A Ridiculous Biz-ness: The story of how two women are seeking to bridge the gap between the UK and Mexico music and tech industries
“Our whole ethos is about curating memorable events built on creating genuine connections and unique experiences. We’ve been to so many music industry conferences and networking events that seem to follow the same cookie-cutter approach to connecting people and expanding one’s network, and just felt there was an opportunity to mix it up and try something new”.
Two female founders with a passion for Mexican culture, music and tech have hit the ground running with Ridiculous Biz. Founded in December 2022, the company is on a mission to bridge the gap between the UK and Mexico through a series of events, meetups and-of-the-box industry mixers to bring together artists and professionals in the creative industries.
Founders Kali Bradford and Jessica Paine have a combined 25+ years experience in the creative industries. The pair met at a previous music tech company where they headed up the business development and community departments respectively, and it was during a business trip to Mexico City to attend Vive Latino in March 2022 where they met Oseca and Monterrey rock band, Serbia, that their passion for Mexico grew.
When they learned that Serbia would be travelling to Spain in May 2022, they extended an invitation for them to visit the UK to play a music industry showcase at Tileyard, the world’s largest community of independent artists and businesses, and home to notable companies such as Soundcloud, Ableton, Unhurd and Believe. Serbia were also invited to perform on the Platform One stage at the iconic Isle of Wight Festival.
Bradford and Paine were invited back to Mexico in September and November, when they attended FimPro in Guadalajara and connected with a number of artists and music professionals.
“We’re looking for ways to connect the UK and Mexican music and creative industries further. The passion for UK music in Mexico means there’s a great opportunity for artists looking to grow their audiences and deepen the artist to fan relationship in this market. We know that Latin music has become increasingly important to the global music industry in recent years with genres such as reggaeton, bachata, salsa, and cumbia gaining popularity not only in Latin America but also in the United States and Europe and influencing so many tracks today.”
In March 2023, Ridiculous Biz hosted its first event in Austin, TX., throwing an industry party on The Lone Star riverboat on Ladybird lake with performances from Natalie Shay, Ulysses Wells, Red Rum Club and Bial HClap. Attracting more than 2800 RSVPs for the event, it made an impact at the festival and was quickly named the hottest event of the week.
Immediately after SXSW, where Kali and Jess were mentors for the Future of Music track, they invited 19 UK music industry professionals and musicians to a two day event in Monterrey, where they could meet 20 Mexican music and tech professionals. Keen to make an impact with a different approach to making connections, they hosted a Carne Asada at a beautiful mountainside palapa, curated a gig at Metapatio and organised excursions to encourage people to spend quality time together and get to know one another in a more relaxing environment away from the typical conference format.
“Seeing some of our favourite artists, including Red Rum Club, Ulysses Wells, Charlie Rodd, and Angie Vazques perform at this gorgeous mountainside house and in a quirky music venue that exuded East London warehouse vibes was such an incredible experience. Music is what brings us all together and is the main feature at all our events.”
The Ridiculous duo was also asked to be the first english speaking guests on the podcast, Sellout, hosted and owned by ex PXNDX members and the Negro Pasión founders. Ridiculous works with some of the largest artists in Mexico, including Paty Cantu, PXNDX, Jumbo and others.
The pair have big plans for 2024/25…
“We’ve become known for our *iconic* boat parties - they are Ridiculously on-brand for us! We’ll be returning to Austin and London for our creative industry focussed boat parties, and have client missions to Mexico already in the works.”
We’re also really excited to launch our exchange programme between the UK and Mexico for women and under-represented people working in the music industry.