived with for two decades.
He's an active member of DJ Think Tank, a day-one member of The DJ Collective, and co-founder of the now-defunct Nightlife Media Labs.
From fraternity parties to full-time DJ
A northeastern Pennsylvania native, Alex headed to Penn State in 1997 and enrolled as a Computer Science major. DJing started almost by accident. He began spinning fraternity parties with no formal training, just a deep love for music and the energy of a live crowd.
What was supposed to be fun side money quickly became something more. After graduating, Alex landed a CS job and promptly got fired. Rather than scramble for another desk job, he made a decision that would define the next two decades: go all-in on DJing with no backup plan.
"Being a DJ allows me to be like a conductor of energy for other people."
From Local Motion to Mint DJ & Event Group
Alex joined Local Motion DJs, working under Dan Myers, entrepreneur and owner of statecollege.com and Onward State. Myers became a mentor, teaching Alex the business fundamentals that most DJs never learn: operations, sales, hiring, and scaling.
Eventually Alex bought Local Motion and rebranded it as Mint DJ & Event Group, headquartered in Boalsburg, just outside State College, PA. Today Mint handles 500+ events per year across weddings, corporate events, nightlife, photo booths, and full event production.
One of Alex's key innovations was pioneering an agency model where clients personally select their DJ ahead of time. No more getting an unknown performer assigned the day of the event. That transparency became a competitive advantage that reshaped how the company operates.
Mint holds a 5.0 rating on WeddingWire with 174 reviews and is a multi-year WeddingWire Couples' Choice Award winner.
From college bars to main stages
Alex has shared stages with artists including Tiesto and Sean Kingston, and served as Entertainment Director at Indigo (now The Basement on College Avenue), holding one of the longest DJ residencies in the country.
From 2007 to 2014, Alex also produced and released remixes under the CVRBND moniker, becoming a top seller on CrooklynClan.net, one of the premier DJ remix and edit platforms in the industry. His production work earned a dedicated following among working DJs worldwide.
He's produced events for Penn State football, including private events for head coach James Franklin, and has been a fixture in central Pennsylvania's nightlife and event scene for over two decades.
"The artistry in DJing is being a slave to the crowd while still being true to yourself."
A CS degree comes full circle
Running a multi-op entertainment company for 20 years meant living with the same pain every entertainment business owner knows: tools that are embarrassingly outdated, or having to hack together five different apps that don't talk to each other, doing everything manually.
Alex's computer science background never went away. It sat in the back of his mind while he ran Mint, watching the gap between what DJ companies needed and what existed on the market grow wider every year.
laavi is the platform he wished existed. From lead capture and sales automations to proposals, e-sign contracts, and online payments. Client planning tools that flow directly to the admin portal and DJ. A DJ portal for staff communication. AI features with brand voice upload. Everything connected, everything customizable, data secure.
Built with AI. Engineered by experience.
Records didn't kill DJs. CDs didn't kill DJs. MP3s and Serato didn't kill DJs. Every generation of technology made great DJs better and gave them more creative control. The tools changed. The talent didn't. AI-assisted development is the same evolution — for software.
laavi was built using AI-assisted development tools. In an industry where "vibe-coded" gets used as a dismissal, here's the reality: AI is a force multiplier, not a substitute for knowing what you're building.
The difference between AI slop and a real product is the person directing it. Alex brings a CS degree from Penn State, 20+ years running a company that does 500+ events a year, and a decade of watching every CRM on the market fail to solve the actual problems. The architecture, data modeling, UX flows, and business logic come from lived experience. AI accelerates the execution.
laavi isn't a hackathon prototype. It's production-grade: role-based access control, secure authentication, Stripe-integrated payments, automated workflows, a three-portal architecture. Every feature exists because it solves a problem Alex dealt with personally. The tools don't define the product. The builder does.
The personal side
Alex is a husband and dad, a lifelong music nerd, and a self-described coffee addict. He met his wife at Indigo (now The Basement on College Avenue), the same venue where he held one of the longest DJ residencies in the country. They live in central Pennsylvania.