“Guess Who I am?” N. 8 – a person who accidentally had a bright idea
11 Comments Message from Jeremy: To all Tech IT Easy readers, who could obviously not necessarily remember the initial announcement, I have invited Vincent to write about innovative start ups based in the Netherlands, Apple, the media industry, incubators, business books and many other things that happen to interest him at the moment. Vince, they’re all yours!
For this profile, I basically had two choices of people. One, who is dead and famous. And another, who is alive and not so famous. I ultimately went for option 2, because that person is better suited for this game. Non-famous people have less exposure and can still have many lessons to teach us. It’s also easier, if you want to defeat the Google-fanatics. Someday, maybe, I will write about option 1.
As usual, I try to refrain from industry, specific locations, age, gender, and of course names. Let’s get it started!
The game has been solved, see below!
“Since we are being so mystical, it would be good to spend some time being vague about my industry. Perhaps that will give you kids a clue. In my industry (music), sales are good, though things are always changing and evolving. Traditionally at least one part of the market is very fragmented, but as it comes close to the consumer, it becomes more consolidated. This becomes more and more true every day.
Who am I? I am an entrepreneur that just wanted to sell my music. But let’s start at the beginning. I am ca. 40 years old and live in the US. I started making music when I was 18. After high-school, I went to a top university in my field (Berkeley), that taught me many useful skills in my industry. I got a comfortable job with a multinational (Warner Brothers) straight out of college but became frustrated with how illogical (in my view) these types of businesses worked. An example is that my company focussed more on artists with a track-record that were safe, and shelved great albums from lesser-known artists.
So I quit and decided to make it on my own. For most of a decade, I did whatever it took to get ahead. Making music, touring, and organising events. These activities, though more of a collection of small events, even helped me buy my own house. In 1996, some of my songs were aired on the radio, and consumer-demand for my products spread geographically. That also meant that my distribution needed to grow.
I went to several retailers to sell my products. Unfortunately all of these were just front-ends for the same type of (illogical) multinational I had worked for before. I couldn’t get in without incurring drastic transaction costs. So, I decided to set up a web-site to sell my stuff. But at that time, in the 90s, setting up a front-end to distribute products was very hard and required complicated technologies like Perl-code. But I did not give up and learned, and learned, and am still learning today. It took me 3 months to set up a merchant account with a credit card company and 1000 dollars and I was set up. But it wasn’t a pleasant experience.
So, because I’m a friendly person, I offered some people that they could use my store. It was not meant as a business-proposition, just to make their lives easier. Word of mouth spread, and more and more people started wanting to use my services. I migrated to a different website, CD Baby. Still not really meant as a business at that time, more of a weekend-hobby. But it kept getting bigger and bigger, and even though today you could call my company an SME with 50 employees, we made 25 million dollars in 2004. Much of this had to do with partnerships (iTunes), which made distribution that much easier. Did I mention that I didn’t take financing?
Today, I run about several businesses (e.g. Hostbaby), and some websites that help people in my industry and related industries make their lives easier. They are either intermediary or advice orientated. I run two blogs (CDbaby.org and a blog on O’Reilly), one to think about my industry and another to think about enabling technologies. I am very fond of learning and love reading books on business. My goal is not to dominate the world. Instead I encourage diversity and fairness in business. If you want to start a business in my industry, my blogs are a good place to start.” I like his post on “ideas are just a multiplier of execution.” Very kisss. And of course his interview on Venture voice.
Have fun! You get a beer for guessing the industry and a beer for guessing the person! But I will only reveal the industry after the person has been guessed!
Congratulations to Jeremy Fain who finally, after so much time, solved his first “Guess Who?” The person is question is of course Derek Sivers, music and web entrepreneur! I now owe two beers to Jeremy (minus one I won in a previous guess who-game.)
I’m looking for the best book about the founder of Apple Inc. and Pixar. There are many many books available about him and I just can’t make up my mind on one and one only – no time for reading a couple or more as books on my reading list make up for a lifetime.
