ON CAMPUS
How did you learn about Hult
and what inspired you to become
a corporate partner?
How did you find supporting our
students at Hult?
I learned about Hult through my brother,
Mohit Mukherjee, who is an educationist
at the University of Peace in Costa Rica.
He has worked with Hult in the past and
he referred to his very positive experiences
in conversation. I spoke at an event called
Startup Grind in London a couple of years
ago, and shortly afterwards I was approached
by a member of the Hult team who invited
me to speak on campus. My first experience was taking part in the
Hult Founders Lab Challenge when I was
still working for Virgin Money. We were
designing a solution or proposition for young
people in the U.K. and the Hult students
provided me fantastic insights into what was
important to that particular group. We worked
with students across campuses and programs
and their recommendations really helped to
shape the proposition that Virgin Money
sought to take to the marketplace.
I was delighted to accept, partly because
of my brother’s recommendation about
Hult’s scope and excellence, and partly
because I enjoy sharing my entrepreneurial
journey with young people who are
considering becoming entrepreneurs
themselves. At the time, I was Head of
Innovation at Virgin Money, a retail bank
in the U.K., and partnered with Hult for
a corporate project. The rigor of the working methodology
was very impressive. What really impressed
the entire team was the creativity, the
imagination, and the drive to generate truly
feasible business recommendations. Overall,
the whole team at Virgin Money had an
overwhelmingly positive experience working
with Hult. There were also a number of follow
up activities which really helped to bring the
proposition to market.
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What was your vision when you founded
Shazam, and can you tell us about your
biggest achievements and challenges?
Our vision was simple—to be able to identify
any song wherever you heard it, whether that
be in a bar, in a cafe, or in your car, using your
mobile and just a 15 second clip of the music.
The ups and downs were trying to invent the
algorithm, finding all available music in the
U.K. and then the world, and creating a viable
business model. And then over time
changing the interface, iterating the user
experience until finally, after the iPhone
launched in 2007 and the App Store in 2008,
Shazam became an app.
I think the achievement is that Shazam
is now almost ubiquitous in terms of its
association with music recognition and media
identification. The challenge was surviving
as a business through some really difficult
times. When the Internet bubble burst there
was no funding available. It was difficult to
make money in the music space. The take
away from that is the desire to survive—to
live to fight another day. I’m delighted that
18 years later we sold the business to Apple
and I’m able to stand up and share the stories
with other entrepreneurs and encourage
them to keep faith even in their darkest hour.