“GIGTANK 365” participant injii helps aspiring artists and social causes
(EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the sixth article in a seven-part series leading up to the “GIGTANK 365 Accelerator Pitch Night” tomorrow in Chattanooga. To register, click here.)
By Tom Ballard, Chief Alliance Officer, PYA
The Founder of injii says he asked himself two questions: “What is my legacy? Can I possibly change the world?”
The answer to both questions is the start-up with the unusual name and dual purpose that is pitching to investors tomorrow night as part of the “GIGTANK 365” summer accelerator. As if pitch night is not enough, injii goes live at 7 p.m. EDT Friday with its inaugural weekly one-hour musical broadcast, working with 21 local artists and Chattanooga’s TechTown.
Slowly, Founder Justin Paul expects to grow to six hours of musical content broadcast daily from Chattanooga before adding Memphis and Nashville. Further expansion to cities like Atlanta and Austin will lead to a national broadcast driven by the best of what he calls the hyper-local content.
What is the content? It is original music never broadcast before, something that provides musicians an outlet for their content. There’s another twist, however. Every broadcast also benefits a charity of the artist’s choice.
injii is a unique concept being developed by a committed entrepreneur who grew-up in Brooklyn, the son of parents who emigrated from India. It is that Indian heritage that is the source of the start-up’s name.
Paul earned an undergraduate degree in accounting from Pace University, but never held a position in the field. Instead, he spent 11 years in marketing, but did not feel totally fulfilled.
“I felt like I was capable of doing something on my own,” he says in reference to what he was doing professionally until recently – working for someone else.
The result is injii, an idea he started honing two years ago in Hoboken, NJ. It links charitable causes, which want to raise awareness and funds, with artists, who want to share their original music. The result is the world’s first social impact broadcast.
“It’s like live television,” Paul says. “It’s primarily a desktop real-time broadcast. All content has to be original . . . never shown anywhere before.”
Artists load their pre-recorded content and schedule a time during the broadcast period for their song to run. As part of the scheduling process, the artists select a charity to which those viewing the performance can make contributions. Paul expects to broadcast about two dozen songs in a one-hour period.
“If everything goes as planned, we may not need additional capital,” he says, explaining that injii has been self-funded thus far. “I don’t want to giveaway more equity than I have to.”
Paul heard about “GIGTANK 365” at a holiday party in 2015 and talked to Alex Lavidge, former CO.LAB Entrepreneur-in-Residence. “I came down in February and found it was a perfect match,” he said. “I moved here in May.”
