Bandhamster Back to homeTwo mates · music and tech · since college
The two of us behind Bandhamster
We met at college over twenty years ago, two teenagers obsessed with playing music, and we've been close mates ever since. One of us spent two decades running technology and infrastructure for big organisations. The other built software used by millions of people every day. We never stopped being musicians: one of us still gigs most weekends, the other toured the country in an originals band.
Bandhamster wasn't dreamed up in a boardroom. It came from two people who've lived both sides of it: gigging musicians who work in software and infrastructure. We always wished a tool like this existed, and it never turned up, so we built it.
Why we built it
Simon has spent years living the exact problem Bandhamster solves. He built a covers band from nothing into a fully booked wedding act gigging every week, and he ran all of it: the website, the enquiries, the bookings, the setlists, the logistics, the chasing, the admin that never ends. All while being the one out front on lead guitar.
The tools out there were built either for huge venues and labels, or they were a graveyard of half-finished band-website builders that looked dated the day you signed up. Nothing was built for bands like ours: the pub circuit, the function band, the tribute act doing forty dates a year. The people who treat their music like a business, because it is one.
So we decided to build it properly.
The two of us
Two musicians. Both experienced technical leaders.
Simon
Ran the band, runs the infrastructure
Simon has played guitar for over twenty years, drums too, and comes from a family where everyone plays something. He's also spent two decades building and running technology platforms for large organisations, and now runs IT and infrastructure for a global AI company.
That mix is the whole point. Simon knows exactly what a band needs because he's lived it from the inside, and he knows how to build platforms that are reliable and secure and that scale without falling over. He's the founder who has personally sweated every bit of admin Bandhamster takes off your plate.
Phil
Toured the country, ships software to millions
Phil has played guitar for over twenty years and toured the country in an originals band. He's also spent more than fifteen years at one of the world's biggest technology companies, most recently as a senior engineering manager leading an organisation of over fifty engineers, managers and QA. His teams built and ran the video streaming app that runs on smart TVs, games consoles and streaming sticks in millions of living rooms every single night.
Before that he built streaming software for an early pioneer of online film rental, and websites for some of the UK's best-known music and entertainment magazines. Phil's whole career has been about making complex software feel effortless for people who never see the work underneath. That's exactly the standard your band's website and booking tools are held to.
None of this is research for us. We've each spent twenty years in bands, on stage and on the road, and the music never left. It's the world we come from, not a niche we picked.
Why this combination matters
Most tools for bands come from one side of the fence. A musician who can't really build, so it's charming but flaky. Or a techie who's never loaded a van at 1am, so it's solid but misses what matters on the night.
Two decades in bands
Years on stage and on the road between us, so we know what a band actually needs on the night.
Careers in software and infrastructure
One of us ships software used by millions, the other runs the infrastructure behind it, so we know how to make things fast and reliable.
Neither of us is the "band one" or the "tech one". We're each a musician and an experienced technical leader, so the gig sense and the engineering live in both of us. You get tools that genuinely understand the gig and stand up like the apps you use every day.
Two musicians who lead tech for a living, building the band tool we always wished existed. Yes, we called it Bandhamster. We regret nothing.
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