JOIN USCreative designers make up an entire world in front of their eyes even with just a speck of dust. Their creative minds can work out tricks to make a simple object look magnificent. Catering to this special group in the City, Kavan Antani, 19, and Shashank Jogani, 21, launched BananaBandy.com in February 2015. It’s a platform that caters to the creative world, wherein students, professionals, institutes and design-based companies can upload their work and find jobs and projects.
“When architects, animators, and graphic designers upload their resumes on our website, potential employers can offer internships and full time jobs,” says Kavan, the CEO of BananaBandy, who is a second year student of Mass Media at HR College. “Think of us as a LinkedIn for creative people, where instead of uploading their resume, one can upload their portfolio.” When the recruiter finds someone interesting, he can talk to them and hire them to do the job.
BananaBandy offers the space for anyone to sign up, upload their portfolio, interact with like-minded professionals, and also explore projects of different genres. One can even recruit someone who fits their needs and budget. Since it acts as a market network for recruiters and employees, the website focuses on connecting the right talent with the right company. Their basic aim is to create a platform and form an integrated community exclusively for the Indian creative industry and eliminate the barriers between talent and opportunity.
“We have a blog running where we interview industry references, and a community where each of them can view the other person’s work and appreciate it. We also have a market search where employers can find their right talent,” adds Kavan.
While there are other platforms like Behance and Touchtalent for designers to upload their portfolios, BananaBandy plays a crucial role in combining the portfolio and the job search layout. “As a company, we have accumulated over 3600 registered users and seen over 1500 projects being uploaded. Within a month of introducing the job section, we’ve seen about 100 companies posting over 130 job requirements on the site,” explains Shashank, the COO of the website and president of the Rotaract Club of HR College.
Within a short span, they have raised funds close to Rs 2.5 crore, thanks to Srinivasa Aluri, ex-managing director of Morgan Stanley Private Equity and Chaitanya Deshpande, former M&A head of Marico. The company has also seen a 50 per cent growth in the user base and traffic on a monthly basis, and expanded from a two-member team to a five-member one.
The one-stop solution for Indian creatives to showcase their talent and get paid for it sure seems to be working out well. By promoting the underrated and underexposed Indian creative community, this website provides users with optimum resources to convert their ideas into reality in the form of products and designs, and connects employers to the best Indian talent. It’s also a great way to stay connected with the other artists of the City under one umbrella site. With their motto of ‘Innovate endlessly and leave the rest to us’, Kavan concludes, “We want to give the creative world the freedom to express themselves freely by doing what they do best and get various work opportunities in return.”