For early-stage founders in music, streaming and digital media
You've got the idea. Now the harder part.
A senior industry operator alongside you as you shape it, plan it, and build it well. Someone who has run digital entertainment innovation at Sony and understands your industry and product.
30 minutes to understand your situation and share my initial thoughts.
19 years inside Sony Music · SVP Digital, then Commercial Partnerships · Currently advising an early-stage AI venture in music
The Moment
You've decided. Now you want someone senior beside you.
You've decided you're doing this, or you're one call away. Maybe you have an idea, a deck, a first pilot customer. What you don't have is someone senior who has actually done this, in this industry, alongside you.
Your friends are supportive but not close enough to the work. Consultants are too commercial. Investors haven't earned the right yet, and you're not raising anyway. What you want is a sounding board with real weight: someone who can help you think it through, spot the risks you can't see from where you're standing, and keep you honest about what's real and what isn't.
Who This Is For
Operators stepping out on their own.
Founders who spent 10 to 25 years in music, streaming, digital media or an adjacent industry and are now stepping out on their own. Or operators from other industries building into music or entertainment, who need an industry insider by their side. The idea is real, the direction is chosen or nearly so, and the next 12 to 18 months are the ones that either work or don't.
How It Works
Read. Define. Build.
The Root Note Approach, applied to a founder and a venture.
I.
Step One
Read
What's actually true about you, and what's actually true about the venture in front of you. Before we design anything, we see it clearly.
II.
Step Two
Define
The shape of the business, the honest scorecard, the market read. What you're building, who it's for, and why it wins in this specific slice of the industry.
III.
Step Three
Build
An implementation roadmap through the messy early months, with someone senior who isn't going anywhere. Monthly calls, texting between them, and steady momentum.
Pricing
Three steps, one ladder.
Step 1
The State of Play Call
30 minutes to understand what you're building and where you're stuck, then share my initial read.
Free
Step 2
The Venture Compass
A concentrated 1-month effort: 3 structured calls, with work on both sides in between, to create, pressure test, and optimise the business plan and roadmap. Outcome: an internal or investor-facing deck that captures the work and outlines any remaining gaps, and how to close them.
£1,499
Step 3
Make the Move
Close the remaining gaps through research and clear decisions. Then start diving into the roadmap together with foundational steps that support your go-to-market journey and build real momentum through continuous thought partnership and decision-making.
£4,999
Add-on
Go-to-market package
Run with MettaStartup Studio. Positioning Deepdive, Social Media Content Strategy, Website Direction, and your own GTM Claude Project Setup.
£1,599
After
Longer-term advisory
Low-touch, or deep access when you need me closer in.
£500 to £1,000 a month, or £3,000 a month deep access
Prices in GBP. The Venture Compass credits in full toward Make the Move, so Compass then Move is £4,999 total.
Why James
I've sat on the other side of the tables you're about to face.
19 years inside Sony Music, ending as SVP: Digital, then Commercial Partnerships. I ran the UK relationships with Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon and YouTube through the streaming shift. I know how these companies think, what they buy, and how they decide, because I sat on the other side of those tables for a decade.
Right now I'm the paid advisor to an early-stage AI venture in the personal-brand space serving artists, athletes and actors. Which means I'm doing this work live, not from memory. I'm also building my own music-adjacent AI tool alongside this practice, so I'm walking the founder path with you, not talking about it from a chair.
Music Week Best Sales Team 2024 · GLG and Coleman expert · ICF Level 2 · Westminster MA guest lecturer
Straight Answers
The questions people actually ask.
- What if my idea isn't strictly in music?
- If it's in music, streaming, digital media, entertainment or the tech serving them, we're in scope. If it isn't, I'll tell you honestly on the State of Play Call and refer if I can.
- Can we swap money for equity?
- Sometimes, on the right terms. I already hold an advisor equity seat with an early-stage founder now, so it's a real conversation, not a maybe. Ask on the call.
- Do you write the deck for me?
- We build it together. I don't ghost-write. If I did, what you'd get is a version of someone else's founder, not yours. My job is to help you see what only you can see.
- Can we start smaller than the Compass?
- Book the State of Play Call. Sometimes that's enough on its own. Sometimes it isn't. You'll leave the call knowing which.
“He didn't just offer generic career advice. He helped me translate skills I'd built over decades into a new venture.”
Kelly Bush
Start with the free 30 minutes.
Free. Thirty minutes. You leave with a straight read on the venture in front of you, whether or not we work together.