I recently went one-on-one with Lior Tibon, co-founder and CEO of Duetti.
Adam: Thanks again for taking the time to share your advice. First things first, though, I am sure readers would love to learn more about you. How did you get here? What experiences, failures, setbacks, or challenges have been most instrumental to your growth?
Lior: I started working in finance in London right after I graduated, back in 2009. I worked for over 5 years as an investment banker in a large bank (Deutsche Bank). That was the first time I started learning about and becoming involved with the music industry by advising companies in the space.
Because of my work in the industry, I received an inbound in late 2014 with an interesting offer to join a team that JAY-Z was putting together to support the launch of TIDAL, the first global streaming platform owned by artists. I decided to take the plunge and moved to NYC. I was with TIDAL for over seven years as COO until it was sold to Block, the global payment company, in 2021. I left one year after the acquisition and started Duetti right after, in mid-2022. Duetti provides financing to independent artists and songwriters via catalog acquisition and management.
My experience at TIDAL was critical in shaping my knowledge and understanding of building a business and the music industry. TIDAL represented a truly innovative and unique vision of artists owning music distribution, but was fraught with enormous challenges of building a global music app in a hyper-competitive environment.
Adam: How did you come up with your business idea? What advice do you have for others on how to come up with great ideas?
Lior: The idea for Duetti combines different elements from my career up until that point – finance as well as music, including both the artist/songwriter side as knowledge of music consumption. I was observing different trends in the space, such as the increase in catalog sales by “A-listers” and the increasing appetite of financial investors to invest in the space, and thought that Duetti could bring about the next step in the evolution of the sector.
While there is no obvious template, I believe innovation usually happens cross-functionally by adopting elements from different disciplines in order to create something new. This is the case for Duetti, which transfers core concepts and practices from asset finance into the music industry. My advice to others, therefore, is to try and think of existing problems in a new context and “mashing” different disciplines together.
Adam: How did you know your business idea was worth pursuing? What advice do you have on how to best test a business idea?
Lior: The most important step in validating the business idea behind Duetti was to speak with as many people as possible – artists, songwriters, industry stakeholders, investors, and others – as we were thinking through the idea in general as well as some of the specifics. We were trying to understand the fundamental perspectives of the relevant parties and go to market quickly so we could learn and adapt based on every interaction.
Adam: What are the key steps you have taken to grow your business? What advice do you have for others on how to take their businesses to the next level?
Lior: The most important advice I have is to focus and do very few things well before expanding. When you start building a business, there are a lot of temptations to branch out and to cast a wide net, but a better way, in my view, is to take concentrated bets on very few things, prove them out, then build the right execution mechanics around them before proceeding.
As an example, at Duetti, we started with doing deals only for artists who fully control master recording rights. We did not pursue the songwriter’s catalog or other royalties. We had to actively say no to many great opportunities, but we decided to be patient and build expertise with one deal type before proceeding. About 2.5 years after we started, we expanded into publishing catalogs and other royalties.
Adam: What are your best sales and marketing tips?
Lior: In sales, I usually try to put myself in the other side’s shoes so I can think through what matters to them, what are they trying to solve for, and what are the key points of concern. That allows me to try and construct a genuine and authentic approach to the conversation. It’s important to understand what motivates and drives them so we can come up with the right solutions. The same goes for marketing – it’s about understanding your customer, not assuming what works for you works for them – and authentically trying to meet their needs.
Adam: In your experience, what are the defining qualities of an effective leader? How can leaders and aspiring leaders take their leadership skills to the next level?
Lior: I subscribe to the notion that leaders should lead from the front. Even today, as Duetti has a bigger team with a wider footprint, I try to make sure that I directly contribute to certain specific company efforts where I can add value, versus managing teams “from the top”. There is no substitute for leaders to directly be “in the trenches” with the teams on building products, interacting with our artist and creator partners, and working with our financing providers. Leaders should try and strike the right balance between directly engaging versus micro-management and over-involvement; I would rather be more “on the ground” than less. No job is too big or too small, and by working on the front lines, I can experience what my team does in their specific roles and help eliminate roadblocks they may have.
Adam: What is your best advice on building, leading, and managing teams?
Lior: I try to give a lot of autonomy and decision-making powers to our teams at Duetti – within clear frameworks. I believe in direct and clear communications as well as owning mistakes and directly acknowledging those so we can learn and grow from them.
Adam: What are your three best tips applicable to entrepreneurs, executives, and civic leaders?
Lior: Innovation often means you need to “break things”, but you need to do so with care, attention, and a deep understanding of why things have behaved in a certain way up to this point.
Good is not the enemy of perfection. It’s better to launch an imperfect proof of concept to gain signal and see if it’s something worth investing more resources into, versus burning resources to create something perfect.
Related to this, you should always be shipping – add value regularly and put things in the market rapidly. Finding novel ways to shorten lead times and add value is an important muscle to build and maintain.
Adam: What is the single best piece of advice you have ever received?
Lior: That’s a tough one! One example is to never overplay your hand. When you have a strong negotiating position, don’t overdo it, since going too “hard” will probably come back to haunt you at a later stage.
