Townsend Labs was founded by Chris Townsend and Erik Papp.

Erik led Summit Audio for ten years as CEO and owner before the company was acquired by Blue Microphones. Summit produces high-end mic preamps and other outboard gear. At Summit, Erik also launched and distributed various products including the Lauten line of microphones and the Bricasti reverb.

Previously, Chris worked at Avid (parent company of Digidesign) for 13 years doing DSP programming for Pro Tools and related software plug-ins. He was also a key developer of the Eleven guitar amplifier modeling and the ReVibe room modeling technologies.