Small Steps

It was the winter of 2014 when I popped the question. She said yes. And then began my roller coaster ride. She asked me why, and I told her this is who I am.

I was embarking on starting up my 3rd venture. I had failed in the past 2. Various reasons. But more than that, the idea of where I was and what I could become was something that made everyone around me surprised with my decision. I was studying at Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies. I was going to get a healthy pay package, many only dream of. Life was set. But it didn't appeal to me. I was pretty sure, I wanted to startup and build my career as an entrepreneur.

This time was different as well. I was lucky too. The business model seemed set and I had a dream team to help me realize this dream. We worked hard managing time, building up the business brick by brick and juggling studies, assignments and other stuff. We had a dream start. Launched a prototype, had an investor knocking at our door and paying customers. All seemed to be going good, when few of the original founders backed out. 

Now we were stuck. But thanks to the people who stuck with us, we could kickstart the process again. I didn't want to be another failure. This was it. And in the October of 2015, we registered our company Prarambhan Entertainment Pvt Ltd. Since then, we have not looked back.Launched BigMyGig in March 2016 and got paying customers by April. Today we have connected with more than 1250 artists across 50+ genres of entertainment. We have reached out to 650 event managers and have managed to set up a network of partners through which we have redefined Entertainment Delivery.

BigMyGig is an online artist search and discovery tool that helps you to book the best artist for every event.

BigMyGig was started with a single focus. An artist doesn’t get enough shows because of poor reach and improper representation whereas a user doesn’t have many avenues for reaching out to the artist of his/her choice. We are trying to bridge this need gap through a convenient online solution. The founders of BigMyGig are alumni of Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai. One of them has been an event manager and the other has been a performing artist. They have faced similar problems in the past and this motivated them to come up with this tool to bridge the gap between the event organizer and the artist.

For the Event Organizer the tool enables them to search through over 1200 digital portfolios, filter, short-list and book the portfolios that they like. The search engine works on the principle of relevancy. This ensures that every artist requirement is accurately serviced. Using the Packages feature of the tool, the event organizer can book a complete Entertainment Package for that memorable event.

On the artist front, this tool uses a 3 stage filtering process, known as the Invitation Model. Here, artists can send requests to join BigMyGig through dedicated links on the website, post which a screening process is undertaken. Artists are invited only when they meet stringent quality parameters. This ensures that every artist on BigMyGig is verified and validated, ensuring 100% quality to our patrons.

The tool is built on the basis of trust & transparency which forms the backbone of the entertainment industry. Artists can set their own price and also involve in direct negotiations with clients, with BigMyGig playing the role of a facilitator. With the security of payments, artists can now safely focus on improving their talent while relying on BigMyGig for their business.

Through this journey, we have always focussed on taking small steps and not giant leaps. We have maintained financial discipline and have kept the business bootstrapped till now. We have been approached by investors, but we have kept our head down to build a product that works and a business model that is sustainable. 

We always believed in the bamboo strategy. We believe that we need to build our base before we grow and this has kept us grounded. Today when we are looking to grow and expand into multiple markets, we are much more confident of our position. 

To conclude, I would suggest all wannabe entrepreneurs out there, focus on building a world-class product before even raising funds. The moment you raise funds, priorities change. It's better to spend 80% of your time sharpening the axe.

Thanks for reading.