Oct 25, 2021
Chudi Iregbulem, Founder and CEO of Beatmatch
Chudi Iregbulem is striving to connect the world through music.
Chudi has spent his professional career building technology products for some of the world’s largest brands including Amazon, ESPN, and Caviar. He is a multifaceted professional with years of experience in engineering, product, and design. As the son of immigrant parents from Nigeria, he has always understood the value of hard work and perseverance and has used this to fuel his ambition.
He received his education at Trinity College in Hartford, CT, with a Bachelor of Science degree in Interdisciplinary Computing with Economics. He is an avid technologist and is always perfecting his craft.
Chudi is currently the Founder and CEO of Beatmatch, the dating app to help music lovers find relationships by matching people with similar music tastes. Chudi believes your music taste speaks volumes about yourself — everything from how you talk to how you dress to how you think — is influenced by the type of music you listen to. Chudi is on a mission to connect the world through music.
Tell me a little bit about yourself.
I was born in London, England, but grew up in Los Angeles, California. Born to immigrant parents from Nigeria, but spent most of my time in Los Angeles growing up. After that, I went to school on the east coast for a little bit and spent about six years out there in total. After college, I worked at ESPN, and then came back to the west coast to work for Amazon for four years. Now, I’m finally back in LA and working on my company, Beatmatch.
What are you building at Visible Hands?
I am launching a dating app to help music lovers find relationships by matching people with similar music tastes. It’s super simple — you just sign up, connect your Spotify or Apple Music account, and we will immediately match you with compatible music lovers in your area based on your listening history.
What made you decide to build this product?
When I first moved to Seattle, I didn’t know too many people, and I ended up going to a concert of one of my favorite rappers, GoldLink, alone because the friend that I was supposed to go with got sick. It was the first time I ever went to a show by myself. And that night, I met one of my best friends from Seattle because he saw I was wearing a shirt from Soulection, which is a niche radio show and music collective. We stayed in touch for over four years and even DJ’d a couple shows together. That was one moment where I realized how powerful music can be in connecting people.
Did you always know you wanted to build a company of your own someday?
For sure. I’ve been preparing for this probably since I was in the seventh grade when I first signed up for Facebook. It was the craziest thing to me. I was always inspired by Mark Zuckerberg’s story, and I would tell myself that I was going to be the “Black Zuckerberg” and that my future business would be somewhere in the social tech space.
What has your experience been like as a Visible Hands Fellow so far?
The biggest thing I’ve gotten out of the program so far is the community of incredible founders. Being able to get quick answers to questions that might take hours of scouring the internet for us is great. I enjoy the serendipity of getting to connect with someone from who you didn’t even think you needed advice. The partners have also been super supportive and helpful, and I love all the events they’ve been putting on for us.
What are you looking forward to the most by the end of the fellowship?
Getting further investment would be great at this point, and I’m also hoping to launch the beta — those are my main goals. The beta should launch by the end of the fellowship, but we’re still confirming dates. Also, being able to bring on a co-founder would allow us to grow even faster.
Entrepreneurship is not easy. What is your motivation for doing this day in and day out?
I look at it like I didn’t really have a choice like I was going to do this one way or another because I’d rather do it than regret it. I think the two biggest motivators for me are my Nigerian roots and, in all seriousness, Kobe and his Mamba Mentality. The combination of those two things always makes me want to do more and has always made me push for the next big thing.
Where do you see yourself in 5–10 years?
I see Beatmatch becoming the go-to place for music lovers, wanting to connect. Whether that’s just socially, for dating, for networking, whatever it might be — we just want to be a safe place for like-minded people. That’s the vision in my head.
