How to write music for TV ads with producer & composer Will Davies

Will Davies has written for a number of chart topping artists, produced hit after hit for the Japanese market but in this episode we focus on writing for TV advertising as Will has written the ad music for brands such as Pepsi, Christian Dior, Lynx, and Nokia.

[audio http://traffic.libsyn.com/breakingbiz/WillDaviesBreakingBiz.mp3 ]

Coming from a very musical background this interview contains quite a bit of in depth detail but gives a great insight into how the industry works and some of the more technical aspects involved with producing the music for a TV ad.

For other music related podcasts we’ve got a great interview with Shuffler.FM’s CMO, Stephen O’Reilly who discusses building apps specifically for the music industry and more.

What’s it like to leave Google and join a startup?

In this episode I caught up with Alex Rose who recently left his role at Google to become the Director of Marketing at Who Can Fix My Car, an innovative startup that acts as a ‘compare the market’ for car servicing.

[audio http://traffic.libsyn.com/breakingbiz/AlexRoseBreakingBiz.mp3 ]

I spoke to Alex about all the differences you can expect when you leave a huge global company to join a startup, such as the new found thrill of making key decisions over Skype or Whatsapp and much more. There’s some great insights in the interview but he’s not the only person taking risks. Bee Berrie recently left her job in PR to open her own London bakery.

If you’re a startup owner considering investment, you may be interested in this interview with Citymapper investor Alex Dunsdon.

Some key learnings were:

• Taking a risk can be exhilarating but make sure it’s the right move for you
• Focus your effort on immediate returns and don’t be scared to ditch multiple activities if they’re not working
• Don’t let the ability to do something fast stop you from testing and learning (important if you’re not used to being allowed the freedom of making fast decisions)

Co-founder of The Bakery London & Citymapper investor Alex Dunsdon on investing, pitching & the PowerPoint problem

Investor Alex Dunsdon is co-founder of The Bakery London and Investment Director of SAATCHiNVEST. He’s also been lucky (or smart) enough to invest in the ever popular ‘Citymapper’ app, and he speaks to Breaking Biz about how startups should pitch to investors, what he looks for when making an investment and much more.

[audio http://traffic.libsyn.com/breakingbiz/AlexDunsdonBreakingBiz.mp3 ]

This interview offers valuable insight for startups thinking about investment and covers similar ground to my earlier interview with NY Times besteller and angel investor Tucker Max.

Some takeaways from the conversation were:

Pitching problems. Lots of startups mention irrelevant figures when investors just want to know who the target audience is, what problem you’re solving and how you’re talking to them

We’re about to see a car crash with companies that have accepted early stage investment with the wrong type of investors

Pick the right investment partner above the valuation

Don’t waste time with powerpoint slides. Start the conversation. Investors tend to have short attention spans (i.e they’re quick thinking..)

Mobile Apps, wearable tech & more: 15 mins with Shuffler.FM’s Stephen O’Reilly

Stephen O’Reilly launched and ran the European office of one of the world’s leading mobile app engagement platform, the award winning Mobile Roadie. He’s now CMO of Shuffler.FM and in this podcast he talks about the world of mobile apps and how the tech world is changing.

[audio http://traffic.libsyn.com/breakingbiz/SufflerFMBreakingBiz.mp3 ]

With so much experience under his belt, this interview is definitely worth a listen and is just one of many episodes related specifically to mobile apps. Some takeaways about building an app included:

Does it make sense right now? Sometimes a web based solution works just fine

You’ll save time and money if you have a technical co-founder

Stephen’s current favourite apps are: Monument Valley Game, Pocket and Shazam

Locket- how an Investment Banker became an App Developer

To put it simply, Locket provides stuff you care about on your phone’s lock screen. The story behind Locket is less simple but a great one for aspiring entrepreneurs.

[audio http://traffic.libsyn.com/breakingbiz/LocketBreakingBiz.mp3 ]

Meet Yunha Kim. Since co-founding Locket, she’s built up a strong client list, experienced sexism in a male dominated industry, and landed Tyra Banks as an investor.

Today we chat about Yunha’s journey since leaving her role in Investment Banking and what some of the most important lessons are when running your own company.

Battle of selling: Face to face vs Phone and email

When Henry Embleton first came on Breaking Biz we discussed his entrepreneurial journey with Xavy. Returning for his second episode, he’s back with the rebranded Catch Talk TV, and we’re talking about the power of face to face selling.

[audio http://traffic.libsyn.com/breakingbiz/CatchTalkTVBreakingBiz.mp3 ]

After attending the UK’s leading event for the meetings and events industry, International Confex, one thing became obvious. Phone and email was slowing Henry’s progress. Imagine if you could stop the cold calls, the speculative emails and actually meet the key decision makers in your industry face to face.

How much would a few days of this impact your brand awareness and overall sales?

Lessons from an idiot entrepreneur: Taking on Myspace

Due to illness we’ve been unable to have our scheduled guest on this week so I’ve decided to put together a quick fire (5-6 mins) episode outlining the simple ways you can fail with a startup. The example used was my first attempted ‘venture’ which was a music based website called Dogs Can Drive that was supposed to take on Myspace.

[audio http://traffic.libsyn.com/breakingbiz/DogsCanDriveBreakingBiz.mp3 ]

It’s strange, in my interview with NY Times Bestseller Tucker Max, he spoke about how he would never invest in a company where he feels the founder is ‘playing’ CEO instead of running a real business. I was guilty of doing this with Dogs Can Drive. A few pointers are:

Don’t waste time trying to build a fancy website. You’ll only risk losing a lot of money, as Joshua Palmer discovered with his first mobile app

If you’re going to start a business, you should at least know what your purpose or vision is

Don’t play CEO. Don’t do it for the bragging rights. Do it because you have a business that solves a problem.

‘Passion does not pay the bills’ – startup lessons from AppFog founder Lucas Carlson

Lucas Carlson is an entrepreneur featured in the NYT Bestselling Book, The Lean Entrepreneur. He’s also an author, speaker and leader in the cloud space. He founded the startup AppFog which was acquired by CenturyLink in 2013.

[audio http://traffic.libsyn.com/breakingbiz/LucasCarlsonBreakingBiz.mp3 ]

AppFog has signed up more than 100,000 developers, raised nearly $10M in venture funding and has become an industry leading Platform-as-a-Service. Today we benefit from his entrepreneurial knowledge with insights that include:

 Passion does not pay the bills

Why is ‘money’ the worst motivator for anyone starting their own company

The dangers of falling in love with your business ideas

Why every business owner needs to know their unit cost

How to use visuals and social media to market your brand: Red Bull, Dunkin Donuts and more.

The human brain has been said to process visuals 60,000x faster than text. Web posts with visuals drive up to 180% more engagement than those without. Ekaterina Walter talks about how various brands are using visuals to market themselves whether they have a big budget or no money at all.

[audio http://traffic.libsyn.com/breakingbiz/EkaterinaWalterBreakingBiz.mp3 ]

Ekaterina is the author of Think Like Zuck and her new book, The Power of Visual Story Telling. In this interview she offers some invaluable insight into how we can be more creative with our visual marketing.

Some key takeways were:

A messy desk at work? That could be social gold. (Listen out for her story about Intel)

Respect the different social platforms. The audience uses them in different ways, it’s not a one size fits all game

When you marry content with context, you find true relevance

Bee Berrie: PR girl turned baker and business owner

Bee Berrie  studied microbiology at University before embarking into the big bad corporate world. So how did she end up baking personalised treats for a living and is the reality as dreamy as it sounds?

[audio http://traffic.libsyn.com/breakingbiz/BeesBakeryBreakingBiz.mp3 ]

Turning her back on a career in corporate communications left her trudging the wet London streets trying to find her first clients, and this interview gives a really deep insight into the realities of saying goodbye to the security of a pay cheque to go it alone.

Insights include:

Be careful with your ‘good’ business relationships. Money is still money and every small business needs to be paid!

A good mentor is worth their weight in gold

You’ll have bad days, but lots of people go through the same thing. Take advantage of a support network if it’s available