Inside with GigLocator

We got to work with this wonder team pre-launch, and we’re proud to see GigLocator a well received new phenom. James and Miles have calmed down from the launch of their searchy live music gig machine to answer some questions regarding their vision, plans and youthful entrepreneurial spirit… Interview after the jump.

(mt): Did you have a magic moment when you knew you had to pursue your idea?

GL: My co-founder, Miles, came to me one day with the idea of a gig search engine. I was working on a few personal projects at the time, but over the coming few days I seriously thought about the viability and potential for the product. It was over the next couple of weeks that we spoke in depth about the basic idea and realized that there was a huge potential for evolving what was a simple idea into something a bit more like a service.

(mt): James, You and Miles are a particularly interesting story being 18 and 21. The Internet has allowed increasingly young entrepreneurs to start businesses and make an impact on many industries. What were some of your influences in entrepreneurship?

GL: Personally speaking, in the Internet space, I have been influenced by a small number of people. In no particular order they have been Gary Vaynerchuk, Jason Calacanis, (the surprisingly unorthodox choice of) Michael Arrington and the stereotypically British influence of Richard Branson. The reasons for my choices are mainly down to their attitudes, achievements and core messages. From those various messages, I think Gary’s videos should be watched by every entrepreneur. His main message to “CRUSH IT” is timeless and motivates me to continue even when things around me appear to be rather grim and working on your start up isn’t so attractive.

(mt): Do you think your youth contributed to the success of your launch?

GL: Again speaking personally, it has proven to be a mixed-blessing. But overall it has been positive. Age shouldn’t been a contributing factor, but being young has its blessings when launching a start up. Most of the time you aren’t risking things such as a home. Myself, being quite a bit younger than even the average startup founder, I have found that people are more willing to provide me with free help and services. If I had been even a few years older, I might not be so lucky. I never actually reveal my age unless required to, mainly due to the worry that as a young entrepreneur my credibility would be a bit lower. As I said, luckily this hasn’t been the case.

(mt): How do you see your business/product affecting your target market? Do you think your Product has a wide enough appeal to be adapted by the masses?

GL: Our target market, “live music” is huge and growing. Richard Branson himself recently said that the future of the music industry was in live music. Even in a recession, the number of people going to live music events is on the up.

Our business and related products will be able to help the consumer to find the gigs that they want to attend, whether it be a well known tour or a not-so well known bar gig. The end goal is to be the most comprehensive destination for those who already know what they want in terms of artist and gig, but also for those who perhaps need a helping hand.

There are a few gig related sites out there already, but no one has made significant inroads penetrating the market. We strongly believe our offering and future enhancements will be the first real chance of taking the idea mainstream.

(mt): Granted GigLocator is fairly data heavy, what tools are you using to keep your web needs scalable in terms of MySQL caching, specific programming language, etc.?

GL: With millions of MySQL objects being present in the system before we even launched to the public, it was crucial that we built a scalable system from the outset. Memcached is probably the biggest part of achieving this — a tool that no web application developer should be without. By ensuring that the site is heavily integrated with Memcached, we have been able to keep rich data and algorithmic calculations instantly loading to the user while not making them miss out on up-to-date data.

(mt): GigLocator has a LOT of potential for location based usage. Do you have advanced plans (you can disclose) regarding location-based services including mobile?

GL: We are currently using IP and user preference based geo-location in the web application itself. It is an area in which we are continuing to put a lot of coding into to strengthen and enable users to take advantage of a seamless local experience. To be relevant to people it needs to be local and this is a key element of GigLocator. We will definitely be using the geo-location advantage that mobiles posses. With platforms such as the iPhone and Android, we’ll be able to take advantage of highly accurate location data and give our users a more relevant experience.

(mt): Would you consider your revenue stream “game changing” or more traditional? And how did you arrive at your pricing structure?

GL: Our current revenue stream of profiting via affiliation with the ticket vendors could be considered as a more traditional revenue stream. We do have a few “game changing” ideas that we hope to bring into play in the future. We’ll be sure to share more as the time comes.

(mt): What are your immediate next steps?

GL: Continue to build a solid product, adding new features and creating something people will continue to come back to. Once we are happy with our web offering as being sufficiently developed, we will embark upon creating some great mobile solutions for GigLocator that have been in our minds for a while. Talking in terms of servers, we’ll be hopefully working with Media Temple soon to deploy some architecture changes that will help us to expand painlessly.

(mt): When your company expands, what’s your vision for management structure?

GL: My co-founder and I hope to naturally progress into COO and CEO roles respectively, while taking on a small number of very talented employees to help drive us to the next level. While we hope to expand and are hopeful that our product will expand significantly, we still aim to keep a relatively small team in comparison to the average start up. Hopefully this small but focused mantra will play out like we envisage.

(mt): Looking for investment? If so, what kind and from whom?

GL: We are currently seeking investment. We’re looking to raise a round of funding with angel investors who have knowledge of the music or web industry — or hopefully both. Our low running costs mean that we don’t need to go knocking on the door of venture capitalists just yet. We are always on the lookout for any potential opportunities whether they are monetary or not. Anyone with an idea should happily get in contact with us.

(mt): What advice would you give to other young entrepreneurs?

GL: If you are working for other people: start building. Even if it’s an hour a day, just work on your project. If you don’t have one, but honestly in your heart can’t see yourself working for someone else for the rest of your life, look at everything through an entrepreneurial eye. If you can spot a problem, think about how to solve it. If someone already is trying to solve it but you think you can do it better — go ahead and do it!