Crowdmix
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
Crowdmix was a London-based social music startup founded in 2013 by Ian Roberts and Gareth Ingham, positioning itself as an 'Instagram for music'. It built an app designed to get music lovers creating 'crowds' - groups of likeminded fans to share songs (via YouTube, Spotify, and iTunes), chat, stream music, create playlists, and connect with artists and fellow fans. It struck partnerships with major labels and artists including Universal Music Group and Calvin Harris, and hired high-profile executives including former Universal Music digital boss Rob Wells. The company raised more than £14 million ($18.5 million) in venture capital and employed a 150-to-160-strong team across London and LA. It soft-launched an invite-only version of its app in May 2016, but never launched fully; in July 2016 it entered administration, and its assets were auctioned off to its top investor, billionaire developer Nick Candy, through Candy Ventures SARL (Candy had put £8 million into the company).
02 / Crowdmix FAILURE REASONS
Failure reasons
Crowdmix burned through £14 million without fully launching, and a post-mortem by Music Ally - based on interviews with many involved - identified a dozen intertwined reasons. The core problem was directionless execution: the product lurched from iteration to iteration without logic, with thousands of ideas but chronic problems implementing them; co-founder Gareth Ingham was described as brilliant but ungrounded, and Ian Roberts as skilled at raising money but unable to execute a product. The company hired 150+ people and spent at VC scale before the product proved itself, with profligacy and a bloated headcount burning cash. When a fourth funding round fell through in mid-2016 - after CEO Roberts stepped down in June amid reports of unpaid wages - the company could not pay its vendors and entered administration. The failure also poisoned the music-tech investment category: music streaming was dominated by Spotify and SoundCloud, and a social layer on top offered too little to get off the ground.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Founded
Ian Roberts and Gareth Ingham founded Crowdmix in London as an 'Instagram for music'.
- Invite-only launch; CEO departs
Crowdmix soft-launched an invite-only app in May 2016; in April it laid off 8% of staff, and in June CEO Ian Roberts stepped down amid reports of unpaid wages.
- Administration; assets sold
On July 12, 2016 staff were told the company was entering administration after a funding round fell through; assets were auctioned to top investor Nick Candy's Candy Ventures SARL.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN
How the factors connect
- 01
Founded in 2013 in London by Ian Roberts and Gareth Ingham; raised over £14 million (roughly $19 million).
- 02
Its invite-only launch in May 2016 never went public; the CEO resigned in June, and on July 12, 2016 the company entered administration.
- 03
The assets were acquired by lead investor Nick Candy through Candy Ventures, which planned a small-team relaunch.
- 04
No audited loss figure was publicly disclosed.