A great startup idea isn't enough. The real challenge is knowing how to turn it into a business.

Mikael Säwström from Brewhouse Inkubator in Gothenburg, Sweden, joins Sound of Startups to share his experience supporting early-stage founders in music technology and the creative industries.

From Sweden's entrepreneurial ecosystem to the realities of startup incubation, Mikael explains how founders can validate their ideas, identify the right audience, and work towards product-market fit. He also discusses why startups can struggle when they focus too much on technology and features instead of solving real customer problems.

We explore the importance of bootstrapping before seeking investment, finding investors who understand the market, and building teams that can adapt as ideas evolve.

This episode offers practical insights into startup validation, sustainable growth, and the decisions involved in building a business in music tech and the creative industries.

If you're a music tech founder, aspiring entrepreneur, or building a business in the creative economy, this conversation offers a grounded perspective on turning ideas into viable businesses.

Hosted by Taj A Khan and Produced by Amplitude Ventures AS.

Can music AI truly serve a global audience if it doesn’t understand the world’s musical traditions?

In this episode of Sound of Startups, we speak with Jad Al Masri, violinist, composer, lawyer, and founder of Motif, about building technology that helps music and technology platforms better understand non-Western music.

Drawing from his Middle Eastern musical heritage and legal background, Jad shares how Motif grew from a creator-focused idea into a company building licensed, expert-annotated cultural music datasets and metadata infrastructure. Starting with the Arabic Maqam tradition, Motif is working to translate cultural knowledge into machine-readable context for AI, recommendation, search, and other music technologies.

Jad also reflects on his work around intellectual property and AI, the limitations of existing music metadata, and why the next generation of music technology needs to understand cultures beyond Western musical frameworks.

Listen for a thoughtful conversation on music, law, cultural data, ethical AI, and what it takes to build technology for a truly global music industry.

Hosted by Taj & Produced by Amplitude Ventures AS.

Some of the biggest opportunities in music tech start with problems the industry has learned to work around.In this episode of Sound of Startups partnered with MUSIC FRONTIERS 2026, Charles Accarisi and Tom Levoir, co-founders of Bridgent, share how more than a decade of friendship evolved into a startup focused on simplifying artist booking.Charles brings years of experience as a producer, touring artist, label owner, event organizer, curator, and booker, while Tom brings a background in economics, data, and strategy. Together, they are building an integrated platform designed to help promoters, event organizers, and artist agents manage the booking process in one place.We explore how they validated the idea through more than 50 conversations with industry professionals, developed their early product, bootstrapped the company, and learned why relationships remain such an important part of the music business.A conversation about complementary founders, firsthand industry experience, and turning a persistent workflow problem into a music tech opportunity.

🎧 Listen to the full episode of Sound of Startups and hear Charles and Tom's journey with Bridgent.Hosted by Taj & produced by Amplitude Ventures AS.