HERALD: What was your motivation and what made you float Brushflicks?
FARHEEN SAYED: India as we know, is a immensely rich in culture with diverse forms of creativity. Yet the irony is millions of people engaged in creative fields have difficulty in making their ends meet. Only a fraction of the country’s artists have made a living out of their vocation. Creativity is widely regarded as a valuable skill in the workplace. But in my observation most self described creative people have trouble finding jobs that satisfy their creative needs and also pay their living wage. Millions of artists, musicians, writers and actors are unemployed and unemployment takes a tough mental toll leading to depression and suicide. We at Brushflicks are looking at solving this problem by generating opportunities and employment for people in this sector.
Also, there is a need to connect the folk artist in the remote areas through digital technology and preserve the heritage. Empower the traditional protagonists to prosper and attract youth of our generation to continue the legacy.
HERALD: What is unique about your company, who are your clients and what competitive advantage do you have?
FS: None of the art e-commerce portals are into enhancing the skills or empowering creative people to generate income. We at Brushflicks provide a networking platform for creative people to enhance their skill and monetise their creation. Also, it is a popular social networking tech platform like facebook, youtube and google plus which is created to cater complete needs of creative people to monetise their efforts. We aim to build a startup which has a marginal advantage from existing competition through use of innovative features on our application. Our clientele includes art galleries, artists, writers, photographers, musicians, art curators and various creative industries.
HERALD: How did this journey begin?
FS: Being an art lover ever since I was a kid, I can probably equally say that ‘I live art’. I have spent most of my life working with art, and communicating with artist and art lovers. I got this idea in my second year of engineering (2013). Later in 2014, I presented the same in a pacers start-up challenge organised by the Padre Conceicao College of engineering which bagged the first place. Secondly, getting into the top 20 in Kaun Banega Udyogpati (KBU) organised by CIBA, boosted my confidence. After conducting a lot of surveys in 2016, I started building my prototype.
In my conversation with artists, I realised the need for this platform. With my experience, I felt technology could play a key role in enhancing lives of people engaged in creative fields with the penetration of Internet. Those beginners (artists) in the field have a hard time not only enhancing their skills but also suffer at the hands of low job prospects in the area. Brushflicks provides innovative ways of using technology and Internet for creative purpose by (a) Encouraging skill development and connecting the learners with the expert in the field and (b) by connecting creative people to the right industries and buyers.
Brushflicks is one month old and we have 2500 visitors and 1040 registered users.
HERALD: What are the immediate challenges before you?
FS: From the product side, approaching the students, art curators, institutions, art agencies and people in the creative sector to use our platform and getting their feedback to improve is a challenge.
Also, approaching and educating people who are socially unaware and ignorant about the use of technology in enhancing their creativity and improving their livelihood is also a tough ask and I believe that educational institutions and private agencies working in art and media sector will have a major role to play in this area. From my personal side, our team has been actively involved in product development and in solving the technical issues. But to convert it into a enterprise and market the technology in all the developing nations exposure to the other aspects like marketing, human resource management, financial management, logistics. I am willing to take up both the above challenges learn as much possible in the process, be more flexible to finally become a successful entrepreneur.
HERALD: In the next five years, where would you like your company to be?
FS: Brushflicks will be the biggest talent hub for all the creative industries to recruit the best talent. Our platform will also be flooded with opportunities and talent. One of the hardest parts of starting a new business is getting it off the ground, raising start-up funds, learning the ropes, and finding those few customers is not that easy. Success takes hard work, but if you know where to go and what to do, the process gets much easier. My inherent interest in art and technology had led me to the path of becoming a leader in creative digital forms and creating impact in the livelihoods of people through use of technology.
