Melody; You had me at hello
There is a real story here that sets the stage for why I invested in Melody.
Valentine’s day 2013, Im in Hamburg, Germany for a game conference. Im ready to go back to London to go out to dinner that evening with my wife. I even got to the airport a bit earlier than I normally would for a flight. To my dismay, there is a massive line-up of people and Im wondering what is going on? I was already checked-in and realised this was the line to go through security so I joined it. After 15 minutes and the line has barely moved then I talked to some other people in the line and find out that the people who process customers going through security have gone on strike and the likelihood of me making my flight is next to impossible.
I then went to the British Airways desk to see what they suggested. They confirmed there was no way to make the flight or any other flight out of Hamburg that day as the line was taking 5 hours at that point. They then said they could get me on a flight out of Berlin at 1940 (arriving at 2035) but I would have to get a train to Berlin (3 hour journey). I said yes and booked it (realising I would not make it back for dinner with my wife). There was another guy at the desk in the same situation as me who also booked the Berlin flight. I said lets catch the train together.
That guy was Patrick Pettay. Patrick and I bonded that day as we probably spent about 9 hours together. It was a little like the film Planes, Trains and Automobiles but thankfully not as extreme.
Patrick was working in London for inMobi at the time and we kept in touch with meals or drinks. He moved back to LA in 2016 to start Melody with an old friend of his, Gregg Colvin. Patrick and Gregg met when they were both working at Fox in LA in 2008.
I was the first investor to commit to invest. I did not tell them at the time but I had already decided before the pitch meeting that I was going to invest due to my belief in Patrick with his determination, strategic thinking and execution capability. I realised this on the day Patrick and I met back in 2013 that he was someone that I should invest in if he ever started a company. A key part of my investing strategy is focussed on the team:
- how great are they (as in type of people, experience, execution, intelligence, etc.)
- how big do they want to become
- have they worked together before
- how well do they know each other
- why do they think they can win
- can they pivot as and when needed
- do I believe they can raise a Series A
For me, I was able to check off all these points with conviction.
And having spent more time with Patrick and Gregg, I have realised how driven to succeed they are. Failure is not an option in their view.
Patrick & Gregg started Melody as they are incredibly passionate about music but the current platforms do not allow consumers to really discover and engage with music artists and their content.
Melody is a social music platform that aggregates all types of music content and services into a single app (mobile only). Users can then customize this content into shareable collections — this gives them a way to share multiple types of content (videos/songs/photos/etc.) in a single unit which they call Drops.
Melody is dis-intermediating content from the platforms to give the power back to fans. It is the MTV for this current generation: mobile and customizable.
And the music sector is back in growth mode. According to Goldman Sachs, music industry revenues will double by 2030 to $104 billion. See more in the video below:
Congratulations to Spotify for the public listing this week. The market cap when i last looked at it was $25.3 billion. Using data from EquityZen, it appears that the earliest investors have made about 423x based on the market share price $143.91.
The music industry is big and the potential returns for a music tech related business are massive.
I invested alongside Mucker Capital, Etermax (developer of Trivia Crack) and various other angel investors.
Melody is a great product for music fans so go download it here: https://itunes.apple.com/app/melody-follow-artist-musi-vevo/id1164214602 (iOS only currently)
and here is the launch video:
