Live Nation Labs Shares Startup Funding Criteria

Last week, Live Nation announced the establishment of the LN Labs Fund to focus on early stage music tech start-ups. Now the company is sharing more about the kind of partnerships they're looking for. "We are not building an isolated product with Live Nation online," writes LN Labs Fund co-manager Ethan Kaplan, who is also LN Labs VP of Products. "Rather, we are building an ecosystem of products to meet and solve the big problems for our customers."

The "big problem" for Live Nation and its customers is, according to Kaplan,"connecting you to your favorite music and events on the world’s biggest stage."  To meet the challenge, the LN Labs Fund "is looking to work with partners in all aspects of our product: from infrastructure to media."

To filter pitches, Kaplan has created a rubric that he put pitches through "as a way of maintaining our own products focus on the customer above all."  Questions include:

• Is this additive to the user experience?
• Are we taking into account implementation and deimplementation? Does the cost/effort involved in those exceed the possible “best case” scenario of normal run-rate?
• Is this filling a hole that is created by necessity, resource constraints, product focus or a marketing need?
• Does this relationship effect our ability to be nimble?
• Is this partner aligned with our objectives? Are we mutually benefiting from this relationship in tangible ways?
• Does our relationship with this partner have any negative effect on our ability to maintain the core values of our team? Are they a good actor in the space?
• If this is an exclusive relationship, what is the downside risk?
• Is this a temporary solution or a long-term engagement?

More info on The LN Labs Fund here.