How Sound.me Simplifies AI-Powered Influencer Marketing

1. What is your company in 2–5 words?

Sound.me is an AI-powered influencer platform.

2. Why is now the time for your company to exist?

As the founder of Sound.me, I see now as the perfect time for our platform's existence. We're revolutionizing the creator industry by simplifying influencer marketing, eliminating lengthy negotiations, ensuring creator accountability, and enabling global reach with immediate content posting. Our advanced AI technology optimizes campaign performance, allowing clients to control spending and achieve remarkable results—over 2 billion views in just a year. Facing challenges like platform stability and bot activity head-on, we've enhanced our system for better quality control and targeting precision. With over a million creators and expanding daily, Sound.me is poised for further growth, especially as we extend our services beyond music promotion to include brands in 2024. This expansion opens new opportunities, making Sound.me a pivotal player in redefining the creator economy at this crucial time.

3. What do you love about your team, and why are you the ones to solve this problem?

My team and I share a common vision and a relentless drive to create solutions that make everyone’s lives easier. We understand the pain points from both the creators' and the clients' perspectives, and strive to improve everyday. We’re always looking for the next problem we can fix.

4. If you weren’t building your startup, what would you be doing?

When I first moved to the United States, I was a touring guitarist. So, I would most likely still be playing guitar and touring, or producing music.

5. At the moment, how do you measure success? What are your metrics?

We measure success through hard numbers. Since launching, Sound.me has achieved remarkable success, amassing over 2 billion views, 500 million likes, 100 million comments, and 70 million shares within just a year. The platform is experiencing rapid growth, currently hosting over one million creators and adding approximately 5,000 new creators daily.

6. In a few sentences, what do you offer to whom?

Sound.me is a platform for content creators and marketers. It eliminates lengthy negotiations, lack of creator accountability, limited global reach, delays in posting promotional videos, and more by using AI technology to streamline the entire influencer marketing process. The AI also gives clients control over their marketing investments, targeting a global network of over a million creators and tracking campaign performance constantly.

7. What’s most exciting about your traction to date?

Our remarkable growth - as mentioned, we recently surpassed 1 million users on the platform in under two years, and we continue to grow at a rapid rate.

8. Where do you think your growth will be next year?

Next year, most of our growth will be focused on enhancing our targeting capabilities, which will allow for more highly localized and relevant promotions (for example, adding interests, hashtags, and Designated Market Area), and we are hoping to expand beyond music promotion to include a wider range of brands. This will diversify our clientele and open new opportunities for creators and businesses, tapping into new markets and fueling our platform's growth.

9. Tell us about your first paying customer and revenue expectations over the next year.

Our first customers were content creators and marketers looking to market their new music, but in 2024 we’re hoping to expand to other types of brands and marketing professionals. We expect to continue the same growth as this year, given the platform’s expanding capabilities.

10. What’s your biggest threat?

Ensuring that Sound has the capability to support our massive growth -  the current daily influx of over 200,000 users presented a substantial logistical hurdle, given the sheer volume of participants. So as we continue to grow, we need to make sure the platform is ready and still operating at maximum efficiency!

This startup founder interview template is based on HackerNoon Founder & CEO David Smooke’s ten questions for startup founders.