2018 SXSW Pitch Winner: Vochlea Music
The Forrest Four-Cast: October 13, 2018
Some of the world’s most innovative startups are showcased at SXSW Pitch, formerly known as SXSW Accelerator.
If your startup wants to be involved in the 2019 competition, then click here for entry information. But don’t delay on getting involved, because the final entry deadline for SXSW Pitch is Thursday, November 15.
Entrepreneurs, founders, funders, investors and other related professionals will also want to attend these two tracks of programming at SXSW 2019: “Entrepreneurship & Startups” (scheduled March 8–12) and “Tech Industry & Enterprise” (scheduled March 8–13).
Today we catch up with Vochlea Music, the company which won the Entertainment & Content category at SXSW Pitch 2018. Other interviews in this series include Polyport, ARwall and DroneSeed.
George Philip Wright, the CEO of this London-based startup answered questions for this interview.
Also, click here to read Vochlea Music’s pre-SXSW interview from last February.
Vochlea is developing real-time vocal recognition technology for music creation. What has your company focused on since you won the Entertainment & Content category at SXSW Pitch 2018?
After SXSW 18 we focused on getting some seed money in. We closed a round in August 2018, did a little recruitment and have been head down on the product since then.
Can you share some significant developments for Vochlea over the last six months?
Our biggest breakthroughs have been in technology and team. We’ve brought on Daven Sanassy, our new CTO, and have totally rearchitected our tech.
What kind of opportunities did winning your category at SXSW Pitch open up for Vochlea?
Its always difficult to pick apart but certainly having SXSW Pitch winner on our deck made closing the round easier.
What was your most memorable moment at SXSW 2018?
Is it too obvious to say winning the SXSW Pitch competition? If you told me three years ago that one day I’d be beatboxing in front of that many people, I’d have found it very hard to believe.
Could you name the most surprising/inspiring thing you learned or saw at SXSW 2018?
Working in music tech I think some of the most inspiring moments from SXSW 18 came from the live music performances. Jazz Re:freshed was the stand out for me. Hadn’t known what to expect and it was so good I have since sought out to see some of those acts again back in the UK.
Could you name a favorite panel/event of SXSW 2018?
SXSW is pretty intense. To counter that, this year, I really enjoyed unwinding at the end of the night with midnight horror film screenings.
Do you have any advice for applicants to the 2019 SXSW Pitch contest?
Two minutes is so short that in order to say what you need, you have to choose every word carefully and rehearse exhaustively in advance.
Do you have any big-picture advice for attendees looking making the most of their time at SXSW 2019
Use the SXXpress Pass! Unbelievably I didn’t realise it existed until the festival was almost over.
What should we expect to see from Vochlea over the rest of 2018 and for the first part of 2019?
We’ll be launching a crowdfunding campaign early 2019 — watch out for that and sign up in advance through www.vochlea.co.uk.
Hugh Forrest serves as Chief Programming Officer at SXSW, the world’s most unique gathering of creative professionals. He also tries to write at least four paragraphs per day on Medium. These posts often cover tech-related trends; other times they focus on books, pop culture, sports and other current events.
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