David Ciccarelli is a Canadian entrepreneur who began his career as an audio engineer running his own small recording studio.
In 2005, he decided to help local businesses connect with local voice actors and actresses. What started as a small humble idea, has transformed into Voices.com, the world’s #1 marketplace for voice-overs.
As founder and CEO, David is responsible for determining the company’s vision, executing its growth strategy, and managing the company day-to-day.
He often writes about these experiences in the Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur Magazine, and Forbes.
Voices.com has successfully raised $2M in funding from the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC), followed by $18M Series A funding from Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital located in San Francisco.
Now, let’s hack…
David Ciccarelli
Highlights from the interview
- [12:00]: David originally got the idea for Voices.com when he knew someone who needed a female voiceover artist. He teamed up with one and split the money 50/50. Eventually, they ended up getting married. They created a website and started listing voiceover artists.
- [14:46]: David eventually decided to rebrand from Voices Interactive to something else, but needed a domain name. He went so far as to bid $100k (which he didn’t have) on Vox.com. Eventually, he found Voices.com, which at the time was a medical journal article that hadn’t been updated since 2000. He reached out through his lawyer and was able to purchase Voices.com.
- [25:00] David discusses how Voices.com is differentiated and unique from other marketplace sites like Upwork. Rather than being a general site with dozens of categories, Voices.com is designed specifically for voice talent. The profiles are set up for audio demos in different categories, and the search results bring up audio as well as names and reviews. The entire user experience is designed around listening, which was a strategic choice that makes Voices.com a more effective place to find a voice artist than a generalist freelance marketplace.
- [32:45]: “Do only those things that only you can do.” A CEO’s role, David says, is to connect the internal aspects of the company with the world outside of it — customers, investors, suppliers, etc. There are things only a CEO can or should do, like speaking with investors directly.
Resources and links from the episode
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