By: Rachel Tunney
When Matt Fiedler first moved to Chicago, he wasn’t focused on grabbing the best deep dish pizza or taking photos by The Bean. Instead, Matt concentrated on trying to create an apartment that reflected his personality and life-long devotion to music. But he wondered how he could do that.
Then, it dawned on him: vinyl records. Records: with detailed covers of colors and patterns, could surely brighten up an apartment, even one that would see darkness and snow half of the year. Records: that could work! With the joy of creating a space that reflected his musical taste, Matt spent his free time browsing through record stores but quickly realized how the thousands of albums could be overwhelming for the average music junky. He found that it was near impossible to walk in and purchase just one album. Matt wished someone could just pick a selection for him, knowing his specific taste, his likes, and dislikes. It is this experience that led to a series of questions:
What if we did that? Is there a sort of record club for people who want to build a record collection? Does that exist?
It didn’t.
“We were young enough and naïve enough to try.” – Matt Fiedler
And so, on January 1, 2013, with maxed-out credit cards and fingers crossed, Matt and his Co-Founder, Tyler Barstow, launched Vinyl Me, Please: a music company and record of the month club connecting people with music through experience. What might have started as a hobby in Chicago, sowed the seeds of a journey with a subscription-based-vinyl service that would drastically change the way people listened to music as much as it would change Matt’s future.
from drums to degrees
Matt + Music have been an item since day one. His father played the guitar, and he was self-taught on drums, good enough to play in bands during his school years. He chose Belmont University for a degree in music and thought nothing of the fact that music can be an unpredictable field and rarely provides a clear career trajectory. It excited him. Matt studied under Belmont’s music business program and added an entrepreneurship major to it when he realized he would like to work for himself one day.
After graduation, Matt struggled to find a job that put music front and center. He worked at a tech company, writing their business plan, the financial model, and leading projects for rebranding. It was here that he shared a very small office with Tyler Barstow. To pass the time, the two talked music.
In the interview, Matt mentioned that during this time, Spotify was starting to become popular in the United States. He credits the music-streaming site as a catalyst in changing the way the average music consumer listens and shares music; the consumer model was changing from paying for ownership to paying for access. Matt jokes that the ten-year-old in him realized that a certain level of music experience was missing from this model- an almost tactical connection with music.
And so, in 2013, Vinyl Me, Please was born as a record-of-the-month club, and now includes an online record shop and a music magazine. It was designed to offer its customers a record each month, along with custom art prints and a cocktail recipe. The company has since grown to have over 30,000 subscribers across more than 40 countries and offers one-of-a-kind vinyl pressings, events, and diverse content. See the company’s FAQs here for more information.
After the launch of this “passion project,” pursued on nights and weekends, Vinyl Me, Please got too big to ignore. Matt quit his job and took on the company full-time.
the entrepreneurial mindset: always ask
Matt credits his success to his comfort in asking questions. At any given point, Matt has twenty mentors. Though not originally a necessity he envisioned as a CEO, Matt understands that time for tactical and high-level abstract conversations with those who have gone before him is necessary to further the success of Vinyl Me, Please. An entrepreneur must check the ego at the door. Matt stated that regardless of how smart you are, your training or degree, if you appear closed off, you will be closed-minded to potential improvements in both your company and your leadership.
“I’m smart enough to ask the questions and willing to be curious…I’m smart enough to know that I don’t know everything and take other people’s insights and do something with them.” – Matt Fiedler
Eventually, Matt stated, even successful business models will miss something, and what once worked, will not forever. An entrepreneur must always be prepared to reinvent.
Advice: “Every time you double, everything breaks.”
This nugget of wisdom has resonated the most with Matt recently. He said it is one of the truest rules he has learned, and it applies to all aspects of the company: when business, budget, team, revenue or customers double- there is a reality of collapse. Matt loves this mantra because it solidifies an understanding of the inevitable: even for a successful entrepreneur, things will break. He said there are two ways to respond:
1 – Accept the statement as true;
2 – Keep a watchful eye on what is most likely to break
CEO/Co-founder: the ever-changing role
Matt has had about four or five different re-creations of his role in Vinyl Me, Please. He’s had to get comfortable with handing duties and obligations to people who are more passionate and more qualified, in his words. Matt has had to accept that though he feels he is losing control by being forced into a more high-level and strategic position, it is the natural evolution of his role. And that CEO and Founder are not always the same.
“You need to give up certain parts of your job so that other people can do them. And hopefully do them better than you can.” – Matt Fiedler
Work & Family: Separate but one
“I don’t do it perfectly. I’ll be the first one to say.”
When I asked Matt about his work and family balance, Matt Fiedler was honest. He says there is no perfect way to separate the two (work and family). Entrepreneurs must live with the reality that they will be pulled in both directions at times. For Matt, that juggling act of work and family is less daunting because of Ester Mellado Fiedler, his wife. Matt’s voice took on a slight softness as he described a very strong relationship, and their mutual understanding of the support each one needs, whether it be with the company or their three children.
I had the opportunity to hear from Ester as well. And much as Matt indicates, her perspective is necessary to understand the magical beast that is Vinyl Me, Please. Ester feels just as connected to the business as her husband. And she admires Matt’s ability never to stop questioning.
“Seven years of sacrifices and joy and fear and success and kids and criticism and praise and on and on and on…I’m thankful for it. And also, so tired.” – Ester Fiedler
To further explain how his business and family are one-in-the-same, Matt offered an illuminating analogy:
Vinyl Me, Please, Matt said, will always be his first child. And like a child, the company has to grow up. But, he mentions, the “growing up” process can hurt- both parent and child, company and co-founder. When a baby falls and hurts itself, the pain can physically hurt you too. And Ester echo’s the feelings. She said she has a hard time not taking things personally, be it the comments on social media or Reddit threads because she knows how much care the company has for its customers.
“Our first month, we carried eight boxes to UPS in downtown Chicago in massive IKEA bags. Eight people paid Vinyl Me, Please that month for a curated album, and we were so giddy about that fact. Every month since, Matt has never taken a customer for granted. Every glitch, delay, etc. hits Matt hard.” -Ester Fiedler
Matt said it is hard to feel that pain and watch the struggle, even when he knows the process is necessary for growth. Like a parent watching their child on a playground, Matt knows that Vinyl Me, Please has to learn to get up after a fall. It doesn’t mean that the struggle is easy to watch. But, as any good parent knows, the child will wipe their tears, take a breath, and try to land the jump one more time.
Recommended Reading: (Matt has chosen memoirs because he thinks it is necessary to know the stories of others.)
Shoe Dog: (Matt has made it a habit to read every year) An inspirational story of overcoming challenges to grow a company as fast as possible by Nike’s own founder, Phil Knight.
The Ride of a Lifetime: A book about Robert Iger’s journey as the CEO of Disney, including lessons of leadership learned along the way of leading 200,000 employees.
The Hard Thing About Hard Things : A book on Ben Horowitz, co-founder of Andressen Horotwitz, and his entrepreneurial experience in Silicon Valley of founding running, managing, and investing in technology companies
This post was authored on February 1, 2020.
Rachel Tunney, at the time of this post, is a 2L at Penn State Dickinson Law. Formerly a professional New York City dancer/singer, Rachel is now interested in pursuing a career in corporate litigation. Rachel currently serves as the Dickinson Law Student Representative for the Pennsylvania Bar Association and is an Associate Editor of the Dickinson Law Review.
Sources:
https://www.vinylmeplease.com/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/markbeech/2018/09/14/how-this-ceo-30-grew-his-10-million-business-in-five-years-from-vinyl-records/#57768e29763e
Photo Sources:
https://www.vinylmeplease.com/
https://amazon.com
