CEO of Audioo, Ryan Born Speaks about Audioo, Dealing with Criticism & Social Exhibitionism.

Ryan Born – an Entrepreneur, CPA, Photographer and Angel Investor, started his career as an auditor at PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC) after acquiring his CPA licence. Having gained some experience in the big Audit firm, he joined a start-up, WireImage as a VP of Finance and Financial Controller, which was later acquired for $208 Million by Getty Images. In the coming years, he invested in NewCondosOnline and served as the CFO there. Meanwhile Ryan didn’t let go of his passion for photography and even took it up professionally for nearly 2 years.

Ryan then went on to become the founder of AudioMicro, which is a library of royalty-free sound effects and music. He took the company to a profitable level that helped him acquire Audioo, which was transformed into a one of its kinds voicemail sharing service where people share their most outrageous voicemail messages.

In spite of receiving some amount of criticism and skepticism from various other entrepreneurs, he managed to make Audioo a TechCrunch Disrupt 2010 finalist. Today, as Ryan answers our questions, he explains how significant it is for a CEO to stick to his vision, and how Audioo can play a strong role in taking social media to the next level.  He also talks about what it takes to manage professional and personal life efficiently as an entrepreneur, and a lot more.

1. AudioMicro seems to be testing new waters with Audioo; what is it all about?

We saw a huge potential in another LA start-up, Audioo and decided to acquire it primarily for its technology and tech team.  Audioo was initially a site where users could share any kind of audio file – music, podcasts, sounds, etc. – like a YouTube for audio.  We saw an opportunity to take it over and quickly morph the platform into a destination for the public sharing of voicemails, combining two hot trends – the wave of voice to text transcription services and the fight for / against privacy or what I like to call “social exhibitionism”.

2. How did you come across Audioo and what made you acquire it? Please tell our readers more about the acquisition.

I met Audioo’s founder Ben Padnos about two years ago through a mutual acquaintance that I met at a Los Angeles networking event.  We became friends and as his site grew and his technology improved, it ultimately made sense for AudioMicro to take over Audioo.  We acquired his company and the transaction was handled by our favourite corporate counsel, Homeier and Law.  I can’t disclose financial details but I will say that the deal made financial sense for both Ben, Audioo’s founder, and AudioMicro, so we did it.

3. Apart from Audioo being used for fun, how else do you think the service may be used in the future? In other words, what other areas can it branch out to?

We intend to build the largest searchable database of the human voice ever – not just voicemails but speeches, telephone calls, presentations, conversations, and other type of monologue/dialogue that can be transcribed and searched.  As voice to text transcription services continue to take over our lives, we intend to be the central database where all this information will be stored and data mined.

4. From what we understand about Audioo, it can also be called YouTube for Audio, but any specific reason why you’ve compared it to Blippy instead?

The Blippy analogy was supposed to be related to taking something that’s traditionally private and making it public, that’s all.  Unfortunately, it seems that it was a bad analogy because not even the CEO of Blippy, Phillip Kaplan can understand it. I was a little surprised by his inability to “get it” so much so I actually confronted him on video at TechCrunch Disrupt, which you can watch here.  In the video, he actually ends up totally understanding it and really liking the idea.  Even Mike Arrington at TechCrunchsaid that “Blippy for Voicemail” was “super self obvious”. Apparently, though Mike and I do think alike, not everyone seems (e.g. Phillip) to get it right away.  In short, Audioo is a place to publicly share voicemails.  I guess we should leave out the analogies from this point forward.

5. Audioo looks like a weird idea; how difficult/easy was it to pitch it out?

I feel there are two types of companies that get pitched.  The ones where everyone goes, “ehh, that seems good, I like it” and the ones where people either say “that’s the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard” or “that’s totally genius” – one or the other.  I’m a fan of the stupid / genius ideas, the truly disruptive ones.  They either take off like rocket-ships or fail miserably, one or the other.  Regardless of their fate, you know where people stand right from the get go.    The mainstream ideas, the ones where people go “ehh, that seems like a good, I like it” often end up somewhere in the middle in terms of success – i.e. not home runs and not failures, but what VC’s refer to as “the living dead” because they never get big enough for a huge exit.  I don’t want to be a part of “the living dead” so I stick with disruptive, ridiculous ideas.

6. In spite of knowing that a lot of people are sceptical about the idea, how important do you think it is, for any CEO or a Founder, to remain motivated onto his vision irrespective of the criticism?

Absolutely crucial – you have to get up every day and swing the bat and to do so you must enjoy the game you’re playing in. You must be motivated to make things happen and ignore the haters.  Haters only make you stronger.  Anyone who says that you can’t do it or hates on your idea, just use it as fuel and motivation to prove them wrong.  The best things that ever happen to me are when some moron tells me I can’t do something – like when someone once told me “you’ll never be a professional photographer”.  One year later I had publicists begging me to cover their events and images in Rolling Stone and People Magazine.  Haters are just that – haters – and nothing more.  To all the sceptics out there, allow me to quote Steve Jobs…”By the way, what have you done that’s so great? Do you create anything, or just criticize others work and belittle their motivations?”

7. Audioo got the opportunity to be featured at TechCrunch Disrupt; how was the experience? And, how did the entire event benefit you?

It was totally awesome.  We went to NYC and launched the company live on stage in front of 1,700 people.  We made a ton of valuable connections.  The biggest benefit of conferences is the networking.  It’s nice to get a little press out of TechCrunch but really, it’s all about the networking and friends you make at these conference.  TC Disrupt is an amazing conference put on by industry leaders and visionaries. It’s an event everyone should attend if possible.

8.  As of now you’re focusing on start-up events to market Audioo, but do you have a long term marketing strategy in place?

No – we don’t have a long term marketing strategy in place.  We’re a start-up.  We don’t have a long term anything in place.  We roll with the punches and move swiftly.  Right now, we’ve partnered with The Jerky Boys on a contest – “Submit your voicemails, win a freaking iPad!”  The funniest voicemail uploaded to the site by June 30th wins an iPad. The judge of the contest is Johnny Brennan, creator of The Jerky Boys.  This guy is a legend.  We’re already getting some totally hilarious submissions.

For the coming months, we’re going to listen closely to our early users and find out what they like, dislike, and otherwise recommend in regards to the platform.  We’re already developing a voicemail scrapping technology that will make the submission process automated utilizing only your phone number, carrier, and PIN. Once we have the submission process nailed down, we’ll focus more on marketing the technology to new and existing users.  For now, we’re not spending any money on marketing, other the iPad.  We’re building a viral platform that will grow organically; we want our users to be evangelists of the site and technology, i.e., we ultimately want to turn our user base into our marketers.  If you like fun, entertaining content and you have a telephone, Audioo is the place for you.

9. In an era where video broadcasting/sharing sites like YouTube are on their peak, what role do you think audio can play in social media and what do you think is the future of audio based companies?

We believe that voicemail is the next frontier in social exhibitionism. That’s what Audioo is all about.  AudioMicro continues to grow and is now the largest micro stock music library on the web.  Over 50% of the entertainment value of any video comes from the audio.  e.g., try watching “Star Wars” without the sound – it’s a total dud.  It’s for this exact reason that we’re so bullish on the audio space.   There’s undying, often overlooked entertainment value to audio.

10. How is the work distributed among your team? Since it is managing two companies – AudioMicro and Audioo.

We use the same team for both companies.  Today, about 50% of everyone’s time is focussed equally on Audioo / AudioMicro.  We can easily shift resources among the two brands as necessary.  We’re small, crafty, and can pivot on a dime if necessary.

11. Being the CEO, how do you balance your professional and personal life? Any advice for our readers/upcoming entrepreneurs?

Family and friends…they will always be by your side, no matter what. Business goes up and down but you need to take care of the truly important people around you.   While business and customers are extremely important to any CEO, most companies are not hospitals. What I mean is that nobody is going to live or die because of voicemail, royalty free music and sound effects. This has been an important lesson for me to recognize. You don’t have to get super stressed out about every single fire drill. Actually most times it’s good to take a step back, relax, and then take care of whatever the issue at hand is.

Audioo’s Launch at TechCrunch Disrupt 2010