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.

We’re excited to bring you a new episode with MUSIC FRONTIERS 2026🎵 partnership on Sound of Startups, featuring Jelmer Rotteveel, Founder of FindSocial.

In this episode, Jelmer shares how he turned a simple data-scraping script into FindSocial, an AI-powered music intelligence platform built to help music professionals discover emerging artists and find the right industry contacts.

He also reflects on an important shift in the company’s journey: moving from collecting vast amounts of data to building a more focused and relevant music database.

Jelmer shares valuable lessons from building a music startup, including why timing matters when raising funds and why founders should look beyond the music industry when seeking investors.

If you’re building a music startup, working in music tech, or interested in artist discovery, this episode offers practical lessons on product focus, fundraising, and knowing when to scale. Tune in and learn from Jelmer’s journey.

Hosted by Taj & Produced by Amplitude Ventures AS.

If you want to learn more about FindSocial:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/findsocial/

Website: https://www.findsocial.io/

A great idea is not always enough to secure funding. So, what actually makes a creative project fundable?

In this episode of Sound of Startups, Ludovica Michelin, founder of Flumi, breaks down how EU funding works for creative startups and what makes a project fundable. She explains how founders can translate creative ideas into policy language, align their projects with EU priorities, and build complementary international partnerships that strengthen funding applications.

Ludovica also explores the differences between programs such as Creative Europe, Erasmus+, and Horizon, and shares why founders should think strategically about funding rather than treating it as the starting point.

If you're building a creative startup and exploring EU funding opportunities, this episode offers a practical perspective on how to approach the funding landscape with greater clarity and strategy.

If you want to learn more about Flumi:

• LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/company/flumistudio/
• Website: https://flumi.net/
• Instagram: http://instagram.com/_flu_mi/

Produced by Amplitude Ventures AS.

Most founders spend countless hours thinking about fundraising, product, and growth. But according to Sebastian, they're overlooking the one skill that makes all three possible: sales.

In this episode of Sound of Startups, Taj sits down with Sebastian Ferraz, Chief Revenue Officer at Watchdog and Founding Partner at Atlas Accelerator, to explore how sales became the foundation of every company he has built, from startup validation to enterprise growth.

The conversation goes beyond closing deals. Sebastian shares why customer validation should come before fundraising, how traction creates investor confidence, what founders consistently get wrong about sales, and why building trust is one of the strongest competitive advantages a startup can have.

Whether you're launching your first company, raising capital, or trying to find product market fit, this episode offers practical lessons on building startups that customers actually want.

In this episode:

• Why sales is one of the most underestimated founder skills

• Customer validation before fundraising

• Building traction that attracts investors

• Common fundraising mistakes founders make

• The role of trust and relationships in sales

• How to improve as a founder selling your product

• Lessons from building and investing in multiple startups

If you enjoyed this conversation, subscribe for more discussions with founders, investors, and operators building the next generation of startups.

Hosted by Taj & Produced by Amplitude ventures AS.

What does it take to build a real business before raising outside capital?

In this episode of Sound of Startups, Jorge Brea, Founder and CEO of Symphonic, shares how his journey began as a teenage electronic music producer trying to release his own work. What started as a personal solution during the shift from physical music to digital distribution eventually became a global music technology company.

Jorge reflects on bootstrapping Symphonic for more than a decade, reinvesting revenue, working nights and weekends, and learning how to build without relying on investor capital. He explains why the company waited until 2017 to complete its first minority investment and how a later $37 million growth round supported international expansion, technology development, and a stronger leadership team.

The conversation also explores the difficulty of giving up control, the danger of raising too early, responsible AI adoption, and why focus becomes more important as a company grows.

For young founders and entrepreneurs, this is an honest lesson in patience, humility, disciplined growth, and knowing when funding can genuinely move a proven business forward.

Subscribe to Sound of Startups for more real stories from the people building the future of music and technology.

If you want to learn more about Symphonic Distribution visit here:

Website: www.symphonic.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/symphonic.team

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@symphonicdistribution

What does it take to modernize an industry where opportunities are often hidden behind networks and connections?

In this episode of Sound of Startups, Taj speaks with Emanuele Sanfelici, Founder & CEO of HAT Music and Forbes Under 30 Italy honoree, about building the future of career development for musicians.

HAT Music is creating a platform that helps artists connect with producers, managers, designers, and other industry professionals, bringing modern networking and opportunity discovery to the music industry.

Emanuele shares his entrepreneurial journey, from validating the idea before writing a single line of code to raising a pre-seed round and growing the platform to more than 14,000 users. He also discusses the realities of fundraising, building a startup from Italy, overcoming rejection, and developing the mindset required to succeed as a founder.

Whether you're a founder, investor, creator, or aspiring entrepreneur, this episode offers practical insights into startup growth, resilience, and building a company from the ground up.

Subscribe to Sound of Startups for more conversations with founders building the future.

Produced by Amplitude Ventures AS.

If you want to learn more about HAT music, visit here:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hat-music
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hat.music/
• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@hat.music