Boomy Corporation | Multiple Roles | REMOTE New York, NY | REMOTE Raleigh-Durham, NC
At Boomy (https://boomy.com), we're developing market-leading AI-powered music generation systems, which people use to create, release, and monetize instant songs regardless of access to musical knowledge or talent. Think smartphone camera, but one-click songs instead of photos. Launched in February 2019 out of Boost Accelerator and backed by both VC and music industry, our users have already created 1.5M+ original songs and released tens of thousands of them to streaming services... and we've only just started building.
Open roles:
- Frontend Developer: if you're a JS (specifically VueJS) whiz, and want to hack on an unprecedented set of product challenges, this is the role for you!
- A&R Associate: if the idea of listening to 10,000 songs to find 10 great ones is not only compelling but fascinating to you, you're just the kind of weirdo we want to meet.
- Customer Success Manager: we didn't want to call it "answering tons of customers, managing the social media no one has time for, oh and also managing email and probably 10 other things we aren't thinking about right now" so we called it "Customer Success Manager"
Someone outside of the startup world asked me "what is YC" and my reply was "the accelerator that rejects you."
My impression from having applied, and from knowing founders at various stages (some of whom went through YC, others who were rejected at various stages, one rejected at interview 5+ times in a row!), is that there is such a high volume of applications now that the person you get matched with to review yours is a total shot in the dark. If it isn't someone who "gets" your industry, you'll kind of just be thrown to the back of their pile. There is a lot of serendipity to who advances. I have heard some insiders complain that their recommendations aren't really taken seriously.
YC was the only accelerator who rejected us. We did a different one (at a true "idea stage") and it went great. Make sure to apply to others like Techstars, Capital Factory, Masschallenge, Betaworks, Boost VC, the list goes on. If it's a numbers game now, then whether you get picked for any particular accelerator is probably more a function of the total number of applications to that accelerator than anything else.
If you're super early stage, I'd recommend trying to find out if there are any accelerators sponsored by your local government, they tend to have way less applications since they're only pulling from a local pool.
There is probably a value-add to YC besides just money, but there are literally hundreds of accelerators that have copied the model at this point. If you really have something, the venture community that YC taps will notice regardless. It's always better just to take the cash and build IMO.
> If you're super early stage, I'd recommend trying to find out if there are any accelerators sponsored by your local government, they tend to have way less applications since they're only pulling from a local pool.
Not sure how to self-characterize. We've probably invested somewhere in the order of $300K of our own funds in this to get where we are. Keep in mind this is hardware (+software), which means the monetary scale is very different.
We are at the stage where we are going to start showing our pre-production prototype to potential customers sometime next month. Frankly, the closer we get to a sale the less interesting VC money or an incubator becomes. In other words, if I close a $5MM sale next month (which is in the realm of possibilities) there is no way anyone is getting 7% of the business for $150K.
> There is probably a value-add to YC besides just money
Definitely. Not interested in money for the sake of money. Money by itself is useless and easy to waste.
> Someone outside of the startup world asked me "what is YC" and my reply was "the accelerator that rejects you."
I don't take that as a negative but rather more as a reality. They get so many applications it is inevitable that the vast majority of applicants will not be accepted. That's just reality.
YC is a 1% acceptance rate - so there bound to be plenty of complaints and horror stories.
> literally hundreds of accelerators
Yeah. But $150K/7% is a superb cool deal. A couple of alternatives give you $100K. And then its down to "$25K stipends" even pay-to-play (e.g. OnDeck?!). Am i wrong ?
YC also has (perceived?) network value, u r competing with full-traction or YoY-revenue-growth companies. SAD !!
As with most of the options suggested in this thread, no pricing and no explicit definition of whether it can be used on videos and no clear definition that I can save output of a specific length.
I get the impression that most of the music software companies are run by people who are very musically/engineering oriented, but not very connected to the business side of things.
I shouldn't have to send an email to a company saying "how do I buy this?"
Without any obvious product or service for sale, it's not discernible from a hobby project.
Boomy's EULA [0] is a fairly easy read that covers the business side of things.
> In consideration of free use of Boomy, any arrangement, sound recording, composition, and/or musical work accessed through the use of the Boomy platform, shall be the property of Boomy Corporation as a work-made-for-hire.
> The user may not edit, remix, or create derivative works of the song outside of the Boomy application without purchasing ownership.
> The user may not distribute the song to streaming services without purchasing ownership.
> The user is permitted to purchase the ownership from Boomy for a fee outlined in the Library section of the Boomy app.
As someone with chronic sleep paralysis (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis), it is astonishing how frequently I read about pseudo-paranormal or "OBE" experiences and go, yeah, that's just sleep paralysis man.
Although, the causes of sleep paralysis still aren't well understood, so maybe it's a VR bug after all ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Same, I’ve had sleep paralysis for as long as I can remember. A lot of stories of alien abduction, out-of-body experiences, mystical visitations by nightmares and demons, &c. strike me as plainly SP. Learning that it’s a normal sleep disorder made the experience less frightening and confusing, and kept me from falling into the trap of thinking of it as supernatural. Now if I have an episode I just relax and wait for it to be over. I haven’t had one in a long while, though, by avoiding triggers such as sleep deprivation, stress, alcohol, and sleeping on my back. Unfortunately, that also means I have to avoid lucid dreams, which are closely related—and yet as far as I’ve seen, this connection is rarely talked about except by the lucid dreaming community (also often rather mystical and full of woo).
I've had SP a few times, more often on the couch than in bed for some reason. A friend that has these experiences very often gave me his pro tip for dealing with them, as soon as you realize you're having SP, simply use all of your will to bend your index finger, the second you get your finger to bend, you snap out of it. Worked for me the few times I've had to use it, and it gives you something to focus on at the same time.
Sure, different things work better for different people, and that method is certainly worth a try, as I’ve heard it works for many people with SP. Fighting it tends to just make it worse for me—usually giving me a false awakening after which I often wake up paralysed again, sometimes two or three times. Sometimes it does help to try to regain control of my breathing—a big part of the anxiety for me is being “stuck on auto”. Could be related to sleep apnea, dunno.
I sometimes get SP (couple times a year max) given long sessions of programming, sleep deprivation, weakened immune system. part of me recognizes them and is able to "step aside" while mind stays busy generating colorful "wannabe frightening" pictures. whole thing reminds me muscle pain after hard workout but for the brain. most peculiar thing is that body sort of associates fear with liberation.
Yeah, the whole time I was reading that section I was thinking the article was just going to be based on quackery that could easily be explained by sleep paralysis and stimulating brain regions responsible for proprioception. The sudden turn into utilizing it for VR was unexpected and quite interesting.
Great point. Our DB actually does include quite a few of these “hidden” gmails that some VIPs use - we’re getting better at that - but FWIW the vast majority of VIPs aren’t using those.
Re your harvesting comment, we don’t even keep a temporary copy of the CSV you upload, for privacy reasons - it’s all handled on the frontend. Clearly, customer trust is paramount for a business like ours :)
I would pay $20/month for a simple, easy to set up affiliate management service.
Seriously - there are literally hundreds of affiliate management services out there, I've looked at dozens of them, and none of them quite fit the following requirements:
- Simple setup
- Reasonably low cost
- Dashboard for affiliates to track clicks & signups
Most existing systems also wrap up some sort of customer referral widgety thing, which I don't need. Or, the websites are broken / look like they're from 2001.
ReferralCandy is probably the closest thing, but again, it's way more set up for "customer referrals" vs professional or semi-pro affiliates. The integration process is also super heavy.
We literally built our own affiliate management since everything that fit our requirements was so expensive. This seems like an obvious side-project for someone to knock out.
I would pay much more than that for a system that matches what I have to sell with affiliates that could promote it properly. I have a couple side eZines/Paid Newsletters I would love to promote through affiliates but finding those that have the kind of traffic I'm after seems so impossible.
(Here is where I'm hoping someone chimes in to say that already exists)
This is something I've considered doing for years after dealing with the likes of Clickbank, etc. I'd love to pick your brain for your requirements. How can I get in touch?
Yes - this is a great example of what I'm talking about, it starts at $800/month (https://www.getambassador.com/pricing) with a bazillion features I don't need.
At Boomy (https://boomy.com), we're developing market-leading AI-powered music generation systems, which people use to create, release, and monetize instant songs regardless of access to musical knowledge or talent. Think smartphone camera, but one-click songs instead of photos. Launched in February 2019 out of Boost Accelerator and backed by both VC and music industry, our users have already created 1.5M+ original songs and released tens of thousands of them to streaming services... and we've only just started building.
Open roles:
- Frontend Developer: if you're a JS (specifically VueJS) whiz, and want to hack on an unprecedented set of product challenges, this is the role for you!
- A&R Associate: if the idea of listening to 10,000 songs to find 10 great ones is not only compelling but fascinating to you, you're just the kind of weirdo we want to meet.
- Customer Success Manager: we didn't want to call it "answering tons of customers, managing the social media no one has time for, oh and also managing email and probably 10 other things we aren't thinking about right now" so we called it "Customer Success Manager"
Apply at your own risk: https://www.linkedin.com/company/boomy-corporation