#HGTurns2: Profiling The 24 Great Companies Working With Us Today

Exactly two years ago, our founders had a tiny little dream to change the narrative of youth-focussed content in India and it materialised into a blip on the media radar of the world wide web, called Homegrown. Two years later, we’re still here.

Bigger, badder, and more hopeful than ever for still more fearless story-telling, and a fresher perspective than ever before.
To bring in our birthday, this momentous occasion called for the two things that encapsulate our spirit perfectly--work hard, party hard.

While the party will stretch into the night, daylight calls for some productivity, but we couldn’t hack the idea of an ordinary workday. Instead, we invited start-ups, artists, musicians, entrepreneurs, designers, and anyone else with a creative inclination to come work with the Homegrown team, share ideas in a creative space and potentially collaborate to create something tangible in the future.

Without further ado, here’s a compilation of all the great people working with the Homegrown team today, to celebrate us turning two. We can’t wait to get started!

I. Advaita

Advaita is a platform that aims to promote skateboarding in India. The idea first came to founder Nick Smith when he lived in Assagao, Goa next to Sk8goa - India’s first skate park. He imported the first pro-standard skate boards and skate shoes to India back in 2011, and was a part of the Vans India launch in Vasant Kunj, as well as the Quicksilver launch event in Mumbai.

II. Antidote Games

“At Antidote we make playful experiences for understanding complex realities. We started Antidote to make games that would help understand the real-life systems around us. We are passionate about finding playful ways to make sense of complex topics and think that games have a lot to offer,” founders Ben Norskov and Mohini Dutta tell us about their endeavour. This unique company uses the simplicity of gaming to bring complex issues to the table.

III. Clean Planet

This group of desginers and marketers are committed to creating both eco-friendly and stylish products such as cloth handkerchiefs as an alternative to paper tissues, and cloth totes as a replacement for plastic bags.

IV. Crisp Clothing

This online fashion store offers well fitted, beautifully designed, made to measure or ready to wear clothing for men and women. They tell us about what sets them apart, “We are one of the few companies that design, manufacture & retail all of our products, this puts us in a very unique position to look into every detail and ensure quality at every touchpoint.” This clothing brand is where craftsmanship meets quality, founded by Swapnil Kamble.

V. Devansh Shah

Devansh is a young entrepreneur and the founder of Tabulate--a sleek and versatile upgrade for tablets and phones. The Tabulate cover snaps onto any device, making it more comfortable to hold and handle, showing ingenuity in design as well as aesthetics. This innovation is an extension that makes every smart-device user’s life simpler.

VI. Eats, Shoots & Leaves

The boutique creative agency Eats, Shoots & Leaves offers a complete package of services including photography, graphic designing and content managing, while their main passion focuses on video content. They tell us, “One day we want to dedicate our lives to shooting documentaries (Kedar) and food (Jerusha). But until that day comes, you name it, we’ll shoot it. Corporate films, documentaries, adventure sports, web series, music festivals and everything in between.”

VII. KRUNK

Founded in 2009, KRUNK is an all-India artist management & booking agency specializing in the finest local and international talent within the music industry. They represent a mixture of leading and break-through bands and electronic DJs in India, and even offer tailored consultancy services in music programming across India’s best musical venues.

VIII. Maker’s Asylum 

As a community space located in Mumbai as well as Delhi, Maker’s Asylum aims to inculcate the Maker culture of hands-on learning and creative thinking. This community serves as a platform for creative entrepreneurs to prototype their ideas, so that innovation is always given a voice.

IX. Nihaarika Negi

Niharika, a contemporary performance practioner, film and theatre maker, writer and director, is currently developing an immersive performance project called ‘ 36 Questions In Proximity Of A Conversaiton’ with her collective ‘Accelerated Intimacy’. Accelerated Intimacy is a playful endeavour run by Nihaarika along with three other people that strives to make theatre and performance more relevant to present life.

X. Nineteen51

This creativity-driven company introduces the Indian audience to well fitted, aesthetically designed, dynamic T-shirts. The thought that stayed with the team and kept them focused and driven was ‘the difference between something good and something great is attention to detail’.

They tell us, “We want to keep pushing the envelope and keep thinking out of the box. Or at times, simply reinventing the box.” The team comprises Himay Kumbhani, an aspiring entrepreneur and designer, along with Neehar Srikhande, an upcoming event organizer and promoter. They’ve even collaborated with Ladakh Art and Media Organization (LAMO).

XI. Parvati Villa by Ileshaa Khatau

Inspired by India’s rich mythology, this lifestyle boutique is dedicated to and inspired by the ‘devi’ Parvati. Their beautiful products feature in a quaint store in South Mumbai, teeming with gorgeous accessories that portray India’s culture through design.

XII. Rohini Bajekal

Formerly a brand manager at RAW Pressery launching a social enterprise for women empowerment through informed health-related decisions, Rohini strives to create a better environment for women in India through entrepreneurial innovation and dedication.

XIII. Ron Bezbaruah

Ron is a 20-year-old writer, designer, film-maker, photographer and journalist. His multi-faceted talents have led him to work on various interesting projects, such as content writing with the social media creative company APWIG, assistant directing for Little Lamb Films, freelancing as a photographer and writer with Rolling Stone India,training as a junior copywriter at JWT and drumming as well as playing the guitar with the band Quarter Past 1. He also has his own startup called the Crumpled Paper.

XIV. Samarth Chawla

This 21-year-old mass media graduate based out of Mumbai worked for BWP Totem -- a video production house with a passion for film-making. While his education might draw him to media-related spaces, his true passion lies in the strings of his guitar, and he is an exceptionally skilled artist and musician.

XV. Samuel Peinado and team

Working for Mahindra as a part of their Global Recruit Program, Samuel, a recent graduate, along with his team, does strategy work in various capacities. This program recruits seven graduates from top American universities to live and work with Mahindra for two years, and Samuel is one of these fortunate recruits.

XVI. Shark & Inc

Shark & Inc describes their enterprise as, “A double-jointed project -- part passion, part business but entirely flexible. On either side of it lie two rather curious personalities, coming together as one powerful catalyst for the city’s nightlife.”

Through curation, talent management, entertainment consultancy, programming design, marketing and more, this company is the answer to ever creative question. Their work is fearless, inventive and professionally executed.

XVII. ShilpChul

Shilp, meaning hand craft, and chul, meaning itching lust, come together to form ShilpChul which stands for the feel, the lust, and the passion for hand crafted art. Age old cultures and stories are reinvented with an Indian touch, crafted to perfection with careful attention to detail.

XVIII. Shotgun Media

Kicked off two years ago, this Mumbai-based company run by five partners specialises in one facet of video production. One summer in college,  Sumedh Natu, Soham Hundekar, Saiyam Wakchaure, Nikhil Iyer and Siddharth Sharma used their free time to create a docu-drama on cyber-crime for the Rotary Club of India.

With that being a successful project, they decided to explore the scope of their collaboration, and today they’ve worked on video content with Nh7, All India Bakchod, Salim-Sulaiman, Zila Khan and more.

XIX. The Other Circle

This congregation of quirky, innovative and creative efforts aims to build the right perception, communicate the correct ideology and connect with the fitting target audience and opinion leaders for the brands they represent. As a marketing, public relations, and content marketing agency, their repertoire of clientèle specialises in hospitality, such as The Bar Stock Exchange, Di Bella, Guilt Trip and so forth.

XX. The Outbox Project

This collective of artists works together to conceptualize and create visual content for clients, and their work is truly inspired. Apart from crafting videos, they also act as a platform for freelancers to collaborate on different projects. A diverse team of photographers, cinematographers, editors, sound designers, architects, graphic designers, interior designers, content writers and music producers works together with the owners Aneesh Prasad, Sabit Tisekar, Harshbir Singh and Reeve Shroff.

XXI. Traveling Spoon

Traveling Spoon is an innovative endeavour that is the answer to every traveler’s prayers. They find and vet the best home cooks across the world to connect travelers with authentic, meaningful food experiences at the homes of local hosts. Currently operating in 16 countries and 36 cities in Asia, they are soon expanding to other parts of the globe, bringing local flavours to globe-trotters.

This enterprise was founded by Aashi Vel, a food and travel enthusiast, and former industrial design professional, alone with Steph Lawrence, a marketing and business strategist with experience in the social sector, as well as a food blogger and photographer.

XXII.  Viacom18 INS - Mehak Sabat & Karuna Sridhar

Viacom18 INS provides solutions that help brands build enduring relationships through on-ground properties, innovative IPs and various multi-dimensional marketing engagement platforms. A subsidiary under INS known as LIVE Viacom18 holds live properties such as VH1 Supersonic, Emerge, MTVi Spiro, MTV Xtreme, Comedy Central Chuckle Festival and more, through which they engage millions of consumers.

XXIII. Vinay Aaron

This Mumbai-based musician stumbled upon his passion, as he tells us, “Until little less than two years ago, I had absolutely no idea about what I wanted to do with my life until a family friend of mine who produces told me to come jam with him as I play the guitar. After spending a week there I was sure about what I wanted to do, and since then it’s been an amazing learning process.” Currently, he’s at the end of his Bachelors in Sociology, and aims to do a couple of music courses abroad soon. His artistic inspirations are Tycho, Flume and Odesza, and strives to enter the new world of music with synths.

XXIV. Vivek Boray

This San Francisco and Bangalore based lawyer works for Inventus Law based in Silicon Valley, and focuses primarily on representing start-ups and founders.

We will also be featuring books from Kulture Shop  and PropShop24.