몇 일전에 TrenchMice라고 하는 블로그의 Nicholas Katers라는 기자와 간단한 인터뷰를 하였다. 뮤직쉐이크에 대한 질문 및 뮤직쉐이크라는 벤처기업의 문화에 대한 질문이 대부분이었는데, 방금 live 된거를 보니 역시 기자답게 아주 stylish하게 글을 쓴거 같다.
I recently spoke with Kihong Bae, the general manager of the burgeoning startup Musicshake based out of Seoul. The company produces software that helps musical novices and computer users create music using tools that require no formal training. I found out that Musicshake is expanding this year into the United States from Korea in an effort to expose a larger market to the company’s products.
My interest in getting some inside information on Musicshake led me to ask about Kihong’s management style. The 20 full time professionals are given plenty of freedom on a daily basis to finish their part of each project. Kihong explained that the tight schedules and budgets make specialization important. Musicians, programmers and freelancers are given a set of expectations that need to be met in order to complete projects. The effusive manager said that each employee needs to act like they are running “their own company” in order to make Musicshake projects their own.
The only way that this startup has been able to grow is by hiring the right employees. Kihong Bae says that incoming workers need to share in the “culture” of Musicshake. The creative flow inherent in creating music production software makes an immediate connection between new employees and old hands at the company a necessity. Kihong described the urgency of hiring smart, principled employees by saying: “This is a fast changing industry, you can’t spend tons of time preparing and predicting the future. You should just do it, and make modifications as you go along. We are a very horizontal organization where we talk less and do more. The rest just falls in place when you lead by executing.”
I know that questions about management style can be answered to reflect kindly on a manager’s approach. I dug further into Musicshake’s origins by asking Kihong about influences from past ventures. The lessons he learned from past businesses showed that his original contention about an efficient workplace with a casual feel were heartfelt. Kihong spoke about the need to keep ventures “lean” and bring in enough cash to keep the business on sound footing for the near future. A combination of smart borrowing and revenue generation from opening day has made Musicshake a success.
My favorite question to ask a business owner is how they balance industry news with their own intuition. I asked Kihong Bae the industry sources used by Musicshake to get a read on the online music industry. Kihong responded with several publications from business schools including the Harvard Business Review that would make this manager seem conventional in his approach to business. His use of blogs like VentureBeat and TechCrunch gives him a nudge outside of the box.
The final line of questioning involved the sales pitch of Musicshake to skeptical investors and customers. Creation of software and widgets, after all, can be a difficult thing for the average consumer to wrap his head around. Kihong Bae responded by stating that the lack of language and geographical barriers to music along with the company’s proprietary program make Musicshake a company with unlimited potential. The success of this venture in the 2007 Crunchies and its place as a finalist in the TechCrunch40 seems to be the closing number for Kihong Bae in making his appeal to potential business partners.
I have a favorable projection for Musicshake in the future. The success of a startup trickles from the top down and Kihong Bae has a clear vision for the company’s future. It is difficult to project the success of electronic products but the employment of musicians lends credibility to the company’s software. The only roadblock I see for Musicshake comes with the saturated market for software development in the United States. If Kihong Bae can lead Musicshake through 2008 and 2009 successfully, watch out for this company as “Guitar Hero” fans get their hands on new software to make real music.
musicshake
The Crunchies 2007
서부답지 않게 우중충하고 매우 흐린 날씨이지만, 날씨와는 다르게 화창한 소식이 있어서 블로그를 통해서 독자 분들에게 소중한 투표를 부탁드리려고 한다. 올해 9월 18일 샌프란시스코에서 진행되었던 TechCrunch40에 이이서 뮤직쉐이크가 이번에는 미국 실리콘 벨리가 선정한 2007년을 빛낸 100대 IT 기업에 선정되었다. 공식 행사 명칭은 The Crunchies 2007이며, 실리콘 밸리에서 가장 영향력 있으며 일일 통합 독자 수만 약 2백만명이 넘는 4대 technology blog인 TechCrunch, GigaOm, Read/WriteWeb 및 VentureBeat 가 공동으로 주최하는 실리콘 밸리 역사상 최초의 행사이다. 행사 성격은 한 해 최고의 영화 및 배우들의 공로를 인정하는 Academy Award와 비슷하며, 2007년 한 해 동안 가장 혁신적인 영향력을 행사한 인터넷 및 기술 관련 벤처기업들의 공로를 인정 및 시상하는 것이 이 대회의 취지이다.
Web 2.0의 기본 사상인 참여 및 공유 정신에 입각하여 모든 후보 및 최종 수상 기업 선정은 100% 일반 독자들의 투표에 의하여 진행될 예정이며 최종 수상 기업 발표 및 시상은 2008년 1월 18일 (금) 샌프란시스코의 Herbst Theater에서 최종 후보들, 주최측 4개사, 각종 언론사 및 일반 관객의 참석하에 진행된다. 행사 비용 전액은 어도비, Charles River Ventures, Mayfield Fund, 마이크로소프트, OurStage 및 썬 마이크로시스템스가 스폰서쉽 형태로 부담한다. 12월2일부터 12월 12일 열흘 동안 일반인들은 웹사이트를 통해서 2007년 한 해 동안 IT 업계에 가장 큰 영향을 미쳤다고 생각하는 벤처 기업을 자유롭게 추천할 수 있었다. The Crunchies 위원회에서 미리 정의한 20개의 분야 (Best user generated content start-up, Best international start-up, Best overall 등)에 각 한 개의 기업 추천이 가능하였으며, 약 82,000개의 추천을 받았다고 주최측은 밝혔다. 이 후 The Crunchies 2007 위원회는 82,000개의 후보 중 추천 횟수와 벤처 기업을 평가 하여 각 분야에서 5개의 결승 진출 기업을 선정하여, 12월 21일 100개의 최종 후보를 발표 하였다. 여기에서 뮤직쉐이크는 Best international start-up 분야에서 당당하게 유일한 아시아의 벤처기업으로 선정되었으며, TechCrunch의 Heather Harde 대표이사가 나와 주고받은 이메일에서 “작년 9월 TechCrunch40 행사에서 신선한 충격이었던 뮤직쉐이크가 이번 행사에서도 실리콘 밸리를 강타하길 바란다”라는 말까지 직접하였다. 다른 후보 중에는 이미 우리에게 너무나 익숙한 Facebook, Digg 및 Yelp와 같은 실리콘 밸리를 대표하는 굴지의 Web 2.0 인터넷 기업들이 포함된다.
최종 투표 과정은 다음과 같다. 12월 21일부터 웹사이트를 통하여 일반인들은 하루에 한 번씩 본인이 원하는 벤처기업 투표에 참여할 수가 있으며, 인터넷 투표는 2008년 1월 10일까지 웹을 통해서 공개된다. 페이지 상단의 뱃지를 클릭한 후 5개의 Best International Start-up 후보 기업 중 Musicshake를 꾸욱 눌러서 voting을 모든 독자 분들에게 부탁 드리겠습니다.
Interview with Milov Patel
Technology 기업들에 대한 블로그를 운영하고 있는 Milov Patel과 뮤직쉐이크에 대해서 인터뷰를 하였다.
I was lucky to be able to get a hold of Kihong Bae the Director of Musicshake.com on Monday. I got a chance to talk with him about the new website, and the recent US launch they just went through. Musicshake was a TechCrunch 40 finalist, and definitely deserved it. I tried out the program and messed around with it for a good amount of time, and I can say I was impressed. Read the interview to get some more information about the company.
Milov Patel: Can please provide us with some information on your personal background in business and entrepreneurship.
Kihong Bae: I am a Korean by birth, but I grew up in Spain so I was exposed to diversity ever since I was small. I did my undergrad in Korea, and master’s at Stanford which is where I was mesmerized by the dynamics of Silicon Valley. Just seeing all these entrepreneurs on campus (Jerry Yang, Larry Page etc..) stimulated my entrepreneurial juices. After school, I worked for a PKI security startup called ValiCert which later got acquire by Tumbleweed Communications. Then went back to Korea to work with friends from MIT on a Korean Supply Chain Management solutions startup that’s still around. After 3 yrs at Zionex (the Supply Chain Management Company), I decided to get some exposure to the corporate world and worked as the Senior Marketing Manager at Microsoft Korea. I am currently doing my MBA at Wharton School, and working part-time as Musicshake’s Director.
Milov Patel: Lets talk about musicshake.com – can you tell me a bit more about it?
Kihong Bae: Musicshake is the world’s first UGM (User Generated Music) creation solution developed to provide music composing solutions for the general public without any musical knowledge or expertise to create professional quality music by utilizing various pattern-combination methods. It’s the only complete end to end online music creation solution in the market today. Although there are genre specific music creation tools that enable users to combine specific beats and sounds, users still need specific knowledge about music making in order to create quality music contents. By utilizing various pattern combination methods, which are powered by the proprietary Music Pattern Database and Mu-bot (Music Robot) Algorithms, users with no previous musical education can create music online that can be utilized to increase their presence on the web. Users can play Musicshake as if they play online games and as a result of playing the game, they can create their personalized music content.
Milov Patel: What led you to creating musicshake.com?
Kihong Bae: The idea has been around for a long time. We’ve done about 5 years of R&D; on this. The pain was that we wanted to be very creative and wanted to make our own music however, the current solutions out there in the market specifically required the end user to have professional knowledge on music and we definitely were no musicians. So we decided to make a tool that any average person could use, everyday to make his/her own music with simple clicks.
Milov Patel: It seems your business model is really aligned with a Web 2.0 style. How do you guys expect to make revenue?
Kihong Bae: Not sure if you saw the presentation video, but there was a part where I specifically said that we had SEVERAL business models. End users can play around with Musicshake client and mix/make as many songs as they want and upload it on the server side. However, when they decided that they really like what they have made, and would like to download the music as mp3 file on their PC / PDA / mobile phone / iPod, that’s when you need to pay a fee. And you can use these tunes as your ringtones/ring-back tones/background music for blogs etc. We also are in discussion with music labels where we copyright music parts from existing artists and provide these as premium music patterns at a fee based plan. The truly revolutionary approach in the business model is that once you make a song and pay/download it, the end user owns the IP of the song. When somebody else downloads the song, the fee is shared between Musicshake and the original maker of the song.
Milov Patel: How many employees do you have currently? Do you feel it’s important for your employees to share the same drive that you have?
Kihong Bae: We currently have 17 full-time employees and several in-house/outsourced part-time musicians who work on making the music modules. We are a small startup based in South Korea and if there is one things that we invest heavily is our own people. We truly believe that PEOPLE is what can make or break a startup especially at the critical stage that Musicshake is at currently. We make sure we share the same feelings, share the same vision and goals about the company but at the same time make every effort to make this journey a worthwhile one for each individual. It’s like riding a rollercoaster…when you go up, everybody gets excited with butterflies in their stomach. When you go down, once again everybody feels the thrill and adrenaline rush. We definitely are one team that shares the drive that I have.
Milov Patel: What would you say are the most important elements to have a flourishing startup?
Kihong Bae: Once again, I must say that the most critical element is the people. Good people can make things happen in the worst times, bad people can break things up even in the best times. Another things that I think is critical for a flourishing startup company is the ability to execute. There are too many people out there who say too much and do nothing! I would say we need people with the ‘ready, shoot , aim’ mentality rather than ‘ready, aim, shoot’. This is a fast changing industry, you can’t spend tons of time preparing and predicting the future. You should just do it, and make modifications as you go along. I am happy Musicshake has far more people with the ‘just do it’ mentality’ than ones without it.
Milov Patel: What would you like people to remember most about musicshake.com?
Kihong Bae: When people think musicshake.com, I would like people to think of the company that truly revolutionized the music industry. Think about what you can do when you can make your own music, and what kind of earthquakes you can create by becoming an artist in just a matter of minutes -> the realization of the so-called ‘No-brainer Musician Project’ is what we strive to do
San Jose Mercury News Interview
Musicshake 발표가 끝난 후 San Jose Mercury News의 기자가 다가와서 간단히 인터뷰 요청을 하였다. SJ Mercury와 같이 영향력있는 매체에서 인터뷰 요청을 한다는 뜻은, 발표를 굉장히 잘했고 좋은 기술 기반의 제품을 가지고 있다는 의미이다. 윤형식 사장님 aka Blue과 멋진 인터뷰를 하였다고 생각한다 ㅎㅎㅎ
TechCrunch40
드뎌 기대 만빵 TechCrunch40가 시작되었다. 주말에 샌프란시스코에서 뮤직쉐이크 코리아 팀과 만나서 일단 바로 발표 준비에 들어갔다. 윤형식 사장님과 나한테 주어진 시간은 총 8분. 과연 8분안에 2,000명의 관객 – 그것도 그냥 관객이 아니라 실리콘 밸리에서 가장 영향력 있는 venture capitalist들, 구글, 마이크로소프트, 야후 등 굴지의 IT 기업의 높으신 분들과 press를 감동 시킬 수 있을까? 한 20번 정도 반복해서 연습했을까? 그 정도 연습하니까 이제는 입에서 영어 발표가 술술술 나오는거 같더라. 결론을 간단히 말하자면, TechCrunch40의 뮤직쉐이크 발표는 대박이었다. 전 세계에서 온 40개의 벤처기업이 발표를 하였지만 뮤직쉐이크같이 재미있고, 관객을 감동시킬 수 있었던 제품과 기술은 단 하나도 없었다. 발표가 끝나자 마자 Palace Hotel의 참석자들이 우리와 한마디라도 더 하려고 줄을 서서 (정말로 줄을 섰다) 기다렸다. 정말 자랑스러운 순간이었다. 나 스스로의 성취감, 대한민국 IT 기술을 실리콘 밸리에 알릴 수 있었던 애국심 그리고 이 자랑스러운 순간을 함께할 수 있었던 와이프에 대한 고마움 등..기분 좋은 순간이었다.