For this month’s startup feature, we will be interviewing Meng Kuok, CEO of BandLab. BandLab is a cloud platform where musicians and fans create music, collaborate and engage with each other across the globe.
Hi Meng, what’s your current role in BandLab, and how did your past experiences take you here?
I’m the CEO and Co-Founder of BandLab. Apart from my other job running Swee Lee Music (www.sweelee.com.sg), I think the most relevant experience I had prior to BandLab was actually my own journey in music and understanding first-hand some of the challenges facing musicians and aspiring creators.
How did you come up with the idea? And what problem is BandLab trying to solve?
The seed was planted during my time working with my other Co-Founder, Steve Skillings, as Swee Lee began representing JamHub, a product he had invented. We connected deeply on his idea of the possibilities of new technology enabling a Cloud DAW (Digital Audio Workstation). The theme of collaboration and enabling the creative process subsequently began a wonderful conversation that has taken us here. We’re excited to see where it will take musicians in the future.
In terms of the problem we were trying to solve, we wanted to make things easier for musicians and to simplify the very fragmented process of creating music. I think that’s what BandLab is genuinely capable of doing: breaking down those technological, creative and geographical barriers between musicians and making it easier to collaborate together.
How long did Bandlab take to finish development? (before the product could meet the market)
Like any software company, it’s very much an ongoing process. There’s always something new to add, improve or change, so hopefully we’ll never actually “finish” development! But it took us about 9 months from first assembling the team to going live with a product that we felt proud to launch and start to receive feedback on.
What are your preferred platforms/tools?
My weapon of choice is a Fender Stratocaster, but I don’t get to use it much these days. It’s mostly been replaced by Excel, Trello and Slack.
Have you gotten any interesting feedback from users of the app?
Some of the most meaningful feedback has been from users that have shared what BandLab has done for them outside of music.
I was chatting about the app with one of our users, who told me a lovely story about how BandLab has given her a way to reconnect more closely with her older sister. As children, they used to make music together all the time—she would play piano and her sister would sing—but they now live 3000 miles away from each other. The platform has given them a chance to re-engage musically, and was enriching their long-distance relationship dramatically.
It’s feedback like this that really drives us on as a team (as well as fixing the bugs that any technology product comes across from time to time!).
I think the rate of engagement of our users suggests that we are on to building a thriving and lively community of musicians and music lovers.
How do you keep yourself motivated, especially during the low times?
So far, the forward momentum has been extremely compelling, so the lows thankfully haven’t been that low or that frequent! But some of the best advice I’ve ever received has been: “Don’t be too happy when things are going well, and don’t be too sad when they’re not.”
On a day-to-day basis, I’m particularly energized by being able to work with a team who are all highly motivated by what we’re doing—creating new opportunities and possibilities for music creators.
If you could go back in time when you first started, what would you have done differently?
While I want to learn from past mistakes, I’m not one to dwell on them too much or regret the decisions I’ve made. I’m a firm believer that every decision is made with the wisdom I have at the time.
An important lesson I’ve definitely learnt is that—especially when you’re working with new user behaviour—it’s important to find the balance between what people already understand and know how to use, and how far forward you can go on innovating to solve a problem.
What’s next for you?
A flight to Hong Kong!
What’s one advice you would give to budding entrepreneurs?
Live and die by your vision, but never be afraid to question it.
What’s it been like working with Musicians as an audience?
Tremendously meaningful. It’s a cliche, but it doesn’t matter where you’re from, what background, what age you are—music is a wonderful shared language that brings people together.
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