I had always been keen towards the idea of entrepreneurship right from my college days. I was lucky enough to have some of my batch mates with whom I could share my idea of doing a different kind of work. So after discussing with some elements, we launched CoCreato, which is a platform facilitating collaboration between musicians at a hyper-local level. In a short span of 8 months, we have facilitated 100+ collaborations and have received 2.7M hits on the YouTube Channel. This somehow increased our phenomena of doing even better.
In the summer of 2014, I was an amateur filmmaker trying to find someone to make background scare for one of his short films. That is when I met Vivart who was an equally passionate musician. We made a short film together, which went on to win a National level ad film making competition. That is when we realized that collaborations are a powerful prerequisite for every kind of art and then, later on, collaborated together with Nikhil Lodhi and Aditya Bansod who were videographer and theatre actor respectively at that time. The organization was called Sine Vave Multimedia at that time. They were later joined by Advait Modak who presently handles the sales at CoCreato. We started on to promote independent artists of Nagpur by providing them with studio infrastructure and music video production facilities without charging anything. We created some awesome originals, covers and music parodies and the YouTube channel that presently enjoys more than 2.7 million views.
The idea of CoCreato took an upliftment during the entrepreneurship class in VNIT where the idea was wholeheartedly mentored by serial entrepreneurs Shashikant Chaudhari, Managing Director, Global logic and Raj Jaswa, President TiE, Silicon Valley.
Launching a startup that facilitating collaborations between musicians at hyper-local level was a risk, but we ought not to lose any hope. We were pretty doubtful to have had our first launch, and the feeling was somehow true that it can turn us off too. However, the drive to work on a startup was challenging and kicking.
CoCreato works in a three-tier hierarchy arrangement; the entry level musician/ creator, a mid-level musician/curator and an experienced master or musician. The community overall comprises different meet-ups between all the three tiers just to keep the members engaged. Basically, it’s a simple and plain community based on the agenda of music.
Before receiving funding from Nagpur Angels, CoCreato was a definite bootstrapped venture. From the start, we had set up a small studio at Vivart’s home using a condenser microphone and a laptop. It was definitely a challenge to convince all the artists, especially the ones at a good level to come there and record. Although, after receiving massive from YouTube, everyone would be convinced.
The next fight was getting the loan sanctioned, however, easy it might seem, it is rather difficult to get the loan from a bank especially if you are 22 or something. It took 4 long months for the loan to sanction, thus escalating the costs.
Building the studio: Building a professional studio requires money and lots of it. After exhausting almost 15-20 options, we came in contact with Dr. S Rajagopalan who with his 30+ years of experience guided us to design music production studio at the most minimal costs.
The tech team: We were all artists, so developing an app was again a challenge for us. Even though we all belonged to VNIT it was difficult for us to find an equally passionate tech team. Through Nagpur Startups we came in touch with Bloom Consulting Services Pvt Ltd who invested in our company’s technology platform.
You can say it was our luck that we got to interact with some of the interesting and the finest personalities who shared the same road and passion for starting their own ventures. It somehow gave us more uplift about the decision of taking our own venture. Now, we were sure about growing even more.
The interesting this is that space was acquired by us in Jan 2017.Since then we have organized jamming sessions in a nonsoundproof environment at the same place. Space was ready 3-month backs and fully functional. The inauguration was an important event because the website launch was also done on the same date, we needed to make sure that the idea goes out with all its elements and not just space. The surety is a must have for every start!
The idea behind starting the tadka of Masters was something really unique and quirky-
The masters are the people who have been in the industry for a long time and definitely know how things work there. The creators working with cocreato are the people who have already reached a certain level in their profession and most of them have undergone proper training. So they do not need to know everything. Short duration master classes ensure that only the important information is shared by the master to the creator.
Proudly, we have on-boarded almost 500+ people on our WhatsApp group of musicians. Jams are regularly posted there by the curators who specify the purpose, requirements, and duration of the jams. Interested people apply and the most appropriate people are selected by the curator. Non crated jams are also organized by creators who are clear about what they wish to produce. All this will be done more efficiently via the cocreato app which is launching soon and we are so excited with this.
Space was inaugurated by Mrs. Amruta Fadnavis, the first lady of Maharashtra and an acclaimed playback singer. There were musical performances lined up by our creators showcasing the power of collaborations. Mrs. Fadnavis also participated in a jamming session with the artists at CoCreato. She also recorded one of her songs in the studio. Revered violinist Surmani Pt Prabhakar Dhakde Guruji was also present to grace the occasion. Dr. S Rajagopalan, our acoustics consultant was also present at the function. Mr. Shashikant Chaudhari, President, TiE Nagpur launched the cocreato website.
Last but not the least; this is the whole story of our little family wherein we are still expanding.