Interview with Atit Jain, Co-Founder - Gigstart

Gigstart, a marketplace that facilitates quick and transparent connect between entertainers and party planners, was founded by Atit Jain and Madhulika Pandey in the year 2013.

Atit Jain is an Electronics and Instrumentation engineer from Birla Institute of Technology and Science. After working for almost four years, Atit decided to startup with his own company. He met Madhulika Pandey at Applied Mobile Labs in the year 2012, where he was working as a Senior Manager for Promotions and Usage. The duo then teamed up to start up with The Weekend Consultant. #-Link-Snipped-# is their second venture.

In an exclusive interview with CrazyEngineers.com, we got Atit to talk about his experiences at Gigstart, his co-founder Madhulika, the team's goals and values, the decisions that he wish he could take back, and a lot more. Check out the following interview to find out what Atit has to say about encouraging people to take control and responsibity.

AtitJain-Gigstart-CrazyEngineers1
Atit Jain

1. Hello Atit. Could you give our readers a brief overview of Gigstart?

Atit:
Gigstart is a marketplace for hiring performing artistes and Entertainers. In simple words we help people find the entertainment for their events. We primarily focus on musicians, anchors, stand up comedians, make up artists and photographer right now.

On the artist side, We provide them digital representation and help them get discovered and get booked.

2. How did you come in contact with Madhulika, your co-founder at Gigstart?

Atit:
We both first met while working for another startup and then teamed together to work on a lifestyle project named The Weekend Consultant (TWC). The idea of Gigstart came to us when we were exploring revenue models for TWC. Madhulika's history with arts helped us to narrow down on it.

AtitJain-Gigstart-CrazyEngineers2
The Co-Founders

3. What values is the team committed to?

Atit:
Our team is committed to
1. Transparency
2. Smart Work
3. Diligence

4. Do you, as a leader, bounce back quickly from setbacks?

Atit:
Yes I don’t sweat a lot over anything. I am a passionate person but am not married to an idea I believe in successful execution. I treat any setback like a course correction.

5. If you could go back in time five years, what decision would you make differently?

Atit:

If I could go back five years, I would convert my email thread with friends about a project called ‘eat-at-ease’ which was very much like foodpanda, into reality. We had so many great ideas back then and all the skillset in my friend circle to execute them. So in a nutshell I would stop ideating and start executing.
AtitJain-Gigstart-CrazyEngineers3 AtitJain-Gigstart-CrazyEngineers4
The Team

6. What stupid rule would you most like to kill?

Atit:
I am not a rule abiding person by nature. So there are so many rules I would want to kill.
For now I hate accounting J.

7. What have you done to protect our business from competitive encroachment?

Atit:
We are in a very new territory. There is very little or no competition. We believe that competition will expand the market. All online portals will hunt for that 1% bookings which is online. Rather than competing I would want to increase than 1% to 10%, 50% and eventually 100% and then worry about the competition.


8. How do you encourage people to take control and responsibility?

Atit:
Yes, We give full ownership in our company. Our company has a CEO for every vertical and all of us report to that person when it comes to that work area.

9. Thank you for the time you have spent with us. Any message for our readers?

Atit:
Thank you so much for reaching out to us. Its too early in the game for me to give messages and advice. But I would request all the engineers to stop ideating and start creating.

Replies

  • Rajni Jain
    Rajni Jain
    Nice read, and good to see the other side of a techno person [Pass out: Electronics and Instrumentation engineer from Birla Institute of Technology].

    I have few more questions:
    - Any reason you choose to go for the Art industry after doing Engineering?
    - Following the passion is good, but do you suggest fellow Engineering students to go on your footprints and chase the passion rather than working for techno world?
    - Art industry must be new for you at one point of time, what were the major challenges you faced during your start-up days?
  • Kaustubh Katdare
    Kaustubh Katdare
    Guneet Kaur Khanuja
    But I would request all the engineers to stop ideating and start creating.
    Fully agree. I know a lot of people who'd just keep dreaming and never take that first step. Wishing #-Link-Snipped-# a very exiting, rewarding and successful journey ahead. Hope to see you around!
  • Atit Jain
    Atit Jain
    Hi Rajni,
    Glad you liked what you read 😀

    Answers to your queries:-
    1. I wanted to work towards bringing services online. Artistes and entertainers is our first category because it was a big opportunity to begin with.
    2. You can work on whatever you like. I would advice to solve a problem with technology to get the best of both worlds.
    3. Challenges are more or less while starting anything up. The key is to work hard and be in the game.

    I hope I was of some help.
  • Atit Jain
    Atit Jain
    Kaustubh Katdare
    Fully agree. I know a lot of people who'd just keep dreaming and never take that first step. Wishing #-Link-Snipped-# a very exiting, rewarding and successful journey ahead. Hope to see you around!
    Thanks Kaustubh!
  • Abhyudaya Agarwal
    Abhyudaya Agarwal
    Really like the product video as it communicates the idea very well. You might want to consider an Indian accent for voiceover to create a better connect, considering the target market is Indian.
  • Atit Jain
    Atit Jain
    Abhyudaya Agarwal
    Really like the product video as it communicates the idea very well. You might want to consider an Indian accent for voiceover to create a better connect, considering the target market is Indian.
    Abhiyudaya thanks for the kind words. Point noted. We will change the accent.
  • Atit Jain
    Atit Jain
    Rajni Jain
    Nice read, and good to see the other side of a techno person [Pass out: Electronics and Instrumentation engineer from Birla Institute of Technology].

    I have few more questions:
    - Any reason you choose to go for the Art industry after doing Engineering?
    - Following the passion is good, but do you suggest fellow Engineering students to go on your footprints and chase the passion rather than working for techno world?
    - Art industry must be new for you at one point of time, what were the major challenges you faced during your start-up days?
    Glad you liked what you read 😀

    Answers to your queries:-
    1. I wanted to work towards bringing services online. Artistes and entertainers is our first category because it was a big opportunity to begin with.
    2. You can work on whatever you like. I would advice to solve a problem with technology to get the best of both worlds.
    3. Challenges are more or less while starting anything up. The key is to work hard and be in the game.

    I hope I was of some help.

You are reading an archived discussion.

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