Ep163 - Jaddan Comerford (CEO - Unified Music Group) on investing in creativity
My guest for Ep 163 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was the Founder & CEO of Unified Music Group and the Co-founder & Partner of Side Stage Ventures, Jaddon Comerford.
Jaddan has had a fascinating career to date.
As a 17 year old, he launched Boomtown Records as a way to help launch the record for his own band.
Fast forward 20 years later and he is now the Founder and CEO of Unified Music, a leading independent music company that provides a range of services including artist management, recorded music, publishing, live events and merchandise to a diverse roster of local and international artists including Vance Joy, Violent Soho and Northlane.
Over the last few years, Jaddan has started actively investing in startups, particularly for startups focusing on the music industry where his relationships, networks and experience can help those companies.
Recently, Jaddan launched Side Stage Ventures alongside previous podcast guests Matt Allen and Alex Zaccaria (among others) to invest into early stage companies at the intersection of creativity and technology.
Their portfolio includes the likes of Mr. Yum, Delegate Connect, Alts, Heaps Normal, Qsic and Tixel.
In this interview we covered a range of topics to unpack Jaddon’s journey and lessons over 20+ years in building a bootstrapped, multi-million dollar international business.
We covered topics such as:
1. How (and why) Jaddan launched Boomtown Records as a 17 year old
2. How Jaddan uses delegation to effectively empower his team and scale his business
3. We discussed whether looking back, he would have built Unified differently if given the option to fundraise for the business
4. We covered some of the similarities between artists and startup founders
5. How Unified expanded from artist management to an ecosystem of services for creative talent
& much more!
You can find the full interview on all of your favourite podcasting apps! You can find a link to the full interview on iTunes and YouTube below as well as timestamps and links to all notes from this episode.
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Timestamps
3:59: Jaddan’s background
6:20: Entrepreneurial lessons from Jaddan’s parents
8:55: The story behind Jaddan’s first signed artist
12:22: What Unified Records looks for when deciding which artists to back
14:30: How to scale through delegation
18:57: Whether Jaddan would have taken a different path with Unified if funding options were available to him when he got started
20:20: How Jaddan’s experience shaped his investment philosophy
23:29: Similarities between successful artists and founders
25:37: Lessons from operating in the music industry
27:33: How to overcome challenging days/periods in your journey
31:15: What is Side Stage VC
36:24: What gets Jaddan excited in potential investment opportunities
39:56: How early stage companies can demonstrate their ability to execute to investors if they don’t have users or revenue
41:31: Side Stage’s investment process
44:06: How and when to effectively expand your business
47:17: How Unified takes combines a strategic and opportunistic approach to expanding its business
49:01: How Unified approaches building its internal team culture and operations to retain its talent
Our partners
A big thank you to Matt Allen and Ben Grabiner for their help with this interview. Also a big thank you to our partners for this episode.
Lawpath
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Scendar
We’re Scendar, an accounting and advisory practice better described as Finance as a Service (FaaS). We’re focused on founders, funders and startups. Clients that are ever-changing and adapting. We like fast movers. And as you might have guessed, we’re not your basic accountancy. We can take care of tax and the books whilst building a syndicate fund and a multimillion dollar exit strategy. At Scendar, we’re empowered by our client’s potential. Find out more at Scendar.com
Dovetail Studios
Dovetail Studios operates a venture studio and VC to transform ambitious ideas into unstoppable businesses. On top of being a renowned product development partner for startups like Afterpay, they also operate a VC fund to invest in early-stage companies that go through their venture studio program. So if you’re a non-technical, early-stage founder looking for a talented team to help supercharge your success, check out dovetailstudios.com
Links Mentioned
Jaddan’s Links
People mentioned
Vance Joy (Artist)
Rachel Comerford (Co-founder @ Unified Music Group)
Tash Sultana (Artist)
Alex Zaccaria (Linktree & Side Stage VC)
Anthony Zaccaria (Linktree & Side Stage VC)
Matt Allen (Tractor Ventures & Side Stage VC)
Andy Miller (Heaps Normal)
Kim Teo (Mr. Yum)
Nick Crocker (Blackbird)
Emily Casey (What The Health & Side Stage VC)
Ben Grabiner (Side Stage VC)
Keiran Rivett (Side Stage VC)
Companies mentioned:
Previous Episodes Mentioned
Ep141 Alex Zaccaria (Co-founder & CEO – Linktree) on viral growth, customer focus and intuition
Ep109 Nick Crocker (General Partner – Blackbird) on investing with conviction
Ep137 – Matt Allen (CEO – Tractor Ventures) on believers, secondaries and confidence capital
Feedback/connect/say hello:
Rohit@startupplaybook.co
@RohitBhargava7 (Twitter)
/rohbhargava (LinkedIn)
@rohit_bhargava (Instagram)
My Youtube Channel
Credits:
Music: Paycheck