Hey everybody,
Nick here. First of all, don’t worry – the website will continue to work, and the company will continue to grow, and your profiles are safe.
My leaving just means that the organisation will be directed by someone else: Bryce Kothe.
Consider this an explanation, a walk down memory lane, and a quick look to the future...
Why I’m leaving
I’m not exactly sure why I want to quit. Perhaps it’s simply a good time for me to go.
I've spent a long time in the world of street performers. In 2007 I uploaded my first video of buskers to YouTube, and launched my first website. And for the last decade I’ve basically done very little other than focus on this company. It has been fascinating, rewarding and fun, but it’s time to do something new with my life.
Or, maybe I’m leaving because the thrill has gone.
When Lily and I were building the company in 2014, there was so much uncertainty! Our success hinged on the answer to four questions we had absolutely no idea about:
Will buskers sign up to a busking-specific website?
Will street audiences trust peer-to-peer micropayments?
Can we stop cashless payments being the death of busking?
Can we build a sustainable & ethical company in this space?
Getting answers to those questions was quite the ride, but here we are, eight years later, and can report back that the answer to ‘1’ and ‘2’ is a definitive YES. As of today, over ten thousand(!) street performers have registered in 130 countries, some of whom are earning a significant portion of their daily tips on our platform.
As for the 3rd question — about busking’s tech-assisted death — so far cashless payments have been far less bad than feared, and the technology is improving all the time (for the nerds among you, I think CBDC + blockchain is where we're headed). It’s also pretty clear that buskers face more pressing threats in the form of gentrification, the privatisation of public spaces, rent hikes and the general decline of our city centres.
Unfortunately, the answer to ‘4’ hasn't yet been settled. Sure, the company is more ethical than any equivalent service: no ads, no selling data, no exploitation, no investors, and we make the vast majority of our services completely free.
However, this has obviously made it difficult for us to build a sustainable business. Our survival thus far has largely been possible because so many people (literally dozens!) have volunteered their time, others have worked for far less than they could have charged, hundreds of you have donated, and I've been able to cover whatever small losses we've accrued each year.
So, I should have been more money-minded. I should have been trying to expand our reach, encourage sales, reduce costs and fundraise. Instead, I focused on the part of this job that excites me: developing new features and discovering what’s next.
That’s not what’s needed now. What’s needed now is someone with a business mind who’ll knuckle down and make some ethical money.
Lily, Pisco and me in London this Spring
There are lots of other reasons why I want to (and probably should) move on to something that doesn't require me to be a 'leader'. I hate hiring and managing people; I’m inefficient with my time when I’m uninspired; and I dislike uttering the words CEO, Founder, Company, Revenues, KPIs, Users, Platform, Metrics…ugh.
Thankfully, the pressure is off. we’ve got a really good replacement lined up. I’m going to talk about Bryce and our new Board of Directors in my next email, but you should know that this is really good news for you and the rest of our community.
Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for making my time at The Busking Project so rewarding, and for all the positive feedback and constructive criticism along the way. You’ve kept me going, you’ve kept my hopes alive, and you’ve kept me on the straight and narrow.
How weird, to be handing over all what we built to someone new. But how exciting, to see what’s coming next.
Thanks again, and I wish you all the best of luck out there,
Nick