Key takeaways:
- Authenticity and clear brand messaging help build user trust and credibility.
- A strong brand identity can sustain growth in competitive markets.
- User-focused product development can propel user engagement and loyalty.
Many assume that launching a great product guarantees success, but reality proves otherwise.
In 2023 alone, about 3,200 venture-backed startups that amassed over $27 billion in cumulative investments shut their doors permanently.
Moreover, only 0.7% of unicorn startups profit at scale.
So, how can startups improve their chances of success?
We speak with Joris Astier, co-founder and president of La Touche Musicale, about how startups can gain loyal users and stand out in a competitive industry.
Who is Joris Astier?
Joris Astier is the co-founder and president of La Touche Musicale, a leading EdTech company revolutionizing piano learning and music creation through AI-powered tools like PianoConvert. With a strong background in business development and marketing, Joris has played a pivotal role in the growth of La Touche Musicale, guiding the company from a small startup to a platform serving over 350,000 users worldwide. His passion for music and technology drives his mission to make musical education accessible to everyone. Alongside his talented co-founders, Joris ensures La Touche Musicale continues to innovate and inspire musicians of all skill levels.
A search for "piano lessons" in any app store yields dozens of options. On Google, that number expands to thousands, indicating a highly saturated market.
Yet, despite the stiff competition, La Touche Musicale is thriving, thanks to a multi-pronged approach that leveraged SEO, content marketing, and strategic partnerships with music schools and communities.
The results speak volumes:
"PianoConvert, one of La Touche Musicale’s products, now serves over 500,000 musicians globally, with a retention rate exceeding 85%,” Joris proudly claims.
This data places it among the most widely adopted piano-learning tools available today. And they’re looking forward to more growth, as they aim to build more instrumental-teaching apps for the guitar, drums, and more.
La Touche Musicale’s growth can be attributed to two main factors:
- Strong brand identity
- User-centric product design
In other words, a good product is just 33% of the formula to success. The other 66% require relies on understanding its market, competitors, and users.
This is why Joris and his team decided to specialize in piano transcription, a segment of the market with high demand, but with limited solutions.
By offering free 30-second transcriptions, PianoConvert was able to fully demonstrate the app’s value, creating early traction that drove user acquisition.
Breaking Away from the Classical Black and White
As far as branding goes, La Touche Musicale stands out with its orange and white logo in a sea of blue and black iconography.
Looking closely, many of its competitors use realistic piano keys for their logos, which are then placed on a blue-hued or black-toned background.
In contrast, La Touche Musicale placed three white rectangles to symbolize piano keys over an orange palette.
While simple, its distinctive design enhances brand recognition and seamlessly integrates across its product line, including PianoConvert.
All of which are hallmarks of an effective brand strategy.
When asked the reasoning behind their brand identity, Joris explains:
“Authenticity has been the cornerstone [of our business]. We built a brand that resonates with our target audience: amateur and professional musicians. Clear communication of our mission — making music creation more accessible — helped establish trust and credibility in the market.”
Placing Users at the Heart of Product Development
User dedication is another key component to La Touche Musicale’s success, as the company has been engaging its target community since day one.
“User feedback is central to our process. We actively solicit input through surveys, forums, and beta testing groups. This feedback informs every update, ensuring our tools meet real-world musician needs.”
On top of feedback from actual users, La Touche Musicale also worked with actual musicians during the development process.
View this post on Instagram
Additional strategies that Joris and his team implement to ensure a user-centric product design include:
- Market research: Identifying a gap between user needs and the available solutions in the market
- User-friendly interface: Ensuring that its features and functions are easy to use, accessible, and responsive across platforms and devices
- Advanced customization: Enabling users to adjust the tempo, arrangement, and complexity of the music to challenge their skills
- Strategic partnerships: Partnering with communities and schools to directly reach core audiences
- Free trial: Providing free trials allows customers to experience the full value of the app before committing to a paid subscription
This focus on user-centric design has been well-received. Many users report significant progress in their musical journeys.
Users aren’t just using the app to improve their skills. Some are using the platform in deeply meaningful ways.
“One user shared how PianoConvert enabled him to transcribe and share his late mother’s compositions. It was a deeply emotional experience that brought his family closer. Stories like this underscore the profound impact of our tools on people’s lives,” Joris shares.
For startups looking to establish a stronger foothold in their market, the lesson is clear: design scalable solutions that both address current needs and grow as the users grow.
By leveraging this multi-faceted strategy, La Touche Musicale established a loyal user base early on and accelerated its growth.
