Hey there, Mango folks! TagMango has turned three, this year! And doy, has it been a ride! How ‘bout we give you a peek into the journey so far? Come, let’s go!
Started from the bottom…
It all started in a matchbox-sized room in Karaya Road in Kolkata back in 2019. Two founders and a small team of 8 with zeal to change the Creator world as we see it! It all started as an idea – an idea to create Freedom.
Along the way, in the course of the last three years, there have been many pivots as to what the brand stood for. Today it is the ultimate SAAS tool for Creators to monetise their content in various. But three years ago back in January 2019 it was an influencer marketplace that enabled nano influencers to earn through brand collaborations.
Divyanshu Damani and Mohammad Hasan started this young brand in Kolkata and the team worked out of Kolkata from January till August 2019. We then shifted to the City of Dreams to fulfil our dream. We worked out of a flat in Sion, where 7 bachelors and 4 rats made the brand strong! With many names getting associated with the brand, there were some goodbyes too.
After being a platform that catered to nano influencers with a minimum of 500 followers on Instagram and getting them branded content deals, the idea from the onset had been to enable Creators or Influencers to monetise their content.
Getting Funded!
We got funded by the Y Combinator in 2020 when we were a team of 16. Y Combinator provides seed funding for start-ups, which is the earliest stage of venture funding.
When one heads to the Y Combinator website and looks us up, it reads, “TagMango is building a SAAS tool to enable edutainment creators create monetisation channels by creating paid and scalable communities. Anyone who has a skill-set, talent and an engaged audience can build their community on TagMango and provide exclusive services, learnings and content.”
After being funded, we took up an office space in Powai for two months. But then the COVID-19 pandemic hit and we shifted back to Kolkata.
Pivot…pivot…pivot!
It was then, we tried a pivot where we adopted the ‘Cameo for India’ model where one could book video shoutouts and one-on-one video calls with our fave Creators and Celebrities. The idea was to impact more and more people and go beyond what we were doing as a nano influencer marketplace.
The whole world was shrouded by uncertainty, we were no exception. We had our own trials and tribulations. But we held on to hope, unwavering hope that this too shall pass and we will land on our feet stronger than ever!
Guess, what, we did! It is then, we pivoted and experimented with a Patreon for India model, a la a subscriptions model! That’s when we realised that we were a market fit and the Indian audiences are more inclined towards subscribing to exclusive workshops, courses and unique offerings.
And THAT’s what we have been building ever since. We shifted back to Mumbai in January 2020 at Andheri. All was going well and we were building the Creator tool we set out to build, a new team along the way. Then came the second wave of the pandemic, deadlier than the first one. We had to shift back to Kolkata AGAIN!
Back to ‘Bae and say hello to the Creator Pad!
But as we said, we held on to hope, real tight! We raised more funding and in the third go finally shifted bases to Mumbai. This time, we converted a Juhu bungalow into a co-working, co-living space for Creators which is currently doubling up as our office too. Plus, the Creator Pad is also a community space to host events and meet-and-greets, etc.
The brand is stronger than ever. We are seeing a consistent 62% month-on-month growth, more and more Creators are getting associated with TagMango. So far, we have raised capital from Pioneer Fund, JAM Fund, ASAP Capital, TA Ventures, Creator Rising, Belief Partners, Soma Capital, Kevin Lin, Varun Duggirala, Prakhar Gupta, MSB Vision, Siddarth Warrier and 15 other strategic angels.
To mark our third anniversary, we had a chipper sundowner at our gorgeous Creator Pad where we invited Mumbai-based Creators. And they CAME! It was one helluva Saturday with all smiles around and with striking conversations being sparked in every nook and cranny of the Pad. You can get a peek of that, here.
The TagMango vision board!
We are so grateful to all of you for showering us with so much love and support. Thank you for vesting your faith in us. We are one step closer to becoming the sixth logo behind the truck right after Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Twitter. So when someone thinks of monetisation, they think of TagMango.
In addition to the workshops, cohort-based courses and more, we are soon launching our NFT Marketplace. So keep your eyes peeled for that!
Thank you for being such an integral part of our journey! To many more years to come! *cheers*
Written by Rachna Srivastava
