Warren Peterson of Virtuosica
An exclusive Tech Tribune Q&A with Warren Peterson (founder) of Virtuosica, which was honored in our:
Tell us the origin story of Virtuosica – what problem were you trying to solve and why?
The problem we’re solving is the one I encountered as a skilled musician when I tried shifting focus back to my music career after nearly 40 years in IT. It was clear to me that gig economy tech was leaving working musicians behind. I spoke to several of my fellow Juilliard alumni and other top shelf artists that have the skills to be full time performers but can’t get a foot in the door. It’s funny because, in many ways, musicians are the original gig workers. But digital tools and the gig economy seem to have forgotten us. Unless you are in the very top strata of performers, platforms haven’t been working in your favor. And even with existing platforms, most musicians can’t make a living from digital sales and performance work.
More often than not, a musician puts in a lot of effort to create content and gets pennies on the dollar, and even often less than pennies depending on the outlet. Today, this doesn’t have to be and shouldn’t be the case. Knowing what hundreds of friends had been going through to earn a living and then having a pandemic hit made this a problem I very much wanted to solve for the musical community. The concept attracted two great hearts and minds in co-founders Danica Radisic and Teri Hirano, and we were off and running with a Delaware C-Corp established in July 2021, and an MVP rolling out in June 2022.
What was the biggest hurdle you encountered in your journey?
Identifying the biggest hurdle, whether in a quantitative or qualitative sense, is a tough call. I don’t think we’ll know the answer to that question for years to come. We’ve taken a different approach than most other startups in the problem-solving area. Most startups are born from recognizing one specific problem or need in the market and then building a solution to fill that one need. And that makes sense. We did something that might seem counterintuitive for a brand new company. We recognized a larger need in the market, specifically in contemporary music consumption for audiences and a gap in the gig economy for musicians. Then we identified close to a hundred small issues standing in the way, or hurdles, if you will, to come up with the most basic, viable solution to that market need. Despite the amount of issues, not to mention the various complications with each, we decided to get into the business of overcoming each and every one of those hurdles, one at a time. So, I suppose the biggest hurdle was the pile of hurdles, not their difficulty or complexity.
What does the future hold for Virtuosica?
We have taken great care in building something customer-centric and limiting technical debt in the creation of the core Virtuosica engine. We’re betting this will allow us to maintain a visionary position. Without giving away the secret sauce recipe, our product focus is on putting even more money directly into musicians’ pockets, building out career and life management tools oriented towards musicians’ needs, and pushing the envelope in providing audiences with new ways of experiencing live music. Practically speaking, revenue is projected right around the corner, and the focus over the next few months is on building out the rest of the team, continued funding, and executing on our marketing and user acquisition plans. As for the long-term, we envision a whole new world of live music, anywhere and on any device.
What are your thoughts on the local tech startup scene in Marina Del Rey?
Needless to say, Silicon Beach is thriving. L.A. is now rated as the third greatest startup ecosystem in North America and the fourth in the world. Silicon Beach is the heart of that and there are over 300 active startups in Marina Del Rey alone. For Virtuosica, it was more of a stroke of luck that Marina Del Rey is where home has been for me for a couple of decades, but if we’d had to choose where to headquarter Virtuosica, as a digital entertainment company, we most likely would have chosen Silicon Beach anyway. We believe the real boom for Marina Del Rey is yet to come and just getting started. It’s seen over $1.6bn in startup investments so far, interest from major accelerators like Y Combinator, Techstars, 500 Startups, and well as interest from leading VC firms like Andreessen Horowitz, Kleiner Perkins, SV Angel, and founder-oriented VC firms like First Round Capital. Marina Del Rey is a major growth driver for Silicon Beach. Culver City is the next up-and-coming spot to keep an eye on, especially for the music tech industry.
What’s your best advice for aspiring entrepreneurs?
Begin every day with the tried and true motto – I only know that I know nothing. Do your market research, SWOT analysis, target group behavior research, conservative profit and loss projections, and lay out your lean canvas (or whatever you’re using to build the vision). Study them all well. Then get up the next day and doubt them all. Don’t throw them out, just be skeptical. Research, study, learn, then follow your gut.
Building, innovating, or pivoting a new business requires an ability to grow and adapt, more than any other skill. It’s a lot like being a virtuoso musician. In the words of the great Charlie Parker, “You’ve got to learn your instrument. Then, you practice, practice, practice. And then, when you finally get up there on the bandstand, forget all that and just wail.”