Building acommunityfor musicmakersand novices

www.lisbon-challenge.com

Remidi:Buildinga communityfor music makersandnovices

Founders:Marco Casolati, Andrea Bulgarelli,

Alberto Forneris, Andrea Baldereschi, and Mark DeMay

HQ:Austin, US

Edition of Lisbon Challenge: 2015

The essence of what they do: A wearable device that turns the

human hand into a musical instrument, accompanied by an app that allows

any user, no matter musical background, to engage with, mix and create music.

Interviewee:Andrea Baldereschi (Founder & CEO)

The founder of remidi, andrea baldereschi, has accumulated years of experience in the music production industry, as well as mixing music himself.

As a DJ, he was striving to be more physical on stage, looking for new ways to interact with the crowd.He questioned why all instruments are an external extension of the body. This question, along with his fascination for technology, propelled him to experiment with the idea of an instrument closer to your own gestures, where your movements would be directly translated into music.

The idea of a sensor suite embedded into a glove was the result, allowing you to tap and alter sounds with the twist of your wrist. Andrea founded Remidi by recruiting four friends, all engineers, who believed in the project as strongly as he did.

Written byAmalie NaustdalCommunication Manager at Beta-i

Understanding what it takes There’s a huge difference between having an idea of a

product and having an idea of a business. The team was

fully committed to thex project and truly believed in the idea.

However, none of them knew how to turn it into a viable

business. They had no experience in the world of startups,

in funding or knew what it takes to build a company. After

one year, they had the prototype, but needed to develop

everything around that.

Lisbon Challenge was our first encounter with the world of startups

and helped us understand how to build a company. It was a huge

first milestone, and after that we evolved a lot.

The acceleration programme gave them insights into venture

capital and investments, what challenges they must prepare

to face, how to build a team and how to make themselves

credible, to gain the trust of consumers, investors and

collaborators.

Crossing the OceanAttending the Lisbon challenge helped them evolve quickly.

Andrea says it is a network that still supports them, makes

important introductions and helps them when they need it.

But most importantly, it helped them advance their business.

It helped us cross the ocean, which is by far the best place to go

if you want to meet crazy people with money, who believe in what

you do.

They went to the US to partake in another accelerator

programme, run by Techstars. Like Lisbon Challenge, they

created an environment and network to support them and

their development abroad. Yet, things are quite different in

the US. The main learning during their time at Techstars was

getting insight into the American mentality. There is a ‘huge

make money mentality’. It helped them realise that if you

want to run a startup you need to have cash.

Hardware vs. Software StartupsAndrea is astutely aware of the differences between a

hardware startup and a software startup. The difference lies

in the time and resources needed, which he declares to be

ten times higher to that of a software startup.

Our case is really different to 90-95% of other startups. They don’t

have the same issues with timings and waiting for 5-6 months before

you see the consequences of your actions.

Waiting months to see the implications of your actions can

get frustrating, but is also exciting. In their case, they are

crazy enough to do both hardware and software.

Kickstarter Two days after arriving in the US, they launched their

kickstarter fundraising campaign. Their goal was to get their

product out there as fast as possible. Getting it into the

hands of the people as soon as possible, or rather onto their

hands. Initially, they asked for 50,000 dollars, yet managed

to obtain 137,000 dollars. The kickstarter community helped

Remidi: Building a community for music makers and novices

them create the best possible campaign, placing them on

the homepage and mailing list, which helped to get the

funding needed. The campaign also allowed them to get

direct feedback from potential

customers. A key learning from the campaign is that it is a

great tool to validate your idea, but not a tool to convince

investors of your product. It is not a proof of market fit.

Don’t think that if you run a good crowdfunding campaign that the

investors will automatically jump in. The kickstarter campaign is a

spike in revenue, but what happens after that?

From prototype to customerThe hardest challenge faced by the team so far was turning

the prototype into a final product. To create a product

to be manufactured into hundreds of thousands of units

is something entirely different to the creation of an early

stage product, and the team lacked the

experience. Despite the challenge, they

recently shipped the first batch of 600

products to final customers.

The greatest satisfaction was hearing the feedback directly

from customers using the product. Hearing how much

they enjoy using the product. It is not only the artists and

consumers who are excited about their products. They have

also been featured in Wired, BBC and Mashable as an

exciting, new technology.

Creating the communityFrom the onset, they were appealing to people who already

had some knowledge of music with the RemidiT8, the glove.

They were getting emerging artists to use the glove, with more

than 20 artists onboard. Now they are pivoting into a new

strategy, where the app becomes the central component,

targeting anyone, no matter their prior understanding of

music. This allows people who have never made music

before to be part of a new movement, the democratisation

of music, and part of a larger community of music makers

and mixers. The community can drive the concept forward,

allowing them to voice what they want from the application

and the community, instead of assuming what the customers

want. The simplicity of the app, as well as being free, means

that anyone can join the community. Remidi has created a

space where people with different music skills can interact,

engage and produce music. The application brings together

a roster of artists, emerging producers and consumers to

upload their content for everybody to mix. It can work in

combination with the glove, but the glove is not necessary.

Want to be an entrepreneur?The message is clear. It is way harder than any other job,

so you have to love it. If you can’t give 120%, don’t do it,

because it is terribly hard and frustrating. What motivates him

to keep on going are the synergies created within the team,

which he believes to be the fuel for loving what you do

everyday. The love for music, comes on a close second, and

the feeling you get when you create something that is yours.

Plans for the futureAll available resources have been deployed for the production

of the product. Thus, it is difficult to find the resources to get

themselves heard in the market to get the market’s approval.

Their strategy called for artists to adopt the technology,

thereby converting consumers. When the

product was in the earlier stages it was

more difficult to convince artists to use

it, they needed to have a technology

explorer mindset. Now that the product

is finalised, it is easier to get the artists onboard. As a result,

they can now focus on positioning themselves in the market

and growing the community.

As for the future of the products, Remidi has several new

ideas in the pipeline for the range of customers, soon to

be revealed. They are working to make the app better,

making it more expressive and shareable. Creating more

features, better UX and UI to complement the hardware

in place. So far they have raised 300,000 dollars through

various fundraising initiatives. Currently, they are seeking new

funds to finance their next moves and are optimistic about

the next steps.

Remidi: Building a community for music makers and novices

Building acommunityfor musicmakersand novices

www.lisbon-challenge.com

Bringing the product

into people’s hands

is incredibly thrilling

.

Building acommunityfor musicmakersand novices

www.lisbon-challenge.com