Real stories about Real work with Creatyst

Recently, I was interviewed by a publication called News aur Chai about Creatyst where we got an opportunity to share our story with the world.
Here is the entire interview.

1. Tell us something about yourself like your personal life, your education.

Hi, I am Sania Shaikh. I like to call myself a storyteller. Meeting new people and exploring new ideas is more of a hobby for me. I believe when you get out and meet new people and that is where all the connection happens which actually leads to a new story.

Professionally, I have been working with tech startups in Mumbai from past 3 years. I like to work on projects or products which can help a common man make his day to day life better.

2. What does your website/blogging mainly do?

So my friend Saurabh Kabra and me, we started Creatyst 2 years back as a hobby project. At Creatyst, we share stories of young artists from all around the world. The core idea behind creatyst has always remained intact which is to help like-minded individuals connect with one another to work on crazy ideas.

3. What inspired you to start this website?

Two years back we were working on a product called Hapwork which was a web app that helped freelancers find more work. And while we were in the midst of creating our MVP we had already started marketing this product through a social media campaign called Creatyst. It was just a page on Instagram where we were sharing short stories of all our creative friends in Mumbai Colleges. And while building the MVP we realized through our research that our idea was very 2008 and there was no point in doing something that has already been done and in such a better way. But by that time our Campaign creatyst had already picked up in all colleges across Mumbai and we were really enjoying having a conversation with each one who we featured. And so we decided to shut Hapwork down and continued with creatyst as a full-time blog and today we have featured close to 800 artists on our blog from all around the world.

4. You have featured more than 800 people on your website, from where did you find those people? Like how did you manage to make them share their stories with you?

When we started we were college students ourselves so it was very easy to access all the college networks but when we started expanded it was a tedious job to find interesting artists around us. And that is why we used social media to our advantage where each day we go through many many profiles on facebook and Instagram because now we feel that people upload their best work on these two platforms and we want to find them through their work. And once we zero down on a particular artist after going through their work we send them an invite to share their story. And till all these people have been really gracious and humble in being a part of our community.

5. What was your aim when you thought of starting of starting such a website?

Inspired by Humans of New York, we wanted to share stories of people rather than just their contact details or bunch of links. We wanted people to believe that there is an artist in each one of us. And now creatyst is working towards a new mission. A mission to help people live fulfilled lives by inspiring them t follow their passion. We want to create a culture where all the artists be it musicians, filmmakers, designers, photographers and other creators can collaborate with one another to bring all their crazy ideas to life.

6. Your website contains a diverse number of artists, doing well in their respective fields whether that be photography, painting or some other kind of art, but not cliched careers like engineering or being a doctor. Do you think their job cannot be classified as art? Or is there some other reason to it?

Since Creatyst came out of a failed product that primarily catered to artists, it was natural that Creatyst also had the same audience. But after a point yes it did strike us and we had to decide what all professions to include and we choose not to go ahead with something like a 9–5 because I think these professions already have a lot of recognition in the society and because of which a lot of people are forced to do that. We wanted to be the voice of people who are considered weird because they stay up late at night and design and sleep the entire day. We wanted to encourage artists who follow their unstructured paths because all the people who are doing a 9–5 are already quite popular for their pay packages.

7. Why does Creatyst stand out so much? Why should it be followed on social media?

Ahh … well, I would just say because I think people are done with all those glossy stories of success and fame and now they actually want to read real and genuine stories of people like you and me. Stories about failure, about dual lives about being broke because you are following your passion but still hoping to make it some day. And these are the kind of stories we bring for our audience.

We have purposely given a lot of attention to our pages on social media especially Instagram. Instagram is the place where people share their best work and now it has become a place like our own community.

8. What has been the best moment for you since you started this website?

There are so many it would be difficult to pick one. But one that is really close is a photo series that we had done on a train from Guwahati to Mumbai. That was one moment when we are actually interacting with people and listening to what they had to say which is not always the case because the majority of our communication is digital with artists. But that particular day was just breathtaking, talking to people who you do not know at all and still feeling something after hearing them. That feeling was magical.

9. How does this website benefit you? Would you call it a suitable career path?

Yes. Definitely, we would call it a suitable career path otherwise, we wouldn’t be investing so much time and effort in the entire project. As far as benefits are considered we have now ventured into Creatyst studios where we work with artists to make their ideas real. And in return, we get a small share if an external entity is involved.

10. Would you like to suggest a piece of advice for success to people who are in the same line as you?

I think it is extremely important to understand what exactly you want to gain from a particular story that you are covering. Because then the entire approach, the look and feel and also the entire narration of the project would change. The motivation could be anything. Be it money, fame, social message, humor anything. But try and pick one it helps you focus.

11. Lastly, what do you aim to achieve now that your website is on floors, has suitable traffic and is getting quite popular among aspiring artists?

So we are working on Creatyst Studios right now which is going to be a place for digital storytellers. We will be working with diverse, creative and entrepreneurial voices, giving them financial and creative support to build their own media projects or products.

Interview was conducted by Moksha jain, News Aur Chai.