Building a Market from Scratch: Generative Music for Enterprise Customers

Recorded in July 2024, Aimi founder Edward Balassanian joins Fund/Build/Scale to share how his AI-powered platform creates generative, copyright-safe music for enterprise clients. He explains how customer discovery with DJs shaped Aimi’s tech, why compliance is core to their strategy, and why the company downsized after hitting product-market fit — all while inventing a market where AI music solves problems humans can’t.

RUNTIME 30:47

EPISODE BREAKDOWN

(4:17) “ I consider myself a platform person. I build operating systems.”

(7:39) “ It's incumbent on a founder in a space like this to be well-versed in not only the art of the music, but the science of the music as well.”

(9:14) “ We see a song as a medium between fans and artists. We're not in the song business.”

(11:03) How Aimi is building a library of licensed content: “We’ve been pretty methodical.”

(14:59) “ We see ourselves as kind of uniquely in the business of music AI for creation, not for imitation.”

(16:46) “ We de-risk the use of music. That's one of the biggest selling points for enterprise customers.”

(18:44) “ Like most tech people, I would say we're always going to be in beta.”

(21:58) Why Aimi raised its $20M Series B in 2021.

(24:01) Downsizing after reaching PMF “ was the best decision that we that we could have made.”

(28:05) “ I think what's really interesting is building platforms, and any platform today is going to have to incorporate AI into it.”

LINKS

• Edward Balassanian (Crunchbase)
• Aimi
• AI-Powered Music Platform Aimi has raised $20 million in a Series B round of funding

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Thanks for listening!

– Walter.