“Meet Damian Manning, he’s a great founder and has a service coming together that musicians truly need.” — Steve Martocci
This was the entire email I received in early 2019 from Steve Martocci, the founder of Splice, a Flybridge portfolio company. Steve had gotten to know Damian over the years. He was excited to introduce us and for me to dig into this new company, HIFI, which was in the early days of building a financial rights organization for the music industry. I sat down with Damian on February 28th, and I was sold five minutes into our chat.
It’s not often, in the venture world, you meet a founder with drive, charisma, self-awareness, and a keen sense for product, design, tech, and over fifteen years of experience in the industry they’re trying to disrupt. This was Damian. He had spent time as the head of digital media at MTV, had sat on the boards of many tech companies, and had built and sold a business in the music tech industry called Echospin. Damian’s whole career, it seemed, had led him to create HIFI, and he was ready to grow the team and the business.
In the year and a half since we first invested, the product has come a long way. Their first product, Royalties Dashboard, allows rights holders to see what they’re earning across all of their royalty accounts, helping them make better business decisions. Think of it as a technology-driven money manager specifically for musicians. Artists get paid by hundreds of organizations throughout their careers. From record labels to venues to streaming providers to publishers, they often have no idea where and when all of that income will come in.
But the idea for HIFI runs far deeper into the music industry business stack. The second product from HIFI, Cash Flow, pays artists twice a month “like a salary,” with HIFI making small advances to keep artists getting paid where required. Damian describes Cash Flow as a way to “insulate artists from the ups and downs of most royalty payments, helping them pay their bills, get an apartment, get credit and take advantage of options generally unavailable to non-traditional earners.” This is a huge deal for the millions of artists who can’t bank with traditional financial institutions. Artists that make millions of dollars from shows at places like Madison Square Garden or top the charts of Spotify often can’t get a mortgage or even a reasonable credit line for everyday purchases.
As an investor in many creator economy businesses such as Bulletin, Dough, Splice, and Wethos, we’re well aware of the outsized positive effects that these companies can have on their communities of creators. In fact this is why our entire investment thesis centers around community-driven companies. HIFI will empower artists to take control of their finances, open up new avenues of income, and enable many of them to grow their reach, their communities, and their careers faster than ever before.
Damian is one of those unique founders with the ambition to build a massive business and a clear focus on always keeping the artists’ interests at the forefront. Damian said, in an interview with Music Business Worldwide reporter, Tim Ingham, “I can’t tell you how many times we’ve been asked: ‘Why don’t you just become a publisher? That’s where the money is at!’ We’re able to do what we do because of our independence. The moment we encounter the same kind of channel conflicts that existing players in the market face, it inhibits our ability to provide the solutions that our members need from us.”
We’re excited to share that we, along with Matt Pincus and Lerer Hippeau, have partnered with and invested in HIFI. If you’re an artist, apply for membership. To learn more about Damian’s vision, check out the launch announcement on Music Business Worldwide, “Matt Pincus-backed HIFI launches to help artists’ actually see what they’re earning — and what they’re worth.”
P.S. I mentioned that we’re also welcoming HIFI’s latest team member. We want to congratulate Damian and Becca’s latest addition to their family, Lucy, who was born just as Damian was wrapping up the interview with MBW and launching this exciting endeavor! 👏🏻
We welcome two new additions to the Flybridge family — HIFI and HIFI’s latest team member! was originally published in Jesse Middleton on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
