Startup Spotlight #91: Rapchat

Rapchat empowers music creators around the world through technology.

Feb 26, 2021

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I got the chance to speak with Seth Miller, founder and CEO of Rapchat, about what he’s working on at his startup and any advice he has for emerging entrepreneurs.

Rapchat empowers music creators around the world through technology. The startup builds apps that help people make music on their phones, connect with others, and soon monetize their work.

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Startup Spotlight: Rapchat

Problem: Barriers exist everywhere in music. Historically, making music has been very expensive and the industry itself has been gatekeeping creators from opportunities to monetize their work.

Market: We believe there is a minimum of 50M+ aspiring music creators around the world who want access to better creation tools and better monetization opportunities.

Solution: Rapchat is the easiest way to make music on your phone and soon, the easiest way to monetize your work.

Team: A small team of passionate product builders.

Recent Success:

Miller: To date, we’ve seen over 3 million people create over 20 million songs. We’re really proud of the products we’ve shipped that have enabled so many to express themselves in different ways. We’ve been able to figure out what people and how to build a product they love.

Also, we’ve been successful at getting the right investors and partners on board to open up opportunities for our creators and our ability to scale as a company. For example, we recently closed a major record label as an investor who will be looking to sign the stars of tomorrow off of Rapchat.

Recent Struggle:

Miller: On the fundraising font - educating Silicon Valley on the massive opportunity that exists in our market. Historically, music tech companies have struggled due to legal implications and lack of funding but the industry is entering a new, more flexible era where companies like us can flourish.

Many of the different forms of media have already been disrupted, democratized, and networked when you think of photos (Instagram, vsco), videos (youtube), podcasts (Anchor), short-form videos (TikTok, Triller), writing (Medium, Substack) so I just continually work to stress the opportunity when it comes to music and how the future of music creation will be mobile.

Also, we do a lot of different things at Rapchat so it’s hard to put us in a box and thus, sometimes hard to measure the opportunity. I have to continuously work to simplify and clarify our high-level mission while also explaining all the great things we have coming in various areas.

Founder Advice:

Miller: There is no right answer for anything. Nobody knows shit and you have to learn to be confident in paving your own way. However, I do love learning from other entrepreneurs through conversations, books, blogs, podcasts, etc. I just always try to remember that context is absolutely everything and what works for one company or founder may not work for me or us but I’m often willing to try new things. Also, beware of investors that try and tell you what to build. I’ve seen this before where even in diligence, investors get adamant about where you should go with the company. How crazy is that? You’ve had maybe 3 conversations and they’re telling you what to build with such little context. When you’re a first-time founder and raising your first round - it’s easy to want to agree with them because you need their money and they have experience but it’s a dangerous trap.

On a different note - what I’ve done over time that consistently pays dividends is build great relationships with other founders at similar stages who can help share insights into what’s working and what’s not working when it comes to company building and scaling. And I’m talking real relationships not just fake, “network” type relationships. It’s not just about learning what funnel optimizations have worked for them, it’s about learning how they’ve been able to scale themselves with the company or how they balance time with their family, etc. These to this day are so invaluable.

Two Cool Founders You Should Know About:

Miller: Here are two founders you should check out next!

Skye Durrant, Founder of LawnGuru: LawnGuru provides on-demand Lawn Care and Snow Removal services, ordered through mobile applications.
Cliff Weitzman, Founder of Speechify: Speechify is the #1 text-to-speech app, built for your busy life.

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