Interview Cheat Code // Melotech

Master the room before you walk in.

Everything you need to run the Melotech interview cold — your pitch, the questions they'll throw, the stack, what to ask back, where to land on money, and the two rehearsal audios. Drill it until the meter fills.

4,300
ace-step-ui · 650 forks
15–20k
active users on Pinokio
610
HeartMuLa Studio
1M
InstantArt users / 2 months
#3
App Store · above Shazam
Mastery
0 / 22 warming up

Your positioning — say it in your sleep

Lead with numbers, never with need. This is the spine of every answer.

ace-step-ui is at 4,300 stars and 650 forks — the go-to open-source interface for local AI music generation, with 15–20k active users on Pinokio. HeartMuLa Studio is at 610. Both built and shipped solo. Before that I built InstantArt on Next.js and scaled it to a million users in two months. So I've lived both sides of what you're building at Meloty — knowing what creators actually want, and owning the implementation.

One-liner: "I build the creator-facing layer for AI music — solo, in public, with real adoption — and I've run Next.js in production at a million users."

The three things every answer ties back to

  • Creator empathy — thousands use your tools daily; you are the target user.
  • Product judgment — you pick what to build from what users already hack around.
  • Implementation quality — you ship solid and keep it stable on a fast-moving backend.

Question drills

Tap a card to reveal the model answer. Turn on Drill mode (D) to blur answers and self-test — mark each Got it to fill the mastery meter.

Stack cheat sheet

You're React + Vite + TypeScript. They're Next.js + Node. Same React foundation — and you've shipped Next.js at scale.

You build

React the library — components + state

The core of ace-step-ui and HeartMuLa Studio. React 19, newest version. Components = reusable UI bricks; state re-renders only what changed.

Vite your build tool → SPA

Dev server + bundler. Produces a single-page app: code runs in the browser (client-side rendering). Perfect for local, Pinokio-run tools with zero infra cost.

Their stack

Next.js React framework + Node

File-based routing, server-side rendering (SSR) for speed + SEO, and API routes = full-stack. You built InstantArt on Next.js → 1M users. Real production experience.

The line when Next.js comes up: "Yes — I built InstantArt on Next.js and scaled it to a million users, so I've run Next.js in production at real scale. My music tools are React + Vite; same foundation, and I've shipped both." Honest, and much stronger than 'I've touched it.'

The difference in one sentence

Where does the code run first? With Vite (you) → in the user's browser, ideal for apps/tools/local. With Next.js (them) → can run on the server first, ideal for public web products, first-load speed, and SEO. Not better vs worse — different jobs, same React underneath.

Sell the hard parts, not the tech list

Anyone says "I know React." You shipped the hard parts of an AI music product:

  • Real-time audio generation UIs — streaming states, progress, waveforms
  • Reference-audio and stems workflows as UX, not just buttons
  • Local-first storage with SQLite — privacy, offline, no infra
  • Kept a frontend stable on a fast-moving model backend

"I don't just know React — I've shipped exactly the surface Meloty lives on."

Questions you ask them

Asking well signals you think like a product owner. Listen ~60% of the time.

Product & direction

  • Where's the pull strongest right now — Meloty's music agent, video, or community? Where do you want to double down?
  • What's the biggest product bottleneck at 2 billion minutes of consumption?
  • Building your own models vs orchestrating existing ones — where's that going?

Role & team

  • What would be mine to own in the first 90 days?
  • Is this seat more product-leaning or implementation-leaning day to day?
  • How's the team distributed, and how do you keep velocity across timezones?
  • How do product decisions get made — founder-led, data-led, or team debate?

Business — speak Soheil's language

  • Is the content a flywheel for the fund, or is the fund separate?
  • What's the vision — a tool, a media label, or a platform?

Close

  • What would be a good next step, and what's your timeline?

Compensation

Don't name a number first. Anchor on Western value (Berlin / NY / London, remote-first), not on Romanian geography.

Conservative
€70–85k
or €5–6k/mo contractor · 0.1–0.3% equity
Realistic target
€90–115k
or €6–8k/mo contractor · 0.25–0.6% equity
Ambitious
€115–130k+
or €8–9k/mo contractor · up to ~1% equity
If pushed for a number: "Aligned with a Berlin/remote senior product role — but I'd want to understand scope and level first." Hold a floor around €70k. Always ask for equity — it's early stage, the upside is real.

// Full salary research with sourced benchmarks lives in the vault: Melotech-Salary-Research.md

Know the room

The founder thinks like an investor. Traction, growth and defensibility are his language — which is exactly your ammo.

Melotech

AI-native media platform music · video · creators
Berlin HQ + NY + London. ~10–12 people, remote-first. Founded 2023.
2 billion minutes consumed / 18 months
Real distribution, not a demo. Their traction number — reference it.
Backed by top VCs
Cherry Ventures, Speedinvest, GFC + angels from Spotify, Blackstone, KKR, DST.
Stack Next.js · Node
Which you've shipped in production at 1M users (InstantArt).

Soheil Mirpour — Founder/CEO

Ex-Rocket Internet SVP · ex-GFC Managing Partner
GFC backed Slack, Revolut, Away. He evaluates on metrics, growth, unit economics.
Move: feed him numbers
4,300★ · 15–20k Pinokio · 1M+ organic reach · #3 App Store · 1M InstantArt.

Meloty — their product

An "AI music agent", not one-click
Conversational co-producer · stems + MIDI · voice cloning · reference audio · 100% commercial ownership · multi-LLM.
= exactly what you already build
Try it before the call so you can speak from direct experience.

Guardrails

The difference between "impressive" and "trying too hard."

Do

  • Say the numbers: 4,300★, 15–20k Pinokio, 1M+ reach, #3 App Store, 1M InstantArt.
  • Talk about your projects as products, not hobbies.
  • Frame ACE-Step as a collaboration with founder Gong Junmin + early model access.
  • Mention InstantArt was Next.js the moment their stack comes up.
  • Note your wife runs the web studio → you're fully available.
  • Listen ~60%; tie every answer to creator empathy / product judgment / implementation quality.

Don't

  • Say "I need a job" or "I'll do anything" — you have leverage.
  • Call your projects "just side projects."
  • Claim ACE-Step paid you — you're unsure, so don't.
  • Criticize competitors directly — frame gaps as opportunities.
  • Undersell yourself on geography.
  • Hide the agency — but clarify your wife runs it.

Rehearsal audio

Local model voices, generated from your vault. Loop them on the way to the call.

Mock interview

~21 min

Full two-voice simulation covering every scenario — intro, motivation, product sense, engineering, growth, salary, curveballs, your questions, close.

voices: javert (interviewer) · marius (you)

Tech stack course

~15 min

Everything you should know about the stack and the questions both a technical and a product interviewer might ask — React, Vite, Next.js, SSR/CSR, TypeScript, state, Node, deployment, AI-product engineering.

voice: jean