Serial Entrepreneur Alain Merville Talks Business, Success, and Family

Alain is an immigrant from Haiti who moved to the US at the age of 7. He first learned to play the piano at the age of 14 and started playing it commercially in New York at 15. Alain refined his skills at Berklee College of Music and took up roles such as Music Director for artists. He also began recording and posting videos of himself playing the piano, explaining the different concepts he played. In 2015, he started his first company Nate Bash Band, The live music entertainment company provided live music for weddings, corporate events, college parties, among others.

Following his passion and ambition to make considerable strides in music, he learned to take on multiple roles at once. During the second year of running his band Nate Bash Band (NBB), he created his first online piano instructional course. Though it cost him $1,500 to make, the course generated over $50k in a few months, with less than $7k in paid marketing. That was the eureka moment that sparked the idea of YousicPlay.

Alain funded his website in 2019, and was able to record the first online course for the site. The following year in January, YousicPlay launched its first course. Alain dropped everything else and made it his primary source of income.The team has now expanded to onboarding a COO, CTO, in-house video editors, graphic designers, admins, and marketing team. The company has also secured a seed round of funding and on-boarded Grammy-winning world-class instructors like Ne-Yo and is ready to use this momentum to scale and disrupt the entire e-learning industry.

Q. What inspired you to want to play the piano?

I never sought out music or the piano. In a way, we were introduced to each other. At the age of 14, my dad spontaneously decided to enroll me into a private piano lesson. After 1 year of taking lessons, I quickly fell in love with the instrument and all that came with playing music. Playing the piano allowed me to tap into the different attributes of my personality - curiosity, experimentation, critical thinking, emotions, passion, and expression. The continued pursuit of self discovery through the lens of music, is what inspires me to play the piano.

Q. At what point did you realize that you wanted to make a career out of it?

I’m a passion driven person. My dream has always been to spend my days being fulfilled with the things I’m passionate towards - music, was one of those things. Going into college, one of my major missions in life was to figure out a way to monetize my passion in order to provide me with the lifestyle and self-fulfillment that I wanted. That led me to venture into the different verticals of music in pursuit of a sustainable high income skill that satisfied both my financial and music needs.

Q. Can you tell us about your Nate Bash Band? And who do you guys serve?