We're called the Next Big Sound, and we launched last August, but we're switching gears totally
to create something more valuable.
User feedback is crucial.
We've kind of zoned in on one user in particular, and that's the band manager, so that these
are people we can get on the phone each week who have a high amount at stake.
The Next Big Sound, they had moved off their original model, which puts you in a dangerous
place as an entrepreneur sometimes because you can lose motivation and focus, but they've
really just come out strong with a new model that they're pursuing right now, which I'm
really impressed with.
Well, everybody here is impressed.
Yeah, that's true.
They're just, they're impressive because I wish I was that impressive when I was 23.
Our new idea is basically track any band as they grow in popularity online and over time,
and so initially, we're going to target band managers with multiple bands under management,
and track players, views, fans and mentions, pulling data from sites like MySpace, Last
FM, YouTube.
So this guy manages five bands, he's in San Francisco, so he's really tuned into the
online music world.
He's going to play around with it, give us his feedback, and that's exactly what we
need.
I think we finally are right about at the point where we're arriving with a fit in the
marketplace with our product.
My wife Jill is actually working on a startup of our own.
We're having a baby.
Raleigh was brought into this world on Tuesday.
Raleigh is probably the most technologically advanced newborn ever.
He already has a Twitter account.
I'm pretty sure he has a Flickr account.
I think he already has a blog.
We're taking a picture to go in a little onesie for Raleigh Cohen, who is the newest tech
star.
He is David's three-day-old son.
Welcome, Raleigh.
That's quite scary.
The jokes about him being the youngest founder and the newest, youngest tech star and all
these sorts of things are going to continue for the rest of his life.
So forever later, it's their first startup.
These guys learned how to program in the last six months, and they face a little bit of
a credibility gap there, but it's amazing watching them get over that with the mentors,
because they're really talented guys.
Our goal for the summer is by Investor Day have a live functioning product with all the
features that we're kind of envisioning.
Well, user feedback since we're a, you know, consumer media business is just absolutely
critical.
Ryan is a great community guy in developing our community and really responding to messages
and cultivating that group of passionate travelers on ever later.
So thanks so much, Tanya, for sitting down with me.
It'll be great to get feedback from somebody who's been using it a lot.
I've taken quite a few trips lately.
Right now, I'm working on a trip that I did just a month ago.
I got back from Russia.
Or what I came away with from the stuff that was left on the feedback thing today was that
maybe the category needs to be food.
But I like it being called what I ate.
There's definitely some things that I tried in Russia that I'll never have until I go
back there.
Yeah, yeah.
He just met with one of our power users, Tanya.
She's been in our pay-up program for quite some time, had some really valuable feedback
that she gave to Ryan.
Tanya's longtime friend of ours, he's joined us for the summer.
He's currently in the middle of his Wharton MBA.
Travel space is obviously very crowded.
How are you thinking you're going to make revenue?
So one thing we're going to do is definitely look into advertising just because it's a
natural fit for travel.
I think that those guys are super smart.
The challenge with media companies is to figure out, can you get enough people there?
Will it be a big hit or not?
So I think all the tech start companies kind of support each other and we've been using
each other's products too.
Like Sprye helps us actually manage the software development process, so a lot of teams have
been using that.
There's a lot of intersection where the products actually are beneficial to all the companies
where we've been trying them out, even if it's not in our space, giving feedback.
Yeah, we get that a lot.
I think that needs to be made bigger and bolder.
So understanding what you work on each day and what you're concerned about, you know,
set up a meeting with Brian, a really nice guy here in Boulder managing three bands and
part agent.
As an agent, yeah, you're now doing probably 90% of your work contacting venues or your
respective manager.
For managers in particular, we've gotten a lot of great feedback around, you know, how
smooth and simple the site is.
Holly and I had our first introduction on the sidewalk outside of Techstars.
I think he liked my business plan, but he was a little tough to read, so, you know,
we're hoping that he finds us at the end of the summer.
He's Techstar's class of 2034.
See that?
He's at the same stage as many of these startups.
He's in his infancy.
Can you come in, I think I'm drowning, my heavy heart inside is building, and I hold
on, I see you're floating.
He's been making big decisions with me.
He's a dad, I think I'm about to poop.
I think that's my first time.
