Globalisation has shrunk the world. Advances in communication have played a catalyst to this. As soon as one practice starts in one part of the world, it gets adopted or replicated relatively quickly in the other parts. However, as history has taught us time and again, real growth can only occur if it is collective. In a business scene where being ahead of the curve and competing for market space are prized qualities, it is a refreshing change to see startups that believe in growing together and making space for art and creativity amid an essentially fast-paced commercial world. Here are four young individuals helping each other. Their immediate communities and their broader business communities grow by accelerating word of mouth advertising, increasing the visibility of new businesses and giving a voice and space to individuals who wish to take baby steps of their own. Their mottos inspire us to once again embrace real change by recognizing each other’s creativity and growing together.
Jumptstart -Pay for Passion
Founder and CEO Nishan Virani once worked with a previous startup that failed to reach its potential because of a lack of funding and resources. He felt so profoundly unsettled by the wasted potential that he vowed to create a platform for aspiring entrepreneurs to bring their ideas into reality and help them achieve their vision.
Jumpstart is a crowdfunding platform to promote individual passion and launch creative projects for everything from art, design, films, games, technology and much more in an effort to get funding for it. Its mission is to help bring creative ideas to life. “Crowdfunding is probably one of the best ways to go independent and create the thing that you want and to find the support and resources that you need,” says Nishan.
Project creators keep 100% ownership of their work. The platform of Jumpstart gives creative individuals the freedom and flexibility to customise their campaign as they want, decide on their fundraising target, create perks to reward backers, and set a campaign deadline (up to 60 days).
Once in, individual artists must connect with their community to reach their fundraising goals. They can do this by inviting friends, family, and fans to support their project. Based on the funding model (fixed or flexible), one can reach or surpass their goal. Fixed funding means that all contributions are returned if the artist doesn’t meet their goal. On the flipside, flexible funding means that artists keep whatever funds they receive and fulfil rewards from there. Once that happens, Jumpstart hands them their funds in two-week instalments, after keeping a percentage as their fee. From there, it’s time to complete the project and fulfil promised rewards for the backers.
Jumpstart is a crowdfunding platform to promote individual passion and launch creative projects for everything from art, design, films, games, technology and much more in an effort to get funding for it.
These rewards can be anything the project manager and backer agree on – a copy of what’s being made, a limited edition, or a custom experience related to the project. While some people back projects that are the brainchild of a family member, friend or admirer or connoisseur of the sort of work the project entails, others back them for the reward being offered! Whatever the reason, people back tasks because they want to have a part in helping to bring it to life. Backing a project is more than just pledging funds to a creator; it’s pledging support for a creative idea.
Shahadat Tahmid, Co-Founder & Chief Technology Officer, mentions that he likes to think of himself as an innovator and enjoys tinkering through coding. “I like a good challenge, and the state of our initial development phase intrigued me into fixing it. After more than a few sleepless nights and countless cups of coffee, here we are!”
Similarly, Tasnim Zia, UI/UX Developer for the team, says that when she first learnt about Jumpstart, she was thrilled to be a part of it. She looks at it as more than work- “Designing websites is just a hobby but contributing my time to a project based in Bangladesh, which is dedicated to making people’s dreams come true, made my hobby feel special.”
The Marketing Executive for the team, Tasmia Islam, would more often than not feel overwhelmed and often thought that she was getting left behind by her peers. She wanted to go that extra mile and work hard to prove herself as an ambitious person. “This is why I joined Jumpstart, I want to be a part of their journey, their ups and downs, and I want to be there with the team when they turn out to be big soon!”
Find them at: https://www.facebook.com/Jumpstartbd
Esscre- Your Search for Talent Ends Here
Moontasir Shahriar Bijoy, founder and CEO of Esscre, feels that while Dhaka is one of the most densely populated cities in the world, it has its merits as he sees talent in every corner of the street. It would always get him thinking why there weren’t enough platforms for them to showcase their talent, and that thought was the beginning of Esscre.
Esscre is a platform to nurture talents. It is a place to practice, collaborate, curate, and earn a living out of passion which is more often repressed or put away. It is a one-stop talent hub that aims to build a community that will unite individuals with similar interests and bring together a variety of perspectives through which every form of art, along with its story, will come to life. It thus aims to preserve, and enrich the youth and their passions, thereby keeping our nation’s core of art and culture.
Bangladesh has always been rich in culture, art, and literature. However, it is also where artistic flair is considered ‘just a hobby’. Esscre aims to change that by providing a platform for the artists and talented minds who need an opportunity to flaunt their skills and earn through their creativity.
Esscre is built under the bold agenda, ‘Esssentially Creative’ which is a movement that upholds the idea that arts, creativity, innovation deserve a place at the centre of the national agenda. It has been built by a bunch of skillful night owls that have been learning, researching, designing, redesigning, strategizing, modelling, structuring, and coding for months without any financial incentive. Or even a round table discussion, because of the pandemic. The pandemic may have slowed their growth process, but it also gave them some time to sit back, brainstorm and make plans to scale into an entire ecosystem for artists, including offering customizable web portfolios, e-marketplace, artwork on commission, artists on hire and an inclusive physical space to nurture passion.
Esscre is currently functioning behind the scenes. They have been recognized by national level startup competitions, featured by the Daily Star, and have made notable transactions. They are currently working on a comic book in collaboration with an award-winning comic book writer from the USA which is expected to be distributed in the American and Bangladeshi markets soon.
Moontasir may have been unsure of how much support the idea would garner before he made the leap of faith, but he was amazed at the amount of encouragement he received from his friends and family. Some tough love from people made him rethink and reshape the entire business model, make three backup revenue sources, and figure out a few hacks as well. He credits his team- Shana, Abrar, Tabassum, Sarah, Sweta, Tahmid, Mumtahena, Russo & Aloke- for Esscre’s success and calls it his cause of sanity and insanity.
Several people feel that Esscre is a necessary step forward towards a beautiful society. However, Moontasir realises that one of the essential elements of a startup is timing. And therefore, he patiently waits for the right time to launch.
Find them at: https://www.facebook.com/esscre
Cypher90 – Let’s Grow Together
Cypher90 is a global outsourcing startup that helps businesses and startups scale digitally and grow globally. Specialising in consulting and solutions within IT-competences, their business philosophy is based on the fact that the world is in a state of constant change, and the business environment is increasingly demanding development, speed and quality. Cypher90 aims to provide tried and tested, competent solutions to a brand locally and globally. They have the expertise, experience, and a unique work methodology to ensure critical success factors needed when providing software solutions.
Cypher90 has a very steady base of national and international clients and have worked with architectural, startup, gaming, literature, marketing, restaurant and talent Industry in the first four months of life.
Inspired by ‘NPR How I Built This’ Backstage Stories mixes both the concepts and creates something encouraging for the changemakers around.
The fledgling company believes that Service-Based Applications (SaaS – Software as A Service, PaaS- Platform as a Service), in the future. Instead of opting for a one-time solution at a very high price, solutions should be sold at a subscription for small, affordable amounts. As technology is constantly updating, continuous up-gradation would be costly. Instead, Cypher90 brings you a subscription-based service that ensures that you only pay for what you need/use and can switch to other software anytime. It keeps costs minimal for a new company, and the business develops with newer tech, which will contribute much more to the economy than the traditional model.
Cypher90 believes that essential software does not have to cost you a kidney. Rather, it aims to support growing companies, which will help them grow as well. Valuing trust and commitment above all else, the company wants partners to be comfortable with their tech to become a standard that everybody would use.
Cypher90 has some realistic and achievable goals. They are currently working on a marketplace for programmers. Anyone from any part of the world can hire a programmer to match their tech needs, from data analysts to web developers, blockchain developers, data scientists, software engineers, cybersecurity consultants, and cryptographers. It is expected to be a marketplace for ‘geeks.’ As technology is a race and Bangladesh is a very enthusiastic player, staying ahead of the curve is critical. Cypher aims to grow with all the startups that need their support, businesses who want to scale, and tech geeks who need sources to show off their //source code.
Find them at: https://www.cypher90.com
Backstage Stories – Podcasts for Inspiration
Backstage Stories is a podcast for misfits by misfits. They inspire up-and-coming entrepreneurs whose ideas keep them awake at night and give them the opportunity and platform to share their stories before they hit the big awards and crack millions in funding. And for the listeners, the podcast delivers encouragement and strength to hold onto their dream projects a little longer.
Inspired by ‘NPR How I Built This’ Backstage Stories mixes both the concepts and creates something encouraging for the changemakers around.
The team are Fariha, Bijoy and Shrabon; the founders who would identify themselves as story collectors. To enhance their work are Sabrina (designer) and Rafi (editor). The startup is not looking for monetary gains at the moment. They wish for recognition in the form of likes, subscriptions, and word of mouth marketing to help them grow. Their vision is to inspire the changemakers who believe they can change the world and believe in what Steve Jobs once said-
“The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.” –
Find them at: Facebook.com/bss.show
