From Artist to Founder

I never planned to become a founder.

I wanted to make records.

That’s it.

I grew up in a house where my dad built guitars and my mum played piano.

I studied product design.

I spent most of my twenties writing songs in a house in West London with my band.

Nothing about that path suggested I’d one day be building software.

Then I signed music contracts I didn’t fully understand.

I watched songs spread further than the infrastructure could track.

I watched creators create value together without a system that could recognize it.

And I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

What started as sketches became diagrams on my studio walls.
The diagrams became questions.
The questions became an obsession.

Eventually the obsession became a company.

The hardest part wasn’t the technology.

It was becoming the person capable of building it.

Learning how engineers think.
Learning how investors think.
Learning how lawyers think.
Learning how to communicate one vision across all three worlds at the same time.

I was constantly the least experienced person in the room.

The only thing I had was conviction.

I'd lived the problem.

I knew it was real.

Fortunately I found people who saw it too.

Engineers.
Lawyers.
Operators.
Advisors.

People willing to spend years building something that didn’t exist yet.

That’s what I’ve learned about startups.

Most people think companies are built from ideas.

They’re not.

They’re built from shared belief.

Not too dissimilar from being in a band.

The idea gets you started.
The people get you there.

Four years later, the diagrams on the wall became software.

The obsession became infrastructure.

And the thing that once felt impossible is now being used by creators.

Looking back, I don’t think I became a founder because I wanted to start a company.

I became a founder because I couldn’t walk away from the problem.

Applications for the vers1ons private beta are now open.

For artists, producers, remixers, and rightsholders who believe collaboration deserves better infrastructure.

Apply at vers1ons.com/apply

Next: The Walls.
The diagrams, flowcharts, and copyright maps that eventually became vers1ons.

I'm David Johnston.
Founder & CEO of vers1ons.

The next era of music will be built by creators.