Matthew and Jasper of money4.Lasers: Creating audio-visual experiences

Matthew Johnson and Jasper van Daatselaar are the founders of money4.Lasers, an interactive design studio with a focus on creating audio-visual experiences. They offer technical design and artistic curation over a wide range of environments such as live music events, festivals, theatre performances and permanent installations. Their client list includes City of Melbourne (MPavillion, Melbourne Music Week), Strawberry Fields, Hopkins Creek, MidSumma and a number of smaller production work through venues in Melbourne/Naarm.

Why did you decide to start your own business?

We were sick of art being pushed to the back in live music settings. You can totally transform a space into something special with light, and give the crowd a much more valuable experience.

We started money4.Lasers to bring art and music into one space. Basically, we like to cover a wide range of areas, and if there is art driven audio-visual work to be done, we love to do it!‍

What are your top 3 frustrations with managing money for your business and what would a better future look like?
Our top three frustrations are quotes, invoices and documenting expenses/deductions. We write a lot more quotes than we get jobs, as people often don’t understand the cost of AV work.

These business documents take time, and are a constant burden in pushing us away from the creative work we want to do.

A digital bookkeeper/application would be ideal for the future! Some kind of accessible and trustworthy service that we could use to handle our money.

Thank you Matthew and Jasper for taking the time to share your story with our community and we wish you all the best for the future success of money4.Lasers!