Rivet

Rivet empowers artists and their teams together, with the long-awaited tools and systems they need to support their business and make better decisions. The first of two core features is a rights and royalties reconciliation engine, that not only centralizes a complete picture of your earnings but also proactively identifies unclaimed royalties (a $2.5B industry problem). The second is an industry tailored digital wallet and settlement function that centralizes faster payments and avoids predatory middle-agent transaction fees.

Background

The archaic and outdated system that underpins the music industry's rights and royalties space is a widely known problem that few are in a place to meaningfully disrupt. However it was quickly apparent how well placed the Rivet founders Logan and Joel were to give it a shot. With Logan's professional history in the payments/fintech space (ex GM of Payments at Airbnb) and Joel's significant reputation and level of access in the music scene itself (ex partner and global head of electronic music at WME).

Recon (4 weeks)

• Product Strategy
• Product envisioning (UX/UI)
• Minimal viable brand (MVB)
• Roadmap and MVP build scoping
• Investment narrative and materials

Process

Recon

The founders and their early circle of advisors had loosely mapped out their idea before engaging Josephmark to help forge a clear consensus and articulation. This included documenting a clear product strategy and prototyped envisioning of the product that could be used for both internal, stakeholder and recruitment purposes.

Investor narrative and materials

The complexity of the venture—both as a fintech play and how it fit within the music rights and royalties space as an investible proposition—was a particular challenge in articulating within a concise narrative for the investor pitch and materials. We worked closely with the Rivet team in devising this narrative and it's materials, including using our own in-house investment manager as a hypothetical investor for mock pitching and feedback.

My Role

As the product strategist and team lead I worked closely with the founders, advisors and our team to articulate a product strategy, roadmap, envisioning and investor narrative for their initial raise. This included working closely with the design team on UX and UI considerations; our Directors of Delivery and Technology on feasibility, architecture and scoping; and our Investment Manager on the investor narrative.

Key takeaways

• New territory: Going this deep in the fintech space was a first for many of us. This was reflected in the added time to onboard ourselves into the space and their idea, to the point where we could both articulate, challenge and contribute.
• Navigating relationships: Managing not only direct clients but their advisors and key stakeholders can vary in complexity. This project included one such advisor/investor who became a volatile contributor to the point where the founders had to excuse him out of the fold. In the entertainment space this can be more common than usual and something we as a studio are rather battle-hardened by. I was particularly proud of how we as a team handled it as this same person later referred us several times to his own network.
• Piloting new services: This was one of the first projects where we piloted a more structured investor pitch exercise, utilizing our newly hired investment manager to provide impartial critical feedback. This included not only for the founders in their pitch approach delivery but also our own work in helping form the materials and overall narrative.