From 6 Sqft to 700 Sqft Expo Taking on Giants CiniCloud Growth in a Year

"I am stunned", "I am Surprised", "It's amazing"! where the words we heard when people came to our stall. So many people said " Last Year you had a small stall on the way to the bathroom exit and now you have one of the biggest stall on the entrance of the expo". Such a big stall that too for a cinema ticketing company ?. People were so happy about your growth. Not just once or twice but we would have heard at least 60 times from various people saying it loudly to us from the heart. People celebrated it like their success. They loved the way we started and small last year and so happy to see this big time and wanted us to be bigger next time. Its the connect and the true love from people keeps us going.

Many asked who is your investor? When all the big stalls had big names behind it. We are the ones who had two boys born from Trichy who Lives in Chennai behind it. No Body could believe its a bootstrapped company. What they could not see is, God is in our side behind all these.

( Antha Andavane Namma Pakkam )

This year 2019 we decided to big, go all in, for a small startup like us who are bootstrapped its an again huge bet and almost like cracking the fires on the day and burn the cash in 2 days event. We decided it will be valuable for the company and for us and had set a budget of 50 Lacs this time. 10 times more than what we had spent last year. This time bigger the better and it's hard-earned money so we decided to spend wisely.

We got only one quote form the same stall designer as we believe in relationship and we grow together, we gave him a big space.

While Choosing the slot we decided to go big and Only one big slot was left as its Number was 8 may be due to numerology or astrology but for good people only good things will happen we decided to take that stall 8 and it was next to Cube Cinemas coincidently which made us to double confirm it :) ( Last year also we had the stall opposite to Cube) but this time in par in size of the stall of Cube Cinemas who are in this filed for 16 years.

We brought 500 Gifts as give away for, the customers. Let's give them love

We decided to show some love to the people who visit our stalls, we decided to buy some goodies and did brought the following gifts after a lot of analysis and choosing the best, because whatever we give we should give for the sake of giving but give it from the heart. We also did something interesting along with the goodies we prepared to give a sweet to welcome that too a good one, we brought melting magic Mysore Pak from Sri Krishna Sweets and Wrapped it beautifully. A Customer who just signed in the expo, he called up after reaching his native and said my dad had that sweet I got just a small piece for taste can u pls courier the same or give me where to buy. This happiness of touching customer gives us happiness :)

Security check thought it was a gold bar :) as we wrapped in the gold wrapper in exact shape had it opened to test and then send it, we took it to Mumbai to give our love.

Product is important than the Shop

We always say for a Vadai Shop all u need is a great Vadai, then comes rest. We spend so much because of the confidence of our product, the team who worked crazily till the day we boarded flight its like a day before wedding/college event we worked with so much enthusiasm to show the best for the expo

( Manikkam to Bhasha ) Mumbai

We Landed Mumbai and Checked In in Westin, One of the finest suite room to talk business. We went to check the preparation of stall setup and we got this news to our motivation that CiniCloud have been chosen as Dreamers and Doers of Chennai along with some of the top companies we respect.

Preparation for the D-Day

While Getting ready for the D-Day I got this motivational Song from Thalaivar Movie https://youtu.be/Miq7oMIybgs from Mr. Girish our Friend and CEO of FreshWorks. This Song has been in repeat mode in my mind.

We all went a day ahead just like last year to make sure we are there for the stall preparation. The entire team supported like anything a team of developers, sales worked like anything. We all had long days.

Video Tour of CiniCloud Stall

The Team for the Mumbai Big Cine Expo

Last time it was 4 of us. This time its 11 people like a cricket team. Let's play big and win.

The event is a super hit, 32 cinemas signed up on the spot. We had an opportunity to meet existing customers and built relationships. We had big chains like PVR, Carnival and Miraj Cinemas who visited our stall with so much love and a lot of good things are in cooking.

PVR Team: What a moment for us. Entire IT team graced our stall so friendly.

The entire PVR Team has been very supportive and encouraging the hardworking young startup like us from day one. It's nice to see their continuous supporting and humble team.

Carnival Cinemas Mohan and Kunal Senior Vice President

Mohan and Kunal From Carnival Cinemas has always been encouraging us to do our best.

Miraj Cinemas MD Mr. Amit Sharma

Cinepolis Cinemas

Sri Sakthi Cinemas - Tiruppur - Directors: Mr. Senthil and Mr. Karthik

Various Customers for their Cinemas Signing on the spot for CiniCloud

After the demo, we got so many customers signing up on the spot.

On his Birthday He signed for Two Multiplexes in CiniCloud

Karnataka Film Chamber President and Team.

China Gowda Sir has been very supportive last year and this year. He just hugged us in both hands and said he was so happy to see such technology innovation from India for Cinemas.

Paytm Sommaya Singh

Kasi Theater, Trichy La Cinemas, GK Cinemas and Tamilnadu Theater

It's good to see the great cinemas from Tamilnadu. I have been a huge movie buff and have been too early morning shows in Kasi and GK Cinemas for Thaliavar Movies. Trichy La Cinemas is where we had spent most of our childhood cinema experiences.

Overseas Customers @ Our Stall

Stall Decorator and Mr. Vishal

Back Story

2018 Aug we were told by Alex a Good friend of mine for 8 years in Facebook that an Expo is happening for Cinema Called Big Cine Expo and You have to go, When we tried reaching to get a stall its all blocked and booked. We were late, Fortunately, we had an opportunity to meet Alex CEO Vishal of POS-India in Chennai. He came to meet us after Alex had told a lot of good things about us and our culture. Vishal immediately helped us to get his stall which he had blocked for them so we can have our launch in Mumbai and his team was also there with their POS to print our tickets.

Its a huge decision for a startup like us. We carefully spend as its bootstrapped and we don't have the choice to burn money and experiment fast. We have to experiment continuously as well cautiously spend and make the best of out. Initially it was supposed to be in bare shell event but then we thought let's put our best hence negotiated and did got the best stall done in 24 hrs. We kept 6 Lacs aside as an overall Investment for 2 days event. We did chose the stall for 2 Lacs and Stall decoration for 1.25 Lacs. We had booked the same hotel Sarah Star where the event is happening both for us and the boys. We took all sincere efforts to go prepared and worked hard and made sure we are there and make a stamp.

2018 CiniCloud Stall which was the smallest one. Our Stall designer was an intelligent god sent a guy who made the stall three sides open so even though its small it looked huge as it opened the mind. We landed one day earlier went on to see the setup. In 24hrs the stall was done. We had set up the demo with iMac and POS and we stood outside so we can save some space and started showcasing demo. It was a super hit. In 5-7 mins we create a theatre in the customer name, seat layout, movie scheduling, book and print a ticket in the customer name.

It spread like a wildfire, good things and positivity are contagious. More than 300 people saw the demo, we were next to cube cinemas stall. It was a super hit. It gave us so much confidence and being technical people and having no sales or marketing team. We have always believed built a great product and keep in a showcase people will come to you for the value you give. It was evident and gave us a huge breakthrough. The leads we got in those two days was enough for a year.

Stay hungry. Stay Foolish.