"Listening is critical, and something I have worked to improve and to instill across the Voicemod family."
Jaime Bosch is the chief executive officer of Voicemod, the next step in the future of social audio experiences. Voicemod is the tool that helps people find the voice that best expresses themselves as they play, work, create, and entertain. The Voicemod software has been downloaded to more than 28 million desktop PCs alone and is ready to be implemented on any platform, app, game, or digital experience through its development kit.
Jaime co-founded Voicemod in 2014 along with his brothers Fernando and Juan (both still executives with the company). Headquartered in Valencia, Spain, Voicemod is their third successive family-run business as the brothers previously ran an interactive studio for developing mobile apps as well as a creative studio for graphic and web design.
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Table of Contents
Let’s start with a brief introduction first. Introduce yourself to our readers.
Jaime Bosch: I’m the co-founder and CEO of Voicemod, the leader in real-time audio augmentation. Developers trust Voicemod’s audio technology to help end-users create virtual voices and define their sonic identities. As companies strive to build a responsible metaverse, Voicemod is the tool that helps people find the voice that best expresses themselves as they play, work, create, and entertain.
I co-founded Voicemod with two of my brothers in 2014. The company is headquartered in Valencia, Spain, our hometown.
Our audience is interested to know about how you got started in the first place. Did you always want to become a CEO or was it something you were led to? Our readers would love to know your story!
Jaime Bosch: No, not at all! I earned a technical diploma in sound and imaging in my hometown of Valencia. After graduating, I joined two of my brothers in their interactive studio 2taptap for developing mobile applications, where I eventually became chief creative officer. We were also running a creative audiovisual studio called 2ypunto, working in graphic design, web design, and multimedia, including video production. But at the same time, I also worked on a lot of short-term projects. For example, I served as an auxiliary camera operator on a season of a Valencia-based television series, as well as editing and doing post-production work in multiple digital video and claymation film shorts. I even directed and edited a documentary on the 25-year career of the Spanish rock band Doctor Divago.
“Selfmade” is a myth. We all received help, no doubt you love to show appreciation to those who supported you when the going got tough, who has been your most important professional inspiration?
Jaime Bosch: Without question, my two older brothers, Fernando and Juan! I am the eighth of ten children, so I grew up in an environment that encouraged team collaboration, as there was always someone else around to share your goals. We were always doing something together, from childhood projects to playing music and creating. It was only natural that I’d end up working with some of my siblings. Juan and Fernando founded several companies together and eventually invited me to join their businesses. Yet they also allowed me the freedom to explore my own projects until I was ready to commit full-time. And, eventually, when we founded Voicemod, we decided that Little Brother was best suited to become the CEO, while Fernando was then the CTO and Juan the CPO.
How did your journey lead you to become a CEO? What difficulties did you face along the way and what did you learn from them?
Jaime Bosch: As our company began to expand, and I took on the role of CEO, newer, more weighted responsibilities came along. And with that came challenges and learnings that continue to be valuable to me as a leader. This meant learning how to scale our business in order to enable and support growth within the company, while nurturing a product-led agile organization. In addition to this, maintaining our company’s positive culture and values is something that can prove to be quite the balance, but we are proud to always uphold it as the basis of everything we do. As I continue to grow in my role, I’ve learned that although it can be difficult, it is important to adapt and reassess what the right strategy may be in any given circumstance — as it is never a “one solution fits all” scenario.
Tell us about your company. What does your business do and what are your responsibilities as a CEO?
Jaime Bosch: Voicemod is shaping the future of social audio experiences by enabling avatars to have sonic identities in the metaverse. We leverage elements from state-of-the-art voice technology to facilitate voice conversion and transformation as accurately as possible — and are continually improving upon this process. Presently, Voicemod is the leading audio augmentation software among creative professionals, gamers, and content creators. We provide a fast, simple way to apply distinct voice skins and to create individualized audioscapes across a breadth of online communication platforms and video games. We aim to enable the whole metaverse ecosystem by utilizing our immersive audio experience technology in games and applications.
As CEO, I’m focused on securing investment, developing partnerships with companies like Agora, Bragi, and CORSAIR, and building a world-class team for designing novel and delightful sound experiences. We have more than 28 million downloads on desktop PCs alone
What does CEO stand for? Beyond the dictionary definition, how would you define it?
Jaime Bosch: As CEO, it is my duty to make sure our company is always working towards our vision, and have it be the basis of everything we do. I am grateful to lead the talented team that is the backbone of Voicemod’s success, and with it, comes the responsibility of keeping all of our efforts in sync. As the company expands in staff, business growth, and innovation, my responsibility as a CEO is to provide a clear vision, giving as much context as needed. This way, we are able to motivate our team, and continue to champion our positive culture and values as a company. This leads to a cohesive and strong company culture with positive results.
When you first became a CEO, how was it different from what you expected? What surprised you?
Jaime Bosch: Since the beginning of Voicemod, I’ve made it a priority to listen and communicate with team members. While this has always been a regular practice for me, the value of this became even clearer as the company expanded. I saw the positive impact it had on everyone to be able to be heard, and understand their personal involvement in pursuing our vision. When you care about your people, that translates directly into our users. It feels great to know that our communication as a company is still one of the core elements that contributes to our success, especially as we continue to grow in staff and capabilities today.
There are many schools of thought as to what a CEO’s core roles and responsibilities are. Based on your experience, what are the main things a CEO should focus on? Explain and please share examples or stories to illustrate your vision.
Jaime Bosch: I’ve learned throughout my leadership journey that a CEO is made up of many key traits — which can include actively listening to my team, maintaining awareness of our users’ feedback, and having the willingness to take calculated risks. But the most important thing as CEO is to inspire others. When people are recognized for their work, feel trusted and believe in what we are building as a company — that it is when you bring out the best in them. As mentioned earlier, our team is the backbone of our success.
Share with us one of the most difficult decisions you had to make for your company that benefited your employees or customers. What made this decision so difficult and what were the positive impacts?
Jaime Bosch: In 2009, my two brothers and I were running an interactive studio for developing mobile apps, while also running a creative studio for graphic and web design. We began to experiment by combining voice technology and music to create our app called Voicemod. This passion project defined where we are today. We saw how people creatively used the tools we gave them, while breaking the ice and creating new connections in a fun way.
Everyone who tried Voicemod for the first time had a blast of emotions, laughing and enjoying what we later called “the Voicemod experience.” We realized that in a relaxed and creative state, people can make their own sonic identity, which encourages them to open up to people and express whatever audio version of themselves they want to be. Back then, we realized we couldn’t just keep the experience via mobile, we also wanted to enable people to use it on every device, anywhere. So in 2014 we decided to close our other businesses and fully dedicate ourselves to Voicemod and to bring this vision to life. In short, we moved our core technology to PC and today we have it ready to be implemented on any platform, app, game, or digital experience through our development kit.
How would you define success? Does it mean generating a certain amount of wealth, gaining a certain level of popularity, or helping a certain number of people?
Jaime Bosch: Today, digital connection has become the first go-to option for any sort of communication, so we see an even bigger need to enhance it. We are at the forefront of evolving human connection — in our case, we do it through sound. We are building tools and helping to shape spaces like the metaverse, so that anyone, regardless of how they are accessing it — whether it’s through desktop, mobile device, or a new not-yet-invented device — can sound the way they want to sound. For us, success is about enabling people to be who they really are. It is about expression and immersion, but most importantly, it’s about digital identity.
Some leadership skills are innate while others can be learned. What leadership skills do you possess innately and what skills have you cultivated over the years as a CEO?
Jaime Bosch: Listening is critical, and something I have worked to improve and to instill across the Voicemod family. Listening to investors, to partners and to employees, but especially to customers. Ask your users and create a community around your vision. The future will be owned by the communities, so taking their experience into account is key when making any sort of change in a company and its product. It is from their feedback that you can understand trends around what is working, what your users would ideally like, and how you can fulfill their needs. At Voicemod, we are creating tools for our community, so we depend on this customer insight. It drives us to improve our technology, anticipate future add-ons, and provide our users with the best experience possible.
How did your role as a CEO help your business overcome challenges caused by the pandemic? Explain with practical examples.
Jaime Bosch: Voicemod has actually seen growth in our business since the onset of the pandemic. We’re now at over 28 million downloads of our app. People consider gaming as an accepted method for socializing. By encouraging communication, collaboration, and competition, gaming promotes social bonding, rather than intercepts it. For example, after only the first six months of the pandemic, analyst firm The NDP Group found that video gaming in the U.S. was on the rise by all standards of measurement — time, participation, and money spent. Four out of five Americans are now in the gaming community.
Do you have any advice for aspiring CEOs and future leaders? What advice would you give a CEO that is just starting out on their journey?
Jaime Bosch: You have to believe in what you’re doing and be persistent in following your instincts to reach your goals. But you also have to be realistic in recognizing that you may experience extreme lows as well as highs. Tremendous optimism and the endurance of an Olympic athlete are what distinguish startup founders from other business people. You have to be prepared to reach farther and be able to drive yourself beyond the point where most people would give up. You must keep the faith that when things are tough, they WILL get better eventually.
Thank you for sharing some of your knowledge with our readers! They would also like to know, what is one skill that you’ve always wanted to acquire but never really could?
Jaime Bosch: Within my role, I am grateful to be surrounded by such an incredible amount of innovation and skill sets, so it is difficult to name just one. Whether it be from my immensely talented team members, our diverse community of users, or the vast development of technology in the digital space — there are so many skills to be admired. While I may not have acquired them all, they inspire me to continue learning nonetheless.
Jerome Knyszewski, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Jaime Bosch for taking the time to do this interview and share his knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Jaime Bosch or his company, you can do it through his – Linkedin Page
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