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? 

Jukebox.io
New York
Founder & CEO: Sairam Chilappagari

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

Jukebox.io came into exis­tence as a result of pas­sion that we share with music and good old-fash­ioned juke­box­es. Also, part­ly because of fas­ci­nat­ing behav­ior observed in Asian coun­tries around play­ing music social­ly vs. pur­chas­ing songs.

Juke­box­es have always been part of our cul­ture since turnta­bles were brought into this world. Jukebox.io is an attempt to bring the social aspects of juke­box cul­ture back to life in 21st cen­tu­ry with new tools and tech­nol­o­gy. Our focus is to empow­er peo­ple to play their favorite music in any social set­tings with a sim­ple touch. At the same time, we make venues’ lives eas­i­er by mak­ing it super sim­ple to man­age music.

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

Sairam Chi­lap­pa­gari – Prod­uct, Tech­nol­o­gy & Oper­a­tions — Worked at Dis­ney­Medi­a­Group for 4 years and Lead BI plat­forms at Jet­set­ter for 4 years.

Melis­sa Rush – Brand Mar­ket­ing Man­ag­er & Res­i­dent music DJ – Han­dles the busi­ness devel­op­ment and mar­ket­ing efforts.

Hicham Elghour­fi – Client-end Tech­nolo­gies — With more than 8 years of expe­ri­ence, Hicham cre­ates world-class client end products.

Prakash Ghod­ke – UI/UX – One of the top 1% design­ers in India.

Zachary Gian – Busi­ness Devel­op­ment Intern and Uni­ver­si­ty Ambas­sador – Han­dles the affil­i­ate pro­gram across the US

Robert Khe­do­uri — Advi­sor – Founder, Music Grem­lin – Sold his com­pa­ny to Sandisk.

Drew Pat­ter­son – Advi­sor – Founder of Kayak and Jetsetter

John Pavley – Men­tor – Senior Vice Pres­i­dent at via­com. Worked in lead­er­ship roles at Spo­ti­fy and Apple(iTunes) before.

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

Juke­box and back­ground music indus­tries are very old and anti­quat­ed. We are bring­ing inno­va­tion to this space by devel­op­ing Juke­box 2.0. To give a lit­tle con­text, it all start­ed with sim­ple con­cept of giv­ing peo­ple con­trol over the music they lis­ten to in any social set­ting with a sim­ple touch. The way we are doing it, is by pro­vid­ing an inter­ac­tive music ser­vice that direct­ly engages cus­tomers and venues cre­at­ing excit­ing experiences.

Music is becom­ing core part of con­sumer expe­ri­ence whether its a bar, restau­rant, cof­fee shop or even in a gym and the tools venues use to man­age the music des­per­ate­ly needs some inno­va­tion. We are address­ing this by mak­ing it easy for venues to host a juke­box, and patrons to play their favorite music right from their smart­phones. Sim­ply put, a smart­phone based social jukebox.

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

Our busi­ness was found­ed in Aug 2014. We raised a friends & fam­i­ly round and are in the process of rais­ing seed-round.

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

We are a team of 8, includ­ing contractors.

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

We are rais­ing 450K (of which 250K is com­mit­ted). Ide­al­ly, we are look­ing for some­one who under­stands the music indus­try. Pro­ceeds from raise will be used for expand­ing mar­ket­ing & sales dis­tri­b­u­tion, broad­en­ing mobile pres­ence, and music licensing.

What is the prod­uct and or ser­vice you are providing? 

Jukebox.io – pro­vides an inter­ac­tive music solu­tion that direct­ly engages cus­tomers and venues cre­at­ing excit­ing experiences.

Web­site — www.jukebox.io

Explain­er video — www.jukebox.io/affiliates/explainervideo

Venue app — https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/jukebox.io-business-bring/id973053129?mt=8

Mem­ber app — https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/jukebox.io-bring-your-own/id928327605?mt=8

Explain how you are seek­ing entry into your marketplace. 

After the ini­tial alpha launch in Jan 2015, with­in the first few months we were for­tu­nate to cap­ture the ini­tial inter­est of mul­ti­ple chains and 50 small & medi­um busi­ness­es. We start­ed off with field mar­ket­ing, knock­ing on the doors one venue at a time zip code by zip code. Going for­ward, we want to focus on chains, build­ing strate­gic part­ner­ships, SEO, and refer­ral programs.

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

Our team is based in NYC, which is a great place for any music start­up to be part of and we are a pas­sion­ate bunch who under­stand music, design, and data.

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

We start­ed our prod­uct focus­ing on mem­bers first. But lat­er we fig­ured that until we have enough venues signed up and pro­mot­ing us, we are not going to appeal to wider audi­ence. When we start­ed focus­ing on the actu­al needs of venues, every­thing start­ed to fall into place, which was a very big ah-ha moment for Jukebox.io.

What was the fun­ni­est thing that has happened? 

When we were par­tic­i­pat­ing at The Web Sum­mit — Dublin, our CEO had an oppor­tu­ni­ty to rap about Jukebox.io. It’s pret­ty damn fun­ny and dope. Check it out — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EpGNjyfDUo

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

To make Jukebox.io syn­ony­mous to music.