The Next Wearable Innovation: Create Music with Your Movement

Mershad Javan of Mictic tells us how to make music with your body movement.

First of all, how are you and your family doing in these COVID-19 times? 

Mershad Javan: Good overall. Fortunately, except for a few cases, our family and team made out fairly healthy during trying times. 

Tell us about you, your career, how you joined Mictic.

Mershad Javan: I’ve been a musician and songwriter, having played in bands most of my life. While in business school, I remained obsessed with the music industry and launched a few ventures, particularly independent music labels, with the vision of helping indie artists access some of the same resources only major label artists could.  

Thereafter I founded a digital music distribution company named MondoTunes (now Octiive) and, as its CEO, helped build it into the largest independent digital music distribution company worldwide. Octiive has proudly served over 100k+ artists and independent labels across hundreds of countries. 

I joined Mictic in March of 2020 as its CEO. I was introduced to Mictic by a colleague, and its technology/innovation immediately caught me. After months of video discussions with the Mictic founding team, I agreed to meet them in Zurich. It took me 60 seconds of trying the product, and I was completely blown away by its technology, precision and accuracy. I immediately knew that I wanted to join the team and help build this into a global brand. It didn’t hurt that they all came from a music industry background too. 

How does Mictic innovate? 

Mershad Javan: Mictic’s unique technology is the first of its kind for everyday consumers. Whether you have a Grammy or picking up an instrument for the first time, anyone can express themselves and start creating music in a matter of minutes. No other device on the market can match the precision, dynamics and latency solutions of Mictic. That Swiss engineering and design heritage definitely drive us.  

How the coronavirus pandemic affects your business, and how are you coping?

Mershad Javan: Of course, there were natural delays across different company divisions. That said, we always lean towards optimism and felt that our product, which gives just about anyone another creative outlet, would’ve been a great product during the shutdown. However, we’re still in the development phase and anticipate our market launch in Q4 of this year (2021) 

Did you have to make difficult choices, and what are the lessons learned?

Mershad Javan: We didn’t have to make too many difficult choices but rather shifted most of our focus on development. Like many companies, the pandemic really expanded our strategies towards just about every facet of our organization, and we tried to best prep with that in mind. 

What specific tools, software and management skills are you using to navigate this crisis?

Mershad Javan: As a startup, we’re pretty nimble and can adjust fairly quickly. Many of the communication, organization and structural tools we implemented were already in use, or we catered to our partners’ preference, etc. For example, we continued our Zoom (or Google hangout) calls, PM tools and platform, and instant communication channels such as Slack. The main difference was having people work from home rather than in a team office atmosphere. I always feel great ideas spark from team huddles and environments. That’s the part we missed, but we certainly. 

Who are your competitors? And how do you plan to stay in the game?

Mershad Javan: We always keep a running spreadsheet with new/potential competitors that exit or come into the picture. Everyone trying to do anything similar to us is either making something that’s really just a midi controller for professionals or something that’s essentially a toy with basic, primitive beats. We have several patents pending in just about every industrial region. Mainly, we’re confident that both our technology and our vision are unique. 

Your final thoughts?

Mershad Javan: We can’t wait to launch the first version. We sincerely and passionately feel that this product will connect with people around the world and give them the same experience and excitement it has given our team (and test groups that helped us shape up the product). 

Your website?

www.Mictic.com