Sammi Alani

Co-founder

at Pirate Studios

I’m a co-founder of Pirate Studios, where I built and now run the company’s North American business. Over the last ten years, I’ve been in the trenches scaling Pirate from a single site in London into a 37-location, 500k-customer network of self-service music studios across the UK, US, and Europe. Pirate is now profitable, projecting $1.5M EBITDA on $15M in revenue, supported by the GTM, expansion, and operational systems I’ve helped put in place. I specialise in zero-to-one GTM, international expansion, and turning scrappy operational chaos into predictable growth. I’ve launched new markets from scratch (LA, NY), fixed underperforming locations, negotiated the real estate and unit economics behind each site, and built brand partnerships that unlock additional revenue. I’m comfortable going deep on the details including but not limited to pricing, utilisation, P&Ls, staffing, launch playbooks, and early operating structure. At Mucker, I hope to support founders who want practical, no-fluff guidance on how to find real demand, scale thoughtfully, and avoid common early-stage mistakes.
California
HealthTech & BioTech, Media & Entertainment, Social Media & Community Platforms
Brand partnerships and monetizationInternational ExpansionMulti-site operationsUnit economics and pricingZero-to-one go-to-market strategy

Articles by Sammi Alani

LA Tech Week 2025 Day 1 Recap: AI Building – Monday Oct 13

We hosted three full days of events during LA Tech Week, each one focused on helping founders learn, connect, and build with the latest in AI and startup growth. Day...

Using Customer Feedback to Build a Product that Customers Will Love

Customer feedback is the lifeblood of successful product development, but many startups struggle with collecting, validating, and prioritizing the constant stream of input from users, advisors, and internal teams. In...

Shaun Merritt Vibe-Coded Karrot.ai

How Shaun Merritt Vibe-Coded Karrot.ai As A Solo Builder

I recently had the opportunity to chat with Shaun Merritt, cofounder and CTO of Karrot.ai, a LinkedIn ABM tool. Shaun was kind enough to share a comprehensive breakdown of how...

7 Steps to Build a Product That Sells Itself

Learn the 7 steps to product-led growth (PLG) to build a product that sells itself. Drive activation, boost conversions, and scale efficiently with Wes Bush from ProductLed....
Balancing self-care and startup pressure as a founder

The Founder’s Mental Health Playbook: What I Learned After Nearly Burning Out

A hard-won guide to staying mentally healthy while building a startup I founded Stitcher, the podcast platform, in 2007 and ran it for seven years until we sold in 2014....

Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) for Early Stage Companies

Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) for Early Stage Companies

In our latest session from the Mucker Growth Series featuring Ethan Smith from Graphite, we explored AEO, a significant new approach for optimizing visibility in AI-driven search, particularly relevant as...

Scroll to Top