Q&A with Brenden Mulligan (Co-Founder, Onesheet)

By Dave Mainella

Earlier this week, we reported on Bandzoogle’s acquistion of Onesheet, a platform designed to help artists create and maintain an attractive online presence.  We had a chance to talk with Onesheet co-founder Brenden Mulligan about the sale, his other projects, and his resume as entrepreneur.

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SoundCtrl – What was your goal with Onesheet and, in your opinion, has it been achieved?

Brenden Mulligan – My goal was to make it dead simple for musicians to create a web presence of their own with content they’d already posted elsewhere.  Tens of thousands of musicians have proved that goal was achieved.

SC – In your blog post announcing the acquisition, you mentioned that you first talked with Bandzoogle  the moment Onesheet launched, hoping to work together rather than compete.  Was this acquisition really destined from the beginning?  Was there any catalyst that finally made the deal happen?

BM – Both companies had an enormous amount of mutual respect for each other from the moment of launch, and we wanted to work together.  The catalyst for finally getting the deal done was my desire to focus my time on Cluster and [Onehseet co-founder] Ryan Marshall’s desire to take some time off and go out on tour. Seemed like a perfect time to find a new home for it and Bandzoogle was the ideal buyer.

SC – Did Bandzoogle have any competition hoping to partner up with you and Onesheet?

BM – I did talk to a bunch of different companies, both large and small, but just didn’t find a fit as strong as with Bandzoogle.  When selling a business in this way, it’s important to me that the users are affected as little as possible.  I had the same strategy with ArtistData, and over 3 years later, ArtistData still exists and tens of thousands of artists use it daily.  I wanted the same future for Onesheet: for the site to keep operating and the users to be taken care of.

SC – After you sold ArtistData to Sonicbids in 2006, you joined Sonicbids as a VP of Strategic Development.  Do you still work with Sonicbids?  Will you be joining Bandzoogle in any similar capacity, or simply helping with the transition?

BM – I left Sonicbids in June of 2011.  For Bandzoogle, we’ve already assisted with much of the transition, and my time will be spent focused on my new startup, Cluster.

SC – What’s your gaol with Cluster?  How many active users does it have, and do you have some targets moving forward?

BM – We want to make it simple and fun for groups of people who have a shared interest or experience to combine their photos into a central, social, album.  People are using it for weddings, vacations, and other events, but also using it for keeping an ongoing album of their new baby or pet that the whole family can contribute to and enjoy.  It’s unbelievable to see how well it’s working and how amazed people are when they start seeing all the photos they never knew existed before. 

SC – Cluster is free to join, with premium features to be unveiled in the near future.  Can you hint at what some of those features might be?

BM – Our users are building incredibly meaningful, unique, and emotional photo collections.  We haven’t made any decisions on premium features, but it’s likely that we’ll offer ways to save and print these albums.

SC – Onesheet and ArtistData are two of your products with an emphasis on music tech.  While Cluster is a divergence from that, do you have any plans or interest for other music-based projects?

BM – Working in music has been a great joy, and it’s something I’ll always be thankful for.  However, it’s a difficult market that has some core industry problems that need to be addressed. I can’t imagine wanting to build another company in that environment.

SC – Have you always been a sort of serial entrepreneur?  What was your first entrepreneurial venture?

BM – ArtistData was my first startup, but selling toys at a flea market when I was 8 was probably my first entrepreneurial venture.

SC – It seems that you most enjoy creating, happy to let others eventually carry through your vision.  Is it ever difficult to let go of something like Onesheet, something that you’ve committed yourself to building from scratch?

BM – The hardest part is finding the team to hand it off to.  That’s a very long and hard process.  Once they’re found, handing it off is easy, because I have enormous confidence in the team.

SC – You’ve certainly had your fair share of great ideas.  What are some exciting products that you’re seeing today, particularly in regards to music tech, others’ great ideas that you admire?

BM – It’s not new, but I still find Pandora to be the best service for consuming and discovering music.  The best purchase I’ve made in the past year has been outfitting my apartment with Sonos.  That system has brought music intro my life in a way I’ve never had before, and I don’t know how I lived without it.

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