A Manchester-based start-up behind a management and booking platform which connects musicians directly to venues is among the firms named in the Insider Most Exciting Companies list for 2023.
GigPig is already disrupting the music booking business and is set to go international.
The company, which won the Northern Star Award for potential International Success at the Northern Tech Awards 2023, enables hospitality venues to book musicians directly, removing third party involvement and plugging into the venue’s operations, finance and marketing departments.
Musicians are also able to manage their own live dates through an integrated calendar system and automatic accountancy tools to handle invoicing and payment.
Michael Forster, co-founder and chief executive of GigPig, began his career in the music industry more than 30 years ago when he founded AMV Live Music with Andrew Garner in 2010.
Forster and Garner, along with Kit Muir-Rogers and Ed Francis, founded GigPig last year when the business also secured a seven-figure pre-seed funding investment.
“We are already scaling the business,” said Forster. “The guy who led our seed funding round said, ‘you are scaling the Beejesus out of it!’
“The amount of data we collect is ridiculous. We are building integrations so people know who’s in the room, what demographic so you can market out to them.
“So we can tell them if red wine sales are going up when they have jazz on for example. The drinks companies can do promotions based on the data.”
Discussing GigPig’s expansion he added: “We are already in 22 cities in the UK, we have over 4,000 artists. Our biggest concern was would the artists come on board – I knew the venues would. We are signing 50 or 60 a day organically. We reach them by word of mouth.
“We started with 200 artists. That has built to 4,000 in nine months. It is snowballing. We are in tenders with massive national chains with 70 or 80 sites. They will open the floodgates. It is crazy how the market is reaching out to us. “
Every year Insider picks 30 of the region’s new or exciting firms who are shaking up their sectors.
The Most Exciting Companies list – sponsored by four Recruitment, JMW Solicitors, Sedulo and thinc* – features in the latest North West Business Insider, out now.
Other firms on the list include Jnck Bakery, a Manchester-based sweet treats business launched by two brothers; Liverpool City Region-based immersive experience studio Draw & Code; and Chorley-based Centreco, a provider of solar energy systems.