Founded in 2017, Techstars Music was known as the premier music technology accelerator, providing funding and support to now-thriving companies like Endel, Splash, Hello Tickets, Community and Replica Studios. The company chose 10 startups each year and provided $120,000 to each, along with mentoring from its network of 316 music and entertainment executives from HYBE, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group, Concord, Quality Control and more.
Music startups typically do not generate venture returns … You also have competitors like Apple, Amazon and Google that use music as a loss leader for other products. That makes investing in that sort of music startup very difficult, especially a pre-seed investor like us. Let me be clear: You cannot change how you define your company to make investors happy, or you will not raise capital, but you need to be savvy as a founder about how you present your business and find investors who are looking for you. One of the myths about raising venture capital is that founders persuade investors to invest in them. Investors are out there looking for companies to invest in all day long, every day. We are just trying to find companies that match our thesis.