Easily one of the biggest winners of the last few years of streaming competition are music documentaries. Nonstop hits have been produced covering generational artists’ stories of perseverance, process, and their epic rise to stardom. Whether it’s Coldplay, The Jonas Brothers, Lady Gaga, The Bee Gees, Billie Eilish, The Beatles, or most recently Kanye West (to name just a few) it’s amazing to watch these stories…from your couch.

We’re all living in our own little startup documentaries. Except for those people who don’t have an inner monologue. Which sounds terrifying! But I digress.. I don’t know much about making music. But I do know that there are a lot of parallels between the art of making music and the growth of a scaling startup. There’s no business like show business. Let me explain.

Artists can be solo acts, duos, boy bands, bands of friends, rappers who produce, and more. There’s no one way to make a hit.

Whether it’s catching a lucky break or hustling endlessly to make your own you have to keep going and putting yourself out there. Building momentum is essential.

Systems & process keep things flowing. Writing daily or being relentless in the studio create good systems & process to do great work. And, for some acts, you see what can happen when you don’t pace yourself. It’s a demanding business.

So what am I really talking about?

Well, I went to my first team offsite last week since the pandemic started. Almost 2 years away from the office. It was only for a half day but it felt so great to get back “in the studio” together in person. You could feel the energy! That irreplaceable tempo you get from your peers. It felt like, for a moment in time, we were making some music. Or pushing a couple things forward at least.

It’s different.

In the post COVID world the future of work might feel a little more like the process of making music. Everyone will get together periodically in the studio to align and record some work. Then they’ll go back out on the road to tour until they record the next album. Offsites, and how they’re organized, feel like an important part of this future. The teams and individuals who find creative ways to come together and distributively build on that momentum are likely to make some hit records.

Sounds like a pretty creative endeavor. Might even be fun? Drop a beat!