Today we’d like to introduce you to Kevin McCarty.
Hi Kevin, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers?
I moved to Nashville in August 2015 to pursue my dream of an entrepreneurial career by combining my true love of the music industry and technology. I’ve played guitar since he was 13 years old and was in a band called “RumRunners” throughout college. When I first moved to Nashville, I had an opportunity to work on a side hustle (100% commission) with a new music platform that helped musicians and artists crowdsource shows by using their fan’s locations and social media.
While it didn’t get off the ground, and I made no money for eight months from it, I couldn’t be more grateful for the experience and hands-on learning of how the music business works. My passion for being around songwriters and musicians also landed me as the sidekick on the podcast, “Nashville Hits Collecting Dust” with host and friend – Donald Jenkins. Through that experience and I kept hearing songwriters continually talk about how hard it was, even in Nashville, to find the “right” songwriters to co-write with.
Serendipitously at that time is when my friend and co-founder, Richard Casper, came to me with this idea of a “tinder for songwriters.” So at that moment, we started “We Should Write Sometime. Since its launch in November 2018, WSWS has organically grown to over 5,000+ songwriters across four countries. My co-founder and I are the only full-time team members and have been featured in RollingStone, Forbes, and Billboard.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Definitely not a smooth road. When we first started working on the app, a friend of mine was doing the development work. But after eight months, he had to unexpectedly quit. So we had to, what felt like starting from scratch, with the new development company. That process took three months to find the right company and was definitely a long process with many learning lessons along the way.
We also only raised a little bit of money from outside investors and put in a lot of our own money to get the app up and running. With only the two co-founders as the whole team, there is a big challenge in managing priorities, maintaining business needs, helping out users, executing on all the marketing and social media initiatives, looking for new investors, managing interns, and working with the developers.
On the personal side, I want 14 months without paying myself anything for a salary which was a considerable challenge and drain on my personal savings. We also had to deal with significant delays on the development side due to covid related issues.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about We Should Write Sometime?
Songwriters are the heart of the music industry. Our mission is to help songwriters spend more time doing what they love to do, write songs! Since 2010, only 4% of the Top 50 songs have been written by a solo songwriter. This means co-writing is crucial for success. This is why we created, We Should Write Sometime (WSWS).
WSWS helps songwriters set up the PERFECT co-writes with a simple “Swipe Write.” RollingStone Magazine called it a “Tinder for Songwriters.” WSWS uses geolocation for songwriters to find other songwriters around them. Each profile has a bio, links to music and socials, songwriting skills, instruments played, and which PRO they belong to.
WSWS saves precious time and makes it easy to precisely find what you want and need in a co-writer. When a songwriter “swipes write” on a profile, if that songwriter “swipes write” back, then the double-opt-in is completed. Now the songwriters are connected in the app to message each other to set up a co-write. All without sharing personal information. If there aren’t any songwriters around, users can geolocate to other cities and countries to find and connect with songwriters in other areas. WSWS has been featured in RollingStone, Billboard, and Forbes. #swipewrite!
WSWS has organically grown to over 5,000+ songwriters worldwide since its launch in Nov. 2018. Over 7,000+ matches/co-writes created. WSWS just released the “Pro Tier” for verified “pro” songwriters. This means that verified “pro” songwriters would have the option to only see other verified “pro” songwriters in the app. Or, they can see all songwriters if they choose.
WSWS is currently the only app focused solely on connecting songwriters. Available for free on the App Store & GooglePlay in the US, Canada, Australia, and Israel. Plans to expand to the UK and other countries very soon!
SwipeWrite!
What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
My faith and belief in what I am doing and why I’m doing it. Because music is a universal language that everyone can relate to in some shape or form in whatever they are doing or going through. And behind that song is a songwriter. So if we can help songwriters bring songs to the world that help people feel, move, live, or chase their dreams, we will gladly take on that endeavor.
I often think of when I heard Tony Robbins say, “if you want to take the island, burn the boat.” And that is something that I can definitely relate to as I have put close to all my financial savings into WSWS, so there is no other option than to make this a success. And that is incredibly motivating for me.
You hear it often, but it couldn’t be more accurate, and it’s to surround yourself with people that will support you, lift you up, are doing things you want to be doing, are positive, challenge you, and that allows you to be vulnerable. Entrepreneurship is a very lonely road, so having a support team and outlets to help you along the way is vitally important.
Contact Info:
- Email: contact@weshouldwritesometime.com
- Website: weshouldwritesometime.com
- Instagram: @weshouldwritesometime
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/weshouldwritesometime
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/WSWriteSometime
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDOhHijfx3dXBcfg8s4x-ug
- Other: https://linktr.ee/weshouldwritesometime
