Look­ing for a job is very com­pet­i­tive. If you are only apply­ing to jobs online you will encounter sub­stan­tial com­pe­ti­tion. At MediaJobs.com our objec­tive is to make it as easy as pos­si­ble to find a job at a great com­pa­ny and with the least amount of competition.

At MediaJobs.com we have estab­lished our mis­sion of Find­ing the Great Com­pa­nies First. In keep­ing with our mis­sion we have cre­at­ed this inter­view series with some of the newest star­tups in the New York City mar­ket area.   We encour­age you to learn about some of the newest com­pa­nies and think about what might be a good fit for you.

What is the name and loca­tion of your com­pa­ny and who are the founders?

Gig­wax Inc. is a Delaware com­pa­ny based in NYC.

Found­ed by Amau­ry Meu­nier and Adam Bailin

How did the idea for your start-up come about? 

All of us have worked in the music indus­try in some capac­i­ty, and as DJs, pro­mot­ers, and live music enthu­si­asts, we’ve all felt the pain-points sur­round­ing the book­ing process, and decid­ed one day to do some­thing about it.

Of the key peo­ple involved what is everyone’s expe­ri­ence and background?

Amau­ry Meu­nier — For­mer Prod­uct Man­ag­er at Bandsin­town, the first con­cert appli­ca­tion for fans and artists – ex-Uni­ver­sal & Coca-Cola – MBA Grad­u­ate — DJ/Producer with reg­u­lar gigs in NYC and Paris

Adam Bailin — For­mer­ly CTO at Pradux and at FreeCause, bought out by Rakuten – 12  years expe­ri­ence in build­ing web plat­forms – Played 4 instru­ments in 4 dif­fer­ent bands

Michael Cohen — 10 years expe­ri­ence in the DJ book­ing indus­try — Worked at AM Only as a top tier book­ing agent — Co-founder at Clan­des­tine Artists Agency.

How do you see your com­pa­ny cre­at­ing val­ue or dis­rupt­ing an exist­ing market? 

Most live music gigs are booked through word of mouth, or through per­son­al con­nec­tions, an agent or agency. We want to build some­thing that would allow any­one to book and get dis­cov­ered in the most effec­tive way. The inef­fi­cien­cy of mid­dle­men is being dis­rupt­ed in numer­ous indus­tries (like Airbnb, Uber) but it hasn’t hap­pened yet in live music.

By dig­i­tiz­ing and opti­miz­ing this mar­ket, our end goal is to bring bet­ter live music in front of every­one, everywhere!

When was the busi­ness found­ed and how are you being funded? 

Gig­wax incor­po­rat­ed on July 14 2014 (Bastille Day!), we raised a seed round in Decem­ber 14 and soft launched the plat­form in Jan­u­ary 2015.

If so by whom are you cur­rent­ly fund­ed by? 

Friends and family.

What is the cur­rent size of your busi­ness, num­ber of employees? 

We’re 3, work­ing full time.

If you are seek­ing fur­ther fund­ing, how much and for what pur­pose will the new funds be applied? 

We’re seek­ing $300k to hire a front end dev/designer and finance our expan­sion through­out the U.S.

What is the prod­uct and or ser­vice you are providing? 

Gig­wax is a music book­ing mar­ket­place that enables any­one to eas­i­ly dis­cov­er and book the right DJ for their event or venue. Gig­wax stream­lines the entire book­ing process.

Explain how you are seek­ing entry into your marketplace. 

We’re lim­it­ed to NYC right now where we’re observ­ing an excit­ing ini­tial trac­tion. We’re cur­rent­ly refin­ing the prod­uct, ship hot fix­es and new fea­tures on a week­ly, basis. We exchange a lot with our users and word-of-mouth has been our main dri­ver of growth so far. Once we hit product/market fit, we’ll expand through­out the U.S. by lever­ag­ing our indus­try con­tact in each tar­get city.

What seems to be the biggest strength of the team so far? 

We are indus­try insid­ers dri­ven by the same vision and pas­sion for live music, and sup­port­ed by experts in the tech and music indus­tries. We’re also all DJ and pas­sion­ate about what we’re building.

What was your great­est “Ah-Ha” moment to date? 

Every time an event plan­ner or venue own­er tell us he/she has no idea where to book a good DJ at lit­tle cost.

What was the fun­ni­est thing that has happened? 

A DJ from North Car­oli­na drove all the way to play a free gig in Man­hat­tan. He got a park­ing tick­et while he was play­ing… Poor guy!

If you can only do one thing in your indus­try what would that be?

Bring bet­ter live music in front of every­one, every­where. That’s our vision and we’ll get there, we’re start­ing with DJs in NYC!

Amau­ry Meunier
Co-founder & CEO