Aren Barseghyan

Aren Barseghyan

SoundGate GuitarSoundGate Guitar
Building SoundGate | AI Music Tutor

About

Building SoundGate - an AI music tutor that gives real-time feedback to help people practice smarter and learn faster. I've played guitar for years and started SoundGate after seeing how many people struggle to stay motivated with traditional practice. We're using AI to make music learning more interactive, personalized, and accessible. I'm passionate about startups, AI, product development, and learning from early users. I'll be sharing our journey, product updates, launch experiences, and lessons as we build SoundGate. If you're building products, love music, or enjoy talking startups, I'd love to connect.

Badges

Gemologist
Gemologist
Top 5 Launch
Top 5 Launch
Tastemaker
Tastemaker
Tastemaker 10
Tastemaker 10
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Maker History

  • SoundGate Guitar
    SoundGate GuitarAI Music Tutor that gives real-time feedback on your playing
    Jul 2026
  • Soundgate Guitar Fretboard
    Soundgate Guitar FretboardA free interactive fretboard for scales, shapes and chords
    Dec 2025
  • 🎉
    Joined Product HuntNovember 4th, 2025

Forums

How we kept our onboarding drop-off under 1% (UX vs. Marketing)

Hey everyone!

Coming off our launch last week, we spent some time digging into our analytics for SoundGate and one metric really stood out: our onboarding drop-off rate is sitting at less than 1%.

When we originally sat down to design that first user interaction, we spent a massive amount of time debating and refining the experience. It is incredibly tempting to use onboarding as a data-gathering exercise, but we set a few strict rules for ourselves to prevent that:

  • Zero Fluff: We audited every single step. If a question didn't directly improve the user's immediate experience in the app, we cut it.

  • UX > Marketing: We had tough conversations about what data helps marketing versus what the user actually needs to get started. We kept the focus entirely on the user's momentum.

  • Vibe is a Feature: We didn't just want a functional flow. We wanted to show off the musicality and tone of the app from the very first tap. Onboarding shouldn't feel like filling out a tax form - it should feel like the opening track of a great album.

💲 Bootstrap your growth or raise to scale?

At some point, almost every founder faces the same question.
Keep growing with your own revenue...
or raise capital and move faster.
Bootstrapping gives you:
full control
sustainable growth
freedom to build on your terms
Funding can give you:
speed
bigger opportunities
the ability to build a stronger team sooner
Neither path is easy.
Neither guarantees success.
What path are you choosing, and why?

We are up for Product of the Week! 🏆

Hi folks, happy to report we are now being very close to getting the Product of the Week award!

Thank you for the overwhelming support, it's been really humbling to see how many of you registered to use our tools. Today is the last voting day for Product of the Week and the margins are razor thin, if you or your friends haven't checked it out now is a good time to share the link with them: https://www.producthunt.com/prod...

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