Josh Simons of Vampr
An exclusive Tech Tribune Q&A with Josh Simons (co-founder and CEO) of Vampr, which was honored in our:
Tell us the origin story of Vampr – what problem were you trying to solve and why?
I started a band in the early 2010s called Buchanan, which was beginning to make it big in Australia. I moved to London to try and crack a larger market. Upon relocation, I found that I sorely lacked a team with regional expertise or the ability to move the needle in my career, and it really felt like I was starting from the bottom all over again. That’s when it occurred to me that no technological solution existed which was successfully solving this problem of networking and building a professional community around talent. That kick-started a lengthy process of market research during which I spoke with a lot of my peers, and it turned out almost unanimously that everyone else had also suffered this pain point at some juncture (usually the start) in their career. I called the person who signed me to my first record deal, Baz Palmer (of Hunters & Collectors fame), and asked him if he wanted to go on this journey with me, as he had some experience in music tech. The next day, Vampr was incorporated!
What was the biggest hurdle you encountered in your journey?
Building a social network is notoriously tricky. You need a unique and attractive product (which requires capital) and you need an active community of people using it. It’s quite a balancing act. It also means you need to raise money – either a lot of it upfront, or consistently throughout the early years. We’ve come extremely close to the end of our runway a couple of times. However, I’ve always found a way to not only keep things alive, but actually thrive thereafter, and have learned a helluva lot from those experiences (and aged a fair amount too!)
What does the future hold for Vampr?
We’re undergoing somewhat of a transformation at the moment into more of a marketplace model and solution, while also introducing additional features to increase usefulness on the community side of things. We want to give fans and music lovers more of a purpose and place to hangout on the app. We’ve got a really exciting and ambitious product roadmap for 2022 and I’m looking forward to releasing many of these features into market as soon as possible.
What are your thoughts on the local tech startup scene in Henderson?
I must admit our transition from California to Henderson has possibly been one of the slowest relocations in history – but we’re gradually getting there! The culture at Vampr prior to COVID was already heavily based around remote work – however, the pandemic accelerated a wholly remote structure and allowed us to move our headquarters away from California and slowly into Nevada. It’s been really fascinating watching so many other startups and technology companies move away from California and it’s going to be fun tapping into new talent in the community.
What’s your best advice for aspiring entrepreneurs?
Don’t undervalue the importance of research in the earliest stages. Validating a market’s existence is crucial prior to accepting any investment capital or spending years of your life on an idea. You’ll thank yourself later on!