Shashaank Singhal, Founder, Designchords

“Bridging the gaps!”

It was September 2009 when Shashaank Singhal , a graduate from Punjab Engineering College chose to leave his job and enter the world where he could chase his dreams. The reason behind this was the idea that he had and his firm belief in its promising future. And with this he started his venture Designchords and gave form and direction to his ideas.

Designchords is a web based design marketplace where clients initiate design based projects and designers from across the globe participate in them. It focuses on crowd-sourcing creative work. They have built an online platform for companies to post their creative requirements like graphic designs, illustration, print and web ads, logos, webpage design and product and package design. Clients can post a design project on the website and the global pool of designers help these clients by sending them design ideas as per the requirements. The clients review the design idea, give feedback and in the end buy the design idea they like the most. The designers are rewarded for their creative talent and also get an opportunity to showcase their artwork to global audiences even if they don’t have sufficient professional experience.

“Design Chords bridges the gap between the designers and companies by providing both of them an online creative project management solution to interact with each other. The crux of our customer base is formed by SMEs and solo entrepreneurs who are looking for branding solutions. The industry we serve is creative designing and advertising.” says Shashaank

Their solution is different than existing ones present in the market as they use the economics of crowd-sourcing to make it possible for companies with smaller budgets and help them to gain access to high quality creative designs for their branding projects by involving designers across the world. The companies get to decide what amount they will pay for their particular design project and are also able to see the final design before making the payment.

So far the company has three employees and is running on personal savings but it was not a smooth ride for Shashaank. He had a good share of hurdles and hiccups. His biggest challenge was the cash crunch he faced in the initial days but soon he was able to cope up with it when he made a barter deal with one og his good friend Ravdeep Chawla.

“I helped him carry out all the operational, PR and marketing activities for his firm and he in-turn built DesignChords’ website from the scratch. The present site is the result of his hard efforts.” recalls Shashaank.

Intially he made mistakes too. When he started off with his venture he was not ready with a Plan B to face any crisis situation. “I was too idealistic or as I would say, not as practical as I am now. I actually believed that everything will go according to the plan, deliverables will meet the deadlines and projected revenues will be achieved within the allotted timeframe.” says Shashaank.

Even after up and downs this company achieved a lot. They were nominated by Headstart foundation as one of the top twenty startups in India in June 2009. They were invited to Mumbai to give a demo of their product to everyone attending the event. The event was a huge success for them as they received great feedback on their product. Also their first pilot test project that they ran in September for 100$ resulted in one hundred and one design ideas sent from designers across the country and abroad.

In the coming future they are looking forward to reach out to SMEs and entrepreneurs through various management and entrepreneurial events, online media, building strategic partnerships with firms that complement their service and alongside keep building the team with the company revenues that they generate.

“We want to strengthen our hold on the Indian creative market by forming a community of high skilled designers who actively participate in projects posted by various companies and thus extend our client base to quality conscious international clients.” says Shashaank.

From mistakes to challenges and then to tremendous suceess, Shashaank has seen it all. This experienced young entrepreneur wants to share the word of sdvise and says “Choose the founding team very carefully. Not only should the founders have complementary skills but they should also be compatible in their working style and have the same passion for the idea. The founding team is as important as or probably even more important than the business idea as an incompatible team can kill even the most brilliant idea.”

Yourstory wishes Shashaank Shashaank Singhal and Designchords all the luck and hopes to see them touch the highest point of success.