Victory at the BIME PRO startup competition
The Bizkaia International Music Experience (BIME) is a 4-day event being organized since 2013 in Bilbao. It’s at the same time a Music Festival (BIME LIVE), a free open-air music showcase (BIME City) all across the city of Bilbao, and one of Europe’s top Music and New Tech Conferences (BIME PRO). The event gathers visitors from more than 30 different countries to Bilbao and is the hotspot for everyone working within the Music Industry in Spain.
ANote Music won the first prize in the Startup Competition, unlike many other events this prize isn’t just a financial aid. The first prize consists out of an all-expenses covered trade mission to the South Summit in Mexico, Bogota and Madrid for one person together with the BIME delegation. During this trade mission, which will take place in the second half of 2020, the organization of BIME PRO will set up a number of high level meetings with VCs and important players from the Music Industry.
These networking opportunities are crucial for pushing our project to the next level, and getting the right introductions by already recognized entities makes things a lot easier of course. This kind of prizes is super valuable for us. However, winning this competition is one thing, but what actually means the most to us is the incredible market validation we received and all the positive feedback from the jury and investors. Many experts from within the music industry came to visit our booth shortly after we won, showing genuine interest in ANote Music and our innovative approach
Together with the BIME PRO organization, we leveraged this victory to get a 15 minutes meeting with Mathew Knowles, a veteran in the business. Besides being the President and CEO of the US-based record label Music World Entertainment, a Talent Manager and a very successful businessman, he is probably best known for being the manager of Destiny’s Child, and being father to superstar daughters Beyoncé and Solange Knowles, who he both managed. It’s not every day a startup from Luxembourg has the chance to talk with a true legend of the music industry like this. After pitching the mission and vision behind ANote Music, we received very motivating feedback and some good business advise. You can’t put a price on these kind of market validations and, to us, they mean the world.
