Passion for music and the need to find an outlet for their creativity led five youngsters to set up TempoStand, an online forum that promotes and showcases Indian music talent.
How did you develop the idea for TempoStand?
While we were in final year at the Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication, Ahmedabad, we took part in a business plan contest, Eureka, at IIT Bombay. We were judged the best team for our idea on the online promotion of Indian music bands. After passing out of college, we decided to explore and expand the concept, and so TempoStand was born in April 2007.
Who were the founders?
Initially, Naman Arora, Ujjwal Singh Grover and I joined hands. Soon, Rahul Tyagi from IIT Roorkee, and Aditya Thakur, who was our batchmate and is a musician, teamed up with us.
What was your initial investment?
We put in Rs 2-3 lakh after borrowing money from our families and friends.
What is the kind of platform that you provide?
We profile Indian music bands and organise competitions, especially for college rock bands. We have more than 300 artistes now. We also have space where poets can post their work. Also, we recently launched 'Musical Expressions', where a person can gift a personalised song to a loved one. He can collaborate with a lyricist and a musician on our network to compose the song. We charge about Rs 5,000-7,000 for a song depending on the time and effort required. On an average, we get 10 requests a month.
Have you broken even?
No, we haven't, though we are hoping to earn revenues of about Rs 10 lakh this year. We are quite sure that we shall break even next year.
What is in the pipeline?
We are planning to open an online store so that bands can sell their merchandise. Within the next three months, we would like to start a music tutorial service. We've also collaborated with a few poets and are soon going to publish an anthology.
As told by Gaurav Dabhol to Namrata Dadwal
