With the present unemployment disaster in Hollywood, many TV and movie crew members are involved about discovering their subsequent job. That is notably the case for freelancers, who typically face unstable work and irregular pay.
Shobizzy is the most recent skilled networking app for the leisure business that goals to deal with this problem. And, as extra employees may very well be vulnerable to being out of a job, Shobizzy just lately expanded its providing to permit customers to pursue alternatives in extra areas like reside occasions and content material creation.
Launched in January, the app units itself aside from conventional job publish boards akin to Backstage and StaffMeUp as a result of it doesn’t require customers to fill out functions. As a substitute, it offers a social platform for freelancers to create public profiles showcasing their expertise and experience, in addition to type long-lasting connections with individuals within the enterprise who can function helpful references for future job alternatives.
“Freelancers live a very non-traditional career path, in terms of the fact that we never have a permanent employer, and it ends up being that your network is the most valuable piece to your career because of the fact that it’s such a who you know business,” co-founder Doug Weitzbuch informed TechCrunch. Weitzbuch is a contract TV producer with 20 years of business expertise and has labored on reveals like “Duck Dynasty,” “Hell’s Kitchen” and “Lip Sync Battle.”
It’s a sensible transfer to permit freelancers to broaden their horizons past TV and movie, as there was loads of curiosity within the creator economic system, which is estimated to be a $250 billion enterprise. There has additionally been a surge in reside occasions this previous 12 months. PwC predicts that reside occasion income within the U.S. is about to achieve $68.7 billion in 2024.
“The television industry has been in the downturn this past year, and a lot of people are struggling to find work,” co-founder Kevin Eberly mentioned, who beforehand based PayYourRent, the net lease cost software program firm. “As we’re building [Shobizzy], we had a lot of interest from two tangential verticals. One is live event production, so things like concerts, tours, and festivals. And the other is digital content, you know, YouTube creators and stuff like that…We’re able to offer opportunities to freelance crew that they potentially never would have thought of on their own.”
Eberly added that the corporate at present has “strong relationships with multiple companies in the live event vertical, including Red Light Management, that are eager to bring the platform to their productions and clients.”
The brand new partnership with Purple Gentle Administration is critical as a result of the corporate represents many well-known artists, akin to Luke Bryan, Sabrina Carpenter, The Black Keys, The Fray, The Strokes, and Tom Petty. This doubtlessly provides freelancers the possibility to work on main tasks that might assist advance their careers.
Alongside the enlargement, Shobizzy added new performance to assist reside occasion corporations handle hires extra simply. The app’s manufacturing workflow is now tailor-made to live performance excursions, permitting corporations so as to add a number of dates and places in a single manufacturing. It additionally lets corporations match with any distributors they might want, akin to digicam rental distributors.
Total, Shobizzy’s suite of instruments for manufacturing corporations goals to streamline the hiring course of. Utilizing an AI-powered algorithm, the app suggests the best-fitting people for every position, contemplating elements such because the manufacturing’s location, present availability, and related IMDb credit. It then tracks the progress of hires in actual time because the crew is assembled. Firms may also message crew members within the app.
Since its launch, Shobizzy has grabbed the eye of 6,500 signups and round 650 corporations, together with A&E, Amazon, Disney+, Discovery Channel, Meals Community, Netflix, Nike, and WNBA, amongst others.
The corporate is at present elevating a $2 million seed funding spherical.
