Ep163 – Jaddan Comerford (CEO – Unified Music Group) on investing in creativity

The Startup Playbook PodcastInsights and lessons from the world's best entrepreneurs and investors Twitter Facebook YouTube Instagram Ep163 – Jaddan Comerford (CEO – Unified Music Group) on investing in creativity May 19, 2022 rohitbhargava Podcast My guest for Ep163 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was Jaddan Comerford, the Founder & CEO of Unified Music Group and Partner at Side Stage Ventures. Jaddan started Boomtown Records as a 17 year old 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. Most recently, Jaddan launched Side Stage Ventures, a syndicate fund to invest in early companies that play at the intersection of creativity and technology. In this episode we dive in deep into some of Jaddan’s lessons from his 20+ year journey in building Unified Music Group into a bootstrapped, multi-million dollar international business including; scaling through delegationfinding your nichehow to strategically and effectively expand the businessinvesting at the cross section of creativity and technology& much more! Join our newsletter to stay up to date with our latest content: startupplaybook.susbtack.com Timestamps  3:59: Jaddan’s background6:20: Entrepreneurial lessons from Jaddan’s parents8:55: The story behind Jaddan’s first signed artist12:22: What Unified Records looks for when deciding which artists to back14:30: How to scale through delegation18:57: Whether Jaddan would have taken a different path with Unified if funding options were available to him when he got started20:20: How Jaddan’s experience shaped his investment philosophy23:29: Similarities between successful artists and founders25:37: Lessons from operating in the music industry27:33: How to overcome challenging days/periods in your journey31:15: What is Side Stage VC36:24: What gets Jaddan excited in potential investment opportunities39:56: How early stage companies can demonstrate their ability to execute to investors if they don’t have users or revenue41:31: Side Stage’s investment process44:06: How and when to effectively expand your business47:17: How Unified takes combines a strategic and opportunistic approach to expanding its business49:01: 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 Lawpath’s Legal Advice Plan gives you access to lawyers on demand for one low monthly fee. Create legal documents, sign online and have a lawyer on-call to help you through any legal need for a fraction of the cost.  Lawpath has helped Australian businesses save over $100 million in legal fees, and are offering Startup Playbook listeners up to 20% off their most popular legal plans. Visit lawpath.com/playbook for your exclusive discount and discover an easier way to get your legals sorted. 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  Jaddan’s LinkedIn 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: Shock RecordsBoomtown RecordsThe OrchardSony MusicRed Hill EntertainmentMusoTixelUnified Music GroupBolsterLinktreeHeaps NormalQsicVitruvianTEN13 VCLoom 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 convictionEp137 – Matt Allen (CEO – Tractor Ventures) on believers, secondaries and confidence capital Feedback/connect/say hello: [email protected]@RohitBhargava7 (Twitter)/rohbhargava (LinkedIn)@rohit_bhargava (Instagram)My Youtube Channel Credits: Music: Paycheck Other channels: Don’t have iTunes? The podcast is also available on Spotify, Soundcloud & Stitcher Audio Player. Find all links to the podcast here. https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/startupplaybook/163_Ep163_-_Jaddan_Comerford_CEO_-_Unified_Music_Group_on_investing_in_creativity.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download | EmbedSubscribe: RSS admin January 1, 2014 Reply Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat admin January 1, 2014 Reply Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat admin January 1, 2014 Reply Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. 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