Willard Ahdritz
About Willard Ahdritz
Built a number of businesses, have an idea, team work and execute is a beautiful thing: In 1999 I wanted to make a positive difference for all stakeholders rather than just maximize shareholder value; My usual response to a great challenge is #ilikeit and #somebodystopus; Has built; - Kobalt Music Publishing to a top 3 global music publisher introducing 1; music as a service (MaaS) including introducing transparency and big tech to the music industry with creators keeping their rights 2, changed the global collection structure to a central collection organization in London supported by a global platform. We handle 35 languages here. We educated creators the value of their rights. We estimate we have increased value to creators with over 10bn usd and ticking. - Transformed a small domestic mechanical society in USA AMRA. Built the first global digital music society collecting digital royalties from over 200 countries from a global central organization and platform in London, UK incl off line perf rights for writers. As people say "sexy fintech". - Build Kobalt Label Services, a global music record service business for all formats. Added a digital distributor AWAL with 10 employees with 3m usd rev Renamed the group to AWAL. We created the biggest brand in MaaS for a global music label handling 15k artists sold to Sony for 430m usd in 2021 - Co-founded Kobalt Capital as the world's first regulated investment fund business dedicated to music catalogue investments. Over a period of 11 years Kobalt Capital Ltd led the emerging investment wave into music rights closing over 300 investments across two funds. In 2020 started to exit with a catalogue sale to Hipgnosis, a listed investment company, for $323 million and in 2021 the second fund was sold to a consortium led by KKR in a $1.1 billion transaction. - Built from scratch Kobalt Neighboring Rights the worlds biggest NR agency handling 40 percent of top 1000 global artists. - SparkIdea, incubator for digital media start ups - Telegram Records & Publishing which really took swedish talent globally and put Stockholm on the map for international music companies. Selling a majority stake of Kobalt Music to Fransisco Partners in October 2022 - Founded ahdritz & co inc. in Jan 2023 advising and investing in entrepreneurs; www.ahdritzco.com - un:hurd marketing for artists using tech - Dice, transforming the live show ticketing industry - Sweet.io connect fans with the top sports teams - Impact; Since 2020 supporting Norrsken as investor in their different funds and mentoring portfolio companies