In music, timing is everything – and the same is arguably true in business. So you can’t blame first-time entrepreneur Alex Cooney for taking a few days to lick his wounds after the economic shutdown.
After all, it meant that the business he had established only two months earlier – a website enabling people to book guitar lessons in their own homes – was no longer viable.
String Theories was launched in January, and then at the end of February Alex – a business graduate with a Masters degree in finance – quit his finance job to focus full-time on the business. “My friends were laughing at me and saying I couldn't have picked a worse time if I’d tried!” Alex says with typical good humour.
However, it wasn’t long before the 27-year-old had come up with a contingency plan – rather than customers inviting guitar teachers into their homes, lessons would be conducted online until the restrictions are gone.
“I saw all the lads on Instagram who were adjusting their businesses to cope with it and I thought I'd give it a try,” he explains. “I did a few lessons with some of the teachers myself, as a student, and they actually worked surprisingly well – you can have a decent lesson via Skype or Zoom.
“We're not back up to where we were with in-person lessons yet, but we're getting some bookings. It's been a bit of a trial but it's good to be able to adapt.
"It's good for the teachers too. All of their gigs have been cancelled - these lads are musicians who give lessons part-time, and their income has been reduced drastically, so if they get a few bob from giving lessons online that's good for them."
The site currently has 12 guitar teachers signed up – 11 across Dublin and one in Waterford – with String Theories taking a new customer’s first lesson fee as a finder’s fee. After that, the relationship is solely between teacher and pupil.
“One of the tests the teachers have to pass to get on the platform is to give me a lesson,” says Alex. “I figured that if they can teach me something they can teach anyone anything!
“We make sure we go for the best teachers available – it would be very easy for me to send out 200 emails to every guitar teacher in Europe, but we want to make sure that the teachers are good at what they do, and that if you order a lesson, you're getting a quality service.”
The idea for String Theories first came to Alex when he was recuperating from a broken ankle late last year and unable to play any sport. After deciding to take some guitar lessons to pass the time, he found that his only options were the minefield that is Gumtree, a formal music school or chancing upon a flyer.
“I thought that if you could set up a middle ground between a formal academy and these individual lads who are reduced to advertising on Gumtree,” he explains, “maybe there would be something to it.
“We're a service for people who want to get a good guitar lesson at the snap of their fingers, at a time that suits them – and what's more convenient that getting a lesson in your own home?”
Alex is confident that the online model will enable the business to ride the current storm until he’s able to arrange for his tutors to visit students’ homes again – but he is also adamant that the original plan is the right one, and that online lessons aren’t going to replace ‘real’ ones any time soon.
“In-your-own-home lessons are part of that convenience economy that we're moving towards,” he says, “and I think they will still be an important part of it in the future, but there is no comparison to somebody sitting down next to you and taking you through what you're doing. I think that is the ultimate way to learn something.”
It’s early days for String Theories and Alex is already facing a huge challenge, but he is justifiably upbeat about the future.
“Our goal is to be the number one place to go if you want a music lesson in your home, and there's no reason this can't be applied to piano, violin, other musical instruments,” he says. “I want to make sure it works with guitars before branching out into other areas, but there's huge potential.”
