Business Creatives: Dr. Miriam Peter on Music, Law, and Building Beauty Tech Startup

This conversation explores what it looks like to build a career across completely different worlds — music, law, finance, and founding a startup — and what happens when you refuse to choose between creativity and structure.

Dr. Miriam Peter is the Founder & CEO of AMIA 101 Concepts, a beauty-tech startup developing modular, sustainable luxury fragrance systems. She is also a lawyer with a background in corporate finance and restructuring, and a musician. Her career moves between music, law, finance, and founding a company — all shaped by one tension: creativity versus structure.

interviewed by Shona Neary (artist name Sketchy Shona)

Miriam: “My career started not in law, but in music.

When I was 19 and had my Abitur, I moved to Munich. I had always played the piano and been a musician, and at that time there was a new opportunity in the music industry where record labels were offering apprenticeship programs to learn how to run a record company and how to promote artists.

I got one of only a few available spots and started as an apprentice at Bertelsmann Music Group, which is today Sony. I rotated through departments like artists and repertoire, marketing, promotion, publishing, and accounting. It was essentially a full introduction to how the music industry works.

I never wanted to become a performing artist. I had played piano for almost 15 years, but I always felt that others were better. I didn’t want to end up spending years trying to become a mediocre performer. So I naturally moved into the business side of music instead.

When I finished my apprenticeship around 2003, the industry was going through a major disruption with Napster. No one had taken it seriously at first, but it completely changed how music was consumed. Physical formats like CDs were being replaced by digital files and MP3 players, and it became clear that the traditional business model would not survive.

At that point, I decided to move to Berlin and study law. Law had always been a second interest of mine. Initially, my plan was still to stay in the music industry — ideally as an artist manager working with intellectual property and contracts. But over time, things shifted.

After my first state exam, I began applying to jobs and found myself moving into bigger law firms and eventually into finance-related legal work. I also completed a PhD in a corporate finance-related topic. After my second state exam, I fully left the idea of returning to music professionally and moved to Frankfurt to work in big law.

Throughout my studies in Berlin, I always tried to maintain a balance. Even though I no longer played piano regularly, I was still singing and had a band with my sister. That creative side was always present and worked well alongside my academic path. In hindsight, it was the ideal combination — law and creativity coexisting.

That balance disappeared when I moved into big law. The workload was 60 to 70 hours a week, which left almost no space for anything else. It became difficult even to maintain friendships or a social life, let alone commit to something like a band. So I stopped playing music for almost ten years.

Eventually, that suppression of the creative side became a turning point. I had built a successful career in big law — big firms, big transactions, big clients — but something essential was missing. No amount of professional success could fill that gap.

That’s why I eventually left and founded my own company, AMIA 101 Concepts.

It is a beauty-tech startup developing modular, sustainable luxury fragrance systems, and it allows me to combine both sides of myself. On one hand, there is structure, systems, and patents — you have to prove innovation and work within strict frameworks. On the other hand, there is creativity, design, and expression.

I realized I can’t live without either side. I need the creative part, but I also need the structured, demanding part. That realization shaped everything that came next.

When I returned to Berlin, I also returned to music. I reconnected with my old band members, and we started rehearsing again. We now have our first gig coming up. But this time, it is not something casual. We take it seriously. We want to play bigger stages, festivals, and build something meaningful.

At the same time, I’m not doing music just for the sake of it. I want to be successful. I want output. I want to perform, to be seen, and to create something that resonates with people.

At the same time, I’ve learned that the business and creative sides are not separate. They constantly interact. If I’m too deep in the business world, I lose creative sensitivity. If I’m too deep in the creative world, I can’t function practically or financially. They balance each other.

I think at some point, you have to accept that you cannot fully separate the two. You can’t be purely creative without structure, and you can’t be purely business-driven without losing something human.

There is also a misunderstanding that artists create in isolation. In reality, everything is built on influence. No one is creating from nothing — it is always a collage of what came before. You learn, you observe, you adapt, and you refine.

The important part is finding what makes your own combination unique.

And that, ultimately, is what I’ve learned across music, law, finance, and founding a company: it is not about choosing one identity. It is about integrating them in a way that actually works for you.”

thanks for reading!

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