Two friends are building a business over their hobbies, with startup CityShor!
As I turn pages of The Last Mughal by William Dalrymple, I am taken on a journey of Delhi that existed during the last Mughal, Zafar’s time. The vicarious feeling that I get and the mysteries that such undiscovered places and events hold are indeed soul stirring. Couple reading this book with a trip to Delhi and you may get my point. It is about rediscovering the undiscovered places in the cities we live.
I have been to Ahmedabad many times, but never knew of Jasuben’s Pizza, till the Gujarat CM Narendra Modi talked about it in his recent speech. I am sure, that a city like Ahmedabad has lots more in store. And two guys have set out to unravel not just the famous landmarks, but the seemingly hideous, but must-be-visited-on-your-trip, places and shops in Ahmedabad.
The idea of CityShor has been built upon the co-founders’ personal interests: Pallav Parikh loves roaming [sic] around and Pankaj Pathak has the writing bug. Colleagues at earlier companies, the entrepreneurial bug caught both of them, and kept them glued together. This duo is assisted by other 4 members of the CityShor team: Chahat Shah, Nirjari Shah, Rahul Pardasani, and Shekhar Nirmal, who manage stuff like reaching out to newer places and people, and showcase their products on CityShor. So, what is CityShor all about?
For individuals: CityShor tells you what’s best in Ahmedabad in food, fashion, travel, events, home décor and entertainment; the unusual, and unheard stuff of Ahmedabad. For example, how many Ahmedbadis (people of Ahmedabad) know about a shop that sells blade-less fans?
For businesses: CityShor is a visually heavy online media company, that aims to fill the gap left by print, radio, and hoardings, and which can help cover/promote a product.
They came out of stealth mode, with the formal launch yesterday (10th April 2013), but have been working on it since January 2013. They want to partner with more brands to be their online partners. Advertising will be their main source of revenue, and they aim to completely change the local advertising market.
Although they’re based out of Ahmedabad, they are agnostic of the location as their capabilities are online. Currently they want to build a community of loyal followers, after which they will concentrate on the expansion. The duo claim to have covered every nook and corner of Ahmedabad on CityShor and want to scale this model to reach more cities.
They recently finished their recruitment drive which was titled ‘The Best job in Ahmedabad’ where the profile of the team member was to – watch movies, eat, shop, travel, attend events, talk to people, do FB, Twitter and that’s it. Not all startups can project their requirements in this cool fashion, and for them we have the Startup Jobs Fair coming up on the 27th of April 2013, at Bangalore.
This online media firm is still at a nascent stage, and a lot of things are still "under construction". The question is, since most of the businesses prefer to have their own Facebook page or Twitter handle, and generate engagements out of it, will such a model survive? Tell us in the comments.
