Navigating the entrepreneurial journey: Where do you begin?

My life had entered a new chapter; I had worked harder than I ever thought possible over the course of two years in order to get myself out of the wheelchair, back on my feet, and back into doing what I loved.

As someone who had never really encountered setbacks before, the physical side of things was almost the easier thing to focus on; I knew exactly what I needed to do and thanks to my surgeon telling me that I needed "at least a year of olympian level commitment to exercise", despite a lot of pain and exhaustion, I kept pushing.

Milestones followed - I regained the ability to physically enjoy the world around me through walking, dancing, cycling and even skiing!

But something wasn't right; I could feel myself trying to live a life from a previous chapter instead of moving on - I read an excellent book called "Ikigai" amongst others, to help me find my purpose, and so I started to think, and plan.

I realised that despite being a safe option (and boy did I need safety for those initial years post-injury) I had lost the zing in my step because I was trying to do a job that my heart wasn't in. My partner (now wife!) and her family have always been a great source of encouragement, whether it's her approach of "don't worry, everything will work out", or the insipiration of seeing her parents doing their own thing across Hilversum and Friesland.

I worked across data and analytics to a level I'm really proud of, met some amazing people and learned invaluable skills to help work with people, projects, and conflict in a positive and healthy way, but I had realised it wasn't connected to any of my passions. Having come as close to death as I think is humanly possible - it dawned on me that we only have one life, so why not at least try and work on something you love?

Music and people.

One of my hobbies that grew during covid, was performing live techno under an alias with my housemate (wonky.clocks). He is a digital nomad, and eventually rented a long term studio where he could work, and make music without upsetting his neighbours or girlfriend (no offence James but your synth can make some excellent fart noises).

After seeing his studio, I started thinking about the business and market side of things. I originally moved to Amsterdam for its vibrant musical scene and mature approach to nightlife, so I started to think about potentially pivoting my career towards this passion.

I let it sit, and over time, started to get more restless with the excitement of starting my own business in an area I love. Music is always in my head, people are always in my heart, and I love working with my hands wherever possible.

Realising the dream

I was still working my corporate job whilst planning my next steps; I attended viewings of potential locations and started to work on a business plan - each time finding a location where the concept worked, the plan developed further and further - getting one step closer to making this actually happen.

For each location, something didn't work out, and in hindsight it's because I was trying to divide my time. Giving two things 50% of my energy, meant that neither would flourish.

What was needed to make the final push?

Leaving the comfort zone.

I know myself - I need deadlines to make things happen, so I said goodbye to Booking.com and started to take the entrepreneurship route more seriously.

Collaboration

I am an excellent personal contributor; if you give me a task with a deadline I will go above and beyond to make it happen. BUT I am not the best with long term planning, things are done to a good degree but usually last minute.

My approach and skillset are very much aligned with working well under stress, figuring things out when they need to be done, and making them work - this works for data projects, but less so when you're planning a business.

I had been speaking with my friend Hugo for a while about the project; as a music producer and someone with experience labouring, we had discussed the possibility of him coming over to help with the build phase of the project.

After about a year of this, when he was most recently over in the Netherlands for a joint trip combining Dekmantel music festival and my wedding, he was sold on moving here - and we both asked each other if he could join as a co-founder rather than just muscle.

This has been the biggest step in maturing the concept of Soundspace Studios; Hugo's eye for detail and long term planning/security combined with my boundless optimism and "build fast then tweak" has seen me work harder than ever before in areas I wasn't thinking about (compliance, legal).

We like to think we've reduced the unknown unknowns as much as possible.

The last few months have seen us work on countless floor plans, financial projections, 3D models, market research amongst others to bring together our skills and make the business plan as concrete as possible.

We've become proficient with lots of new tools in order to visualise our dream, and learnt a lot about the administrative side of starting a business.

You begin by doing, by trying and failing, iterating, and incorporating feedback.

Lean on your network, feedback is fuel and criticism is priceless.