Rocking the online marketplace

VISAKHAPATNAM: At a time when social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter are ruling the roost globally, a Vizag-based startup is planning to literally take the art world by storm with its newly-developed online marketplace for artistes.
City-based Angryengine Technologies, set up by fourth year students of Gitam University, has developed 'Rocktheshow.co', an online portal that connects artistes across the world and encourages a mutual learning eco-system.The portal enables artistes to showcase their talent not just in one particular city but across the world.
Speaking to TOI, Siddhartha Selagamashetty, CEO, Angryengine Technologies, said, "We have developed a social network for artistes, where not only people but also other artistes can interact and learn. It is a marketplace for artistes too, where people can post jobs if they have any requirement for artistes."
Explaining, he said, "If you want a wedding photographer you can put up the requirement on the website and can specify the price range also. The best thing is that we will be providing separate panels for contests, which means that people can start a competition and any artiste from around the world can participate in it. The winners will be decided based on public voting. So this not only gives you a chance to feature local artistes on whatever programme you are planning but also a chance to get artistes from abroad as well."
"It all actually started with an idea to start a portal for holding contests as we used to have competitions during our GUSAC fest at Gitam University. But it didn't work out and that's when we decided to develop a social network for artistes."
Angryengine's CTO Raviteja Kotha said, "The portal has four key areas, including an interaction platform for artistes, marketplace, virtual expert interaction and contests for any organization. Initially we have around eight categories such as photography, film making, music, dance, coding and a couple of others. It took us around three months to develop the entire the website," he said
"Right now we have completed the first module, which allows people and artistes to interact with each other. Around 550 people have already registered on our website without even promoting the portal," said COO Ranjith Janapareddy.
"Initially we want to start off by promoting the portal in places such as Mumbai, Bengaluru and as it is an online platform we can focus on global markets as well. We have already launched a section in our website where people can post their requirements for artistes."
The startup, which was floated by seven Gitam University students, is planning to launch the site in the coming week and is planning to conduct marketing events to promote the portal better in the coming days.
"We are looking for a seed investment of around Rs 2 crore for a period of three years as we want to focus on marketing and promotion," Selagamashetty added.