I have had the great pleasure of interviewing Jake Chen from Musefy, the service I covered on its week of launch. The review is split in two parts – part 1 is found below, whereas part 2 is found here.

Enjoy!

Full Name: Jake Chen

Age: 22

Startup: Musefy

Position: Founder

Mr. Jake Chen

PART I

THE STARTUP

Tell us a little about your startup. How was it conceived? What are its most distinctive features in your opinion?

I like to think of Musefy as a virtual representation of the entire local musician community, thus providing ways to branch out and meet new characters that you would normally happen through mutual friends or sheer luck. Right now it’s only in its Alpha stage, so Musefy can only set up musicians with musical groups such as rock bands, jazz ensembles, a cappellas, and so forth. But down the line it’ll reflect all of the local elements a musician or a group might want to connect with, such as friends and fans, upcoming events, performance venues, and more.

As for the idea, I came up with the concept of Musefy after looking for a band to practice guitar with and being completely dissatisfied with Craigslist’s classified ads. To me, after using web applications such as Facebook and Last.FM where information is abundant and easily to sort though, pure text classified ads like those on Craigslist just seem very backwards. And thus Musefy was conceived. It has a powerful matching and filtering system and that is what I think sets it apart from the rest of the crowd. Using Musefy, you can stack multiple requirements to filter out exactly who you need, selecting not only from obvious things like instrument, location, and style, but all the way down to experience level, equipment, to the amount of time they’re willing to devote to a new group. Continue reading →