The entire team outside China · San Francisco · 2015
Building from 3.
When Neach began working with musical.ly in 2015, its entire team outside China consisted of three people in a small San Francisco office.
Over the next two years, Neach helped recruit critical partnerships, marketing and content talent as musical.ly built its organization outside China and established itself in the US.
An ambitious product. A team of three.
The team outside China consisted of a President, a Business Development Manager and an assistant.
The product was still largely unknown in the United States, but the ambition behind it was anything but small. Building the business required people who could establish essential industry relationships, create market awareness and help turn early momentum into sustained growth.
The first critical mandate connected musical.ly with the music industry.
One of Neach’s foundational searches was VP Music Partnerships.
For a platform built around music, relationships with major labels and other music-industry partners were essential. The mandate required someone with the credibility to establish those relationships and the conviction to join a company that was still early and unfamiliar to much of the US market.
Neach conducted a targeted search, introduced the opportunity to high-caliber candidates and successfully closed the leader who helped musical.ly secure licensing relationships with major music labels.
Building the organization around a rapidly growing platform.
As musical.ly expanded, Neach’s work grew beyond the initial partnerships mandate.
The searches included Director of Marketing, Digital Marketing Manager, Product Marketing and hires across content and partnerships. Together, these functions supported market awareness, adoption, industry relationships and the growing community around the product.
Most of Neach’s recruiting work was US-focused, while contributing to the broader organization musical.ly was building outside China.
From a three-person team to the ByteDance acquisition.
Neach continued supporting musical.ly from 2015 through its acquisition by ByteDance in 2017.
The company that Neach first encountered in a small San Francisco office became part of one of the defining consumer technology stories of its generation. In 2018, musical.ly and TikTok united under the TikTok name.
Neach’s contribution was focused and specific: recruiting critical people in partnerships, marketing and content during the period when musical.ly was building the organization behind its growth.
The work at a glance.
Building beyond your home market?
The first people building a company in a new market carry unusual weight. Neach helps international leadership teams recruit the people who can establish relationships, create momentum and build what comes next.