The Sound of Innovation From a simple problem to a global solution, discover how one creative idea turned into a game-changing product for musicians, despite the odds.

Yulie Kang, co-founder and CPO of Noisy Clan, an Edinburgh based company driven by a passion for music and innovation, turned a personal family challenge into a game-changing product. By blending design, creativity, and a deep love for music, she's created a solution that resonates with music lovers across the globe, helping more people make more music.

What inspired you to start your business?
My husband and I saw our 10-year-old struggle to get to her school music lessons with her backpack, lunch box, flute, music stand and music folder! We saw her tripping over her stuff all the way to school and just thought that there had to be a better way. We came up with a folder which had a built-in stand, that provided an easy to assemble and set up. What we ultimately decided to do was to build an ultra-portable, ultra-light weight music stand that fits easily into a pocket or a gig bag. It was launched on Kickstarter in 2021, at the height of the pandemic (bad timing) but it really resonated with people across the globe, but for a variety of different reasons than the one we had set out to solve.

What was your biggest challenge and how did you overcome it?
Reaching our customers is one of the biggest challenges. Retail stores especially for music is moribund and no-one was willing to take a chance on new brands. We had to Kickstart our first project and constantly work to cut through the market noise that our customers are surrounded with to let them know about our products. Our target demographic turns out to be older, retired males - they don't typically use social media in the same way as other audiences so there is a challenge to go against most modern marketing advice and create campaigns which really resonate with them and cut through the noise!

How do you handle failure or setbacks?
One of our major setbacks was dealing with long manufacturing delays from our overseas supplier which was also impacted by the pandemic. Constant communications with our customers while informing them of our issues (and why it's not in their hands yet) helped us find loyal and REAL fans. We've now got a great reputation with our customers and garnered a bit of a cult following. This meant that when our next crowdfund was also delayed (a little bit of theme here), they were very understanding.

Shipping a product is pretty hard, it ties up cash and you want to get something out there as quickly as possible but there is a fine balancing act on getting the best possible product to customers in an affordable way. There is no great time to launch so sometimes you have to take the plunge and press go! Knowing when to stop tinkering with a design is definitely one of the areas we try and work on as a company but we still don't have the answers yet.

What advice would you give to someone starting their own business?
Find your niche. What makes your product unique and stand out against the competition? It is tempting to try and have your product be everything to everyone rather than focusing and narrowing down the focus of the product. But products that solve a problem for one specific person will be easier for that person to find and purchase. You'd rather buy a pizza from a specialist than from a take away that serves a variety of cuisines, right?

How do you stay motivated during tough times?
We have this ongoing collection of Customer Feedback and Quotes list. At one time, it was always announced on our Discord channels. It's encouraging to read/hear from our fans and focusing on what impact we make in their lives really is a mood lifter, we also share the negative reviews but thankfully these are far and few between We even have a bell when a large sale happens during the day, something we took from the stories of early days Amazon Hopefully, one day the constant "ding-ding" of the bell will be so annoying that it will be thrown out …hopefully!

What are your tips for achieving success?
Don't expect your first product to be a huge winner. It is only as you build a connection with your customers and marketplace that you can find products that really resonate. Our first product, Wee Stand, was not a commercial success but it got us to tell a really compelling story to our audience. Our best performing products were 'after thoughts' and required much less development. You really don't know what is going to be a success or why it has been, you've just got to throw some stuff at the wall and see what sticks.