In the past couple of years I mentioned working on an early-stage startup project I codenamed Wrekin (see relevant blogposts) - in part because it hadn’t launched out of stealth. Since then lots has moved on, not least the launch of the product as Castrooms.

Castrooms brings the energy of a crowd to music livestreaming. It’s a streaming platform designed first and foremost for music - for both performers and fans. Audience members watch streams with their camera on: performers have a crowd to perform and react to, and fans can go to shows and performances with their friends, the live music experience of “small groups as part of a bigger group”.

The product has taken off since I worked on those early prototypes. Back in 2021, I built just enough to help them validate the idea, work out what was feasible with available technology, and understand what would need to come next.

Since then, they’ve fleshed out the offering, developed the branding, greatly expanded the technical platform, run many test parties, forged relationships with DJs and musicians, and raised more funding. Since I last wrote there’s been a little more advisory and consulting work with them. It’s been exciting to see the product take off, and hear the team tell me about their growth and successes.

I spent some time this between 2022 and 2023 working with a very early-stage health startup, delivering a few strategy workshops.

This consultancy work began with a request for a single day’s workshop. I immediately suggested this would better be spent as two half days. Anyone who’s workshopped knows the “4pm lull” well - but I also believe that a break between the workshops leads to more effective outcomes. Yes, participants get a break, and can come back refreshed - but it also forms a neat point to do any ‘homework’ required. Sometimes, doing some independent research, confirming some facts, or thinking through ideas with other people outside the process, is what’s needed to make any decisions or move things forward. That’s better done outside the workshop space. We returned to the second half of the workshop much more focused, and with ideas that emerged in the first half already fleshed-out and ready for deeper discussion.

A follow-up workshop some time after the initial engagement was similarly productive. It was also rewarding - it was great to see how much the product had developed in the months that had passed, how many ideas born in the first workshop were being validated or developed in the world, with customers, and how the offering was being focused.