This startup develops an AI-powered management platform & integrated marketplace for professionals and organisations in the Creative & Cultural Industries.

The Creative & Cultural Industries drive social innovation and economic growth, they are vital to our cities, communities, and cultures. But the majority of the sectors in these industries are left far behind when it comes to innovation, digitalization, and the way we work. Too much money and too many resources are spent on outdated processes and workflows that limit the creative processes.

For companies, we present a unified solution to finding, hiring, and managing creative teams for productions while enabling a marketplace for creative professionals to find work opportunities and sell their creative skills. Our solutions help companies and professionals get organized, save time, and most of all focus on their creative cores. We have a fully tested MVP that focuses on the visual aspect of the recruitment/audition processes. We managed to sell it to two large theatres in Switzerland (The Luzerner Theater) and Germany (Staatstheater Braunschweig). At both these theatres we had to go through a 3-step confirmation process between various departments. The feedback on the perceived value we offer is greatly positive.

We further have another 15+ companies in France, the Netherlands, and the UK who intend to use our tool for their future auditions. Our platform currently has 1500+ creatives signed up from over 40+ countries. The Creative and Cultural Industries have a market cap of $2 trillion and employ over 50 million people globally, they are expected to grow by 40% in 2030. Within recruitment, there are currently a few sets of competitors; freelance marketplaces (Malt, Fiverr), casting platforms (Backstage, Casting Networks), and talent agencies.

Business model:

We are working with a marketplace business model based on a service fee, and have already found that we are able to push our pricing upwards. However, we are looking into integrating the marketplace in our SaaS products.

USP’s:

What sets us apart are the visual workflows built into our tools and a more integrated approach to the current processes. We don’t just connect supply and demand, we help organizations create full-fledged productions from a talent and management perspective.

We further have a much lower and fairer pricing model in comparison to our competition.

Investment need:

We will use the funds to hire staff in tech development and marketing/(sales) roles.

Our goal is to enrich our product with features and fine-tune and execute a thorough sales/marketing strategy to bring our product to market.

Experience founder(s):

We are a team of 2 co-founders:

Founder 1 comes from the Creative Industries and has in-depth knowledge of how they work and who its people are. He has a brought international network of directors, managers, and creatives. He has 10+ years of experience working as a professional dancer & choreographer. He further freelanced as a web designer, content creator, and social media strategist for various cultural organizations.

Founder 2 represents the tech aspect of the business, he is a software engineer and data scientist with over 10+ years of experience in various tech roles. His latest achievement includes a Masters Degree in Cognitive Robotics from TU Delft. He is also an ex-founder and a co-founder of a startup helping international students find housing in the United States. Founder 2 has a good understanding of what it means to start and grow a company as well as developing the technology needed for this startup.

Together we form a good balance between creativity and technology, which is exactly what the startup stands for. We are a solid team with an aligned way of thinking and an appetite to work fast. But most of all, we are very determined to help the next generation of creatives build more sustainable careers!

Other relevant information:

We have just validated our MVP and are looking to bring our product to market. We do not have a prognosis for the near future as we are still developing the right features to bring our product to market.