Five years ago, if you had told Akash Tiwari Founder of Gygs, he’d end up building a tech platform for creators, he probably would’ve laughed it off. At the time, he was in the thick of the performance world, hosting shows, dancing, managing artists, trying to make things work. No fancy degrees. No startup buzzwords. Just one role after another, stacked with lessons life was quietly handing out.
“Honestly, I never set out to build something like this. There’s a Steve Jobs quote I love about how ‘you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward.’ That perfectly describes my journey. Looking back, I can see how every single role I’ve had was a dot leading me directly to Gygs.”
Little did he know, those random “dots,” would connect and turn into Gygs.
The Unseen Mess
Ask anyone in the creative world, and they’ll tell you the truth: getting hired is messy.
You’ve got dancers chasing clients through DMs, fitness trainers negotiating prices on WhatsApp, and creators working without contracts or clarity. Middlemen everywhere, zero professionalism, and creators almost always underpaid.
Akash saw this chaos firsthand. Not from a boardroom. But from the trenches.
And one day, it just clicked: “This isn’t how it should be.”
That frustration, that longing for a better system, that’s where the seed for Gygs was planted.
So, What Is Gygs?
To explain it simply: Gygs is what LinkedIn should’ve been for creators. A space that brings structure and dignity to the creative hustle.
For creators, it offers a clean portfolio space, you control what you show and who can reach you, for clients, it’s freedom from the chaotic back-and-forth of DMs and guesswork. You browse through real profiles, past reviews, skillsets, and with one click, hire the right fit. Gygs is even integrating AI to make that process smarter and faster.
It’s not just a platform, it’s a long-overdue system fix.
Real Impact Starts Small
Akash still remembers one moment like it happened recently, a young girl walked up to him. She had just moved from Bangalore to Mumbai, feeling completely lost in the sea of auditions and networking apps. She said, “I found Gygs two days ago, and finally, there’s something like this!”
That sentence didn’t come with a cheque.
But it came with something more powerful: validation.
Because when someone finds hope in what you’ve built, that’s impact in its purest form.
The Trio Behind the Curtain
Now let’s be clear: Akash might be the face of Gygs, but the engine running under the hood is built with three minds.
Enter Arjun and Hussain, his co-founders, and the tech architects behind the platform.
Akash openly says he’s “not corporate,” and laughs about how he still learns tech terms on the fly. But what makes this trio click isn’t just skills, it’s trust. It’s knowing when to lead, when to listen, and when to let your team fly.
He calls it the “secret recipe.” We may not know the ingredients yet, but the results are already cooking.
Unexpected Lessons
Before Gygs, Akash hosted a podcast. He got the chance to talk to big names, people like Farhan Akhtar and Greg Street.
And no, it wasn’t just fangirling. These conversations peeled back a truth most don’t see:
People change the moment the cameras turn off.
And that shift? That raw, honest version of someone? That’s where real learning happens.
For Akash, it became clear, everyone’s figuring it out. Fame doesn’t erase fear. Confidence isn’t constant. And sometimes, asking good questions is more powerful than having the answers.
The Hardest, Best Training Ground: Artist Management
Managing artists wasn’t a job, it was a crash course in building a company.
You spot talent. You help them get paid. You deal with clients, middlemen, venues, cancellations, ego clashes, last-minute changes. You become the problem-solver, the negotiator, the coach, the shield.
In that chaos, Akash didn’t just learn the system, he learned where it breaks.
And when the time came to build Gygs, he already knew what creators needed… because he’d lived that life himself.
The Big Myth About Creators
People often say, “Being a content creator must be fun. So easy, right? Just make videos.”
“Most dangerous myth, being a full-time creator is fun and easier than a 9-to-5 job. Reality is, when you’re a creator, you don’t work from 9-to-5; you work 24/7.”
That’s the myth Akash loves busting.
Reality? It’s not 9-to-5. It’s 24/7.
No weekends. No switch-off button. No rest.
You’re always thinking. Always creating. Always worrying about what’s next.
And that’s why a platform like Gygs matters. Not because creators are weak, but because even the strongest need a system that respects their grind.
What Fuels Him Today?
People ask Akash: “Why do you do all this?”
The answer? It changes.
In the beginning, it was curiosity. A desire to figure things out.
Then came family, wanting to give them a better life, more security.
But today? It’s about impact.
It’s about giving creators tools to build a career. About removing guesswork from hiring. About building a foundation that thousands of people can stand on.
Tomorrow, the “why” might evolve again. That’s the beauty of growth.
The Bigger Picture
Gygs isn’t just another startup. It’s a quiet revolution. One that didn’t start with a pitch deck, but with a guy observing chaos and deciding to fix it.
Akash’s story reminds us:
Big change doesn’t need big headlines. It needs people who care enough to build when no one’s watching.
And maybe, just maybe, the next superstar won’t rise because of luck or contacts, but because someone, somewhere, built them a platform like Gygs.
