Intelligent nightlife info to help you get to the best party around - Ranjan Kumar, Oyeparty
You don’t expect much from ‘a bunch of party enthusiasts and foodies who love to explore good parties and hangouts,’ do you? But, the market being the way it is, this bunch experienced disastrous evenings at times, which led to an idea around nightlife market in India, and so Oyeparty was born. Thus traces the ‘about’ page of ‘first of its kind nightlife social media platform, where a clubber gets intelligent info on best suited event/ party and convenience to book entry,’ which also offers a forum to connect to fellow clubbers, organise group parties, follow your fav DJs and flaunt your nightlife experience.Narrating to YourStory the journey of Oyeparty is Ranjan Kumar, the co-founder and CEO. (Burhanuddin Pithawala, the other co-founder, is CTO.)
Trigger
The kick to create something is quite difficult to resist. That passion was always there, layered under the excuse of handsome salaries, IITian tag, security and responsibilities. While working at ITC, we had handsome salaries to burn on weekend. Being club enthusiasts, we loved to explore food and party joints in town. But, many a time, we used to end up in sad parties, stuck with sad ambience, even after having paid the cover charge. One fine evening, over a mug of coffee, we realised it’s a great unexplored affluent market with lots of possibilities and opportunities. At the age of 26 you can hardly think of anything better than partying to learn? That’s how Oyeparty was born intending to ensure that you reach to the best party around.
Journey
It’s been quite a thrilling and melodramatic journey of 14 months. Diving into ocean of unknown, from the days when I didn’t tell my parents that I have left the job, to build Oyeparty and make it operational in 5 cities in 14 months, it wasn’t easy, but it was fun for sure. It has been an era of realisation to ground-realities, self-learning, and test of character.
ProgressWe ran around to almost 500 restaurants and clubs in Bangalore to understand business and customer perspective on what they want. In June 2012, we launched Oyeparty Beta Version, bridging the gap between clubs and clubbers in Bangalore. As we went live in 4 other cities in March 2013, we realised that social media is the language in which people do flaunt and share their nightlife experiences and customers seek a dedicated space to talk their nightlife experience and connect to fellow clubbers.
The above insights led to Oyeparty Alpha version, an online community around nightlife. The idea is to have a forum where all stakeholders of nightlife market can holistically reach out to each other. You can find the most happening party, connect to fellow clubber, plan a party with them, buy tickets, book guest-list, share pics, videos, follow your fav DJs and a lot more on Oyeparty Alpha.
In the last 14 months, we have worked with more than 100 clubs and have ensured happy clubbing to 75,000 customers. The great news is that it’s picking faster with Oyeparty Alpha Version. Something exciting to check out is Oyeparty Android app coming live by end of October 2013 with cool clubbing features like “Find your party friend”, Party alerts, Party Tweets etc.
Industry
The nightlife market in India is around Rs 3,500 crore, looking to grow fast with the emerging young middle class aspiring for a more carefree lifestyle. It’s an affluent market with good margin, and almost every affiliate wants to reach out to this target audience. While there’s many a player targeting the big concerts, the niche of regular club events, and hurdles of entry/ cover charge is still an open battleground.
Lessons for new entrepreneurs
Being an entrepreneur is a tough and thrilling journey and it’s perfectly ok not to be one. But if you are thirsty to be one, it’s not going to happen “planning and reading” way. You will have to go out and dive deep without knowing consequences, get your hands dirty and learn it the harder way. There are no shortcuts and no science formulas. It’s a sheer art.