Vandall
Building a Music Platform from Zero
The Situation
A professional musician had an idea for a startup addressing $2.5 billion in unclaimed royalties. Split sheets are missing, metadata is incomplete, and accreditation goes undocumented. Any one of these gaps can cost musicians money. Usually all three are broken at the same time.
The Problem
No single source of truth for music projects. People use WhatsApp, Dropbox, Google Drive, and WeTransfer but none handle metadata, which is essential for getting paid. Most people in the industry don't want to deal with metadata because the tools make it tedious.
The Approach
Hundreds of user interviews and tests across the music industry worldwide
Brand identity, positioning, messaging framework, competitive analysis
Full product design: UI/UX, service design, onboarding flows
React Native (Expo) mobile app with Rust/Actix-Web backend
Growth marketing: 88+ YouTube videos, organic and paid campaigns
AI-powered audio analysis and EPK generation (Vandall Labs)
The Magic Moment
89% of research participants preferred Vandall over their current tools. 85% said they'd pay for it. When we stopped advertising, the numbers kept going up. People find it, try it, and stay.
The Outcome
€550K raised. ~1,500 MAU with 40.9% month-1 retention. Slush Top 50 selection and Google HQ demo. First B2B customer (Nordic Bridge Music) signed December 2025. Full music industry infrastructure built from zero.
€550K raised pre-seed
~1,500 MAU with 40.9% M1 retention
Slush Top 50 and Google HQ demo
First B2B customer signed (Nordic Bridge Music)
Full music industry infrastructure: rights management, metadata, collaboration
Production-grade stack: React Native, Rust, PostgreSQL with 54+ migrations
What Transferred
The same user-centric methods taught to clients for years, applied to our own product. Research first, prototype fast, test with real people, iterate. The difference is you never stop doing it.