Some of the biggest opportunities in music tech start with problems the industry has learned to work around.In this episode of Sound of Startups partnered with MUSIC FRONTIERS 2026, Charles Accarisi and Tom Levoir, co-founders of Bridgent, share how more than a decade of friendship evolved into a startup focused on simplifying artist booking.Charles brings years of experience as a producer, touring artist, label owner, event organizer, curator, and booker, while Tom brings a background in economics, data, and strategy. Together, they are building an integrated platform designed to help promoters, event organizers, and artist agents manage the booking process in one place.We explore how they validated the idea through more than 50 conversations with industry professionals, developed their early product, bootstrapped the company, and learned why relationships remain such an important part of the music business.A conversation about complementary founders, firsthand industry experience, and turning a persistent workflow problem into a music tech opportunity.

🎧 Listen to the full episode of Sound of Startups and hear Charles and Tom's journey with Bridgent.Hosted by Taj & produced by Amplitude Ventures AS.

We’re excited to bring you another episode with MUSIC FRONTIERS 2026🎵 partnership on Sound of Startups, Maurits Hagemans, Founder of Lotronics.

A strong startup often begins with a problem the founder understands personally.

Maurits has spent more than a decade around music, live events, technology, and electronic improvisation. That experience eventually led him to create Lotronic.live, a platform designed to give the live electronic improvisation scene a clearer place to connect, organize, and be discovered.

In this episode of Sound of Startups, Maurits Hagemans, explains how Lotronic connects artists, venues, listeners, and independent organizers, and why he has chosen not to charge artists for access to the platform. He shares the thinking behind the business model, the challenge of building as a solo founder, and the realities of self-funding a startup before reaching revenue.

We discuss identifying the real problem behind a product, knowing when to take advice and when to trust your own direction, and building a product around the needs of a specific community.

Maurits also reflects on the future of electronic music in an era of AI-generated content, and why live performance, improvisation, and human creativity remain central to his vision.

This conversation offers a practical look at bootstrapping, niche music-tech entrepreneurship, and building a sustainable business around an underserved community.

Hosted by Taj & Produced by Anplitude Ventures AS.

We’re excited to bring you another episode with MUSIC FRONTIERS 2026🎵 partnership on Sound of Startups, featuring Nicole de Beer, CEO & Founder at Gigevate.

What does it take to leave everything familiar behind and build a music tech startup from scratch in a new country?

In this episode of Sound of Startups, we speak with Nicole de Beer, founder of Gigavate, a digital booking and events management platform built for the electronic music industry.

Gigavate is working to bring artists, organizers, and other parts of the electronic music ecosystem into one connected platform, creating more structure around bookings, communication, payments, and opportunities.

We explore what it means to build as an immigrant founder, enter a new market without an established network, raise funding at the pre-seed stage, and keep moving forward with a very small team. Nicole also shares why transparency and better infrastructure matter for emerging artists, and how accelerators, community, and the right environment can help founders think bigger.

A grounded conversation about persistence, building from zero, and creating opportunity in the electronic music industry.

If you want to learn more about Gigevate:

• Website: https://gigevate.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gigevate/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gigevate

Hosted by Taj & Produced by Amplitude Ventures AS.