(Original Photo By: JGR Photography)
According to Dictionary.com the definition of an entrepreneur is “a person who organizes and manages any enterprise, especially a business, usually with considerable initiative and risk.” New York-based, music manager, digital expert and startup founder Nicholas Parasram is the living embodiment of that.
At only 18 years old, Parasram is a highly seasoned and savvy veteran in the music and tech scene. He is a founder of the Get Wild concert tour, “a college-based concert tour that produces events with the best DJ/Producers aiming to provide quality experiences for students,” that most recently had shows with ZAXX, Marcus Schossow, Sebjak, Fight Clvb and more. He also owns an artist management and digital strategy agency named Sonar Projects, which he started a few years ago, managing a few artists, in his age group that needed help showcasing their music. He helps his clients with marketing strategy, bookings, press and building relationships with brands. 
Parasram originally got into the music industry on the promotion side, but he soon found he had bigger aspirations than just selling tickets. Although he gained a lot of experience doing bookings for friends and such, he found that the scene was not always friendly. Being an intelligent individual, though, Parasram had a sense of when people were taking advantage of him, and he smartly cut any negative aspects out of his life.
“Over time I drifted away from those people that took advantage of me when I first started. I used to promote teen events here in NY when I was younger, but I found out the people I used to work with weren’t exactly who they said they’d be and often-promised stuff but never delivered. I took a break from promotions and then started again by helping with talent buying, millennial marketing and social media at various venues in NY. Growing up, my friend and business partner, Kyle Lyons (a co-founder of Get Wild Tour) and I were very close and I was also able to gain a taste of the concert tour industry from a young age as his brother, Jared & his partner Brandon had started Bounce Music Festival (which was at its peak in 2012-2013). They booked artists like Avicii, Tiesto, Alesso & more. Bounce was always very inspiring to me and I remember their shows always being spoken about in the industry. Seeing Bounce’s success always made me want to get into the tour business.”
And that’s how Get Wild got started. Although Parasram mostly focuses on the tech and business side of things now, he says that music was always a passion of his. However, his love of electronic music really took off when he went away to a college program for the summer in 2011 and had spent time learning about his international classmates.
“I went to a summer program at Brown University in 2011. I was the youngest one in the entrepreneurship program that year and I took a class there for four weeks. Many of my classmates were from Europe and other countries and at that time Avicii and Swedish House Mafia were getting big, so I started getting really into it. One of them was a producer and he showed me his work, and I really enjoyed it so I started learning more and more about it. Over time I started working the event scene and I would start seeing young talents come up in NY, and I thought to myself “oh, here’s that opportunity to get involved in the scene from a music standpoint.” I have four clients that I’m managing currently (ONEDUO, STRYV, JonOne, and Camarda) and I’m actively signing new clients. We’re all young kids (late teens to early 20s), so it’s cool that we’ve got a young crew of diverse artists all joining together to make our impact on the industry and I’m happy to be a part of their journey. My goal is to help our clients develop, diversify and evolve their impact on the world.”
Something that was a curiosity for him suddenly became a reality and he dove head first into it…look how it has evolved. Suffice to say, someone without his entrepreneurial spirit probably would not have gone down the same route in life. What makes Parasram’s confluence of circumstances unique is not only that he has a musical background, but he also has had a major interest in all things tech. Being the self-starter that he is, he taught himself coding and thus, Nicholas Parasram the tech influencer & founder was born.
“When I was younger I was always into tech gadgets and such, and it was kind of just a hobby, and I liked it. When I was like 13 I learned how to make websites through HTML. So I built some websites for my school clubs. At the same time, iPhones were getting big, and I started learning a little bit about Objective-C, which is the language you use to code iPhone apps. I have a lot of passion for music and tech, and I try to mash it however I can. It’s a difficult thing, but it’s cool, I like it. My partner Daniel Hanover & I met as interns when we were 14 and together we have used our skills of coding, marketing, business strategy and digital creativity to create innovative products that mash together music and technology.”
Fast forward a few years and Daniel and Nicholas have launched the apps Eventible and the recently released, FLYR.
“Eventible makes it easy to create and discover events with friends. Based on your social circles, interests & location, we serve the best events for you to attend with your friends. Our event creation tool also offers a simple way to quickly create and share an event privately with your friends, or with our Eventible community.”
The recently launched FLYR is an idea that should appeal to everyone across the spectrum, from millennials to our grandparents. Parasram pointed out to me that since GIFs are insanely popular; why not use GIFs as a “Flyr” to advertise your party, wedding, event, etc.? FLYR is aiming to be a creative, self-expressive platform for anyone to quickly create mobile event invites with fun & exciting content.
However, for Parasram it all goes back to an initial love for music. Just like any other high school or college kid … the outlet that it gives us for so many of life’s challenges that we all encounter at a young age. For the most part, we’re all pretty scared and a little awkward when we’re in high school. Some people end up venturing down the wrong path, but for him, music kept him on a positive path. Good music cures all.
“I used to play trumpet, piano, guitar, and I used to sing and write in my free time. When I was younger I was really into all of the arts. I used to act as well…I was a very art-centric person, but at the same time, I was good at school and enjoyed learning about tech and business. Music was always a part of my life and my family embraced that, so I naturally leaned toward it when I needed it. I pretty much used it to cope with a lot of problems, to get through stuff when I was in high school – asking myself: am I going to go to college and how am I going to start my businesses? Music was therefore, always the ideal outlet for me to express myself positively.”
As the apps that he has launched reach a larger audience, he’s discovered that the bridge between tech and communication have made his apps that much more versatile. For instance, Parasram said that Eventible has helped people with art shows, which was something he never imagined during development.
“When we made our app we thought about it as being just a thing for music events. It ended up turning into something greater. We realized that we could impact X amount of people with what we’ve made, just like music, but in a more literal sense…where people are touching it and feeling it. It provides communication, and I think that’s one of the biggest things that drives people towards scalable mobile products.”
Parasram is an absolute wunderkind and has already accomplished so much for his age. However, as most of us in the younger demographic can attest to, he still faces his doubters because of his youth. Of course, he doesn’t let that bother him, and as more and more young people start making their way into the industry, Parasram says seeing those young peers is an inspiration.
“A lot of people don’t take you seriously when you’re younger. They listen to your ideas, and nod their heads but think that you talk a lot, and don’t really do anything. That’s why I just do what I do and people see the results. We have a big problem in music where older guys run the music industry, an industry that survives on youth influence, so it’s kind of cool whenever I meet young people like myself who are showing results in their work, I feel like society needs more of that positivity to inspire more young adults to thrive.”
Although, he’s still only 18, Parasram is seemingly a veteran to the crossroads of the music and tech scenes. As such, he says he would love to take on a mentorship position for other young entrepreneurs looking to take that big step. He knows from his own personal experience that following your dreams and taking a path that’s different from others can be a rocky one at times. As many of us can agree, it’s always nice to know that there’s someone there who has experienced the same thing.
“I’m now meeting other young kids that are founding companies, developing apps, starting non-profit organizations, which is inspiring to me because now there’s a network of young kids that are doing this stuff and I no longer feel alone. That’s a big thing for me. One day I’d love to create a venture firm to help kids that are like me, fading through the darkness, but going through their work and telling them that it’s okay and that there’s more than one person in your shoes.”
If you put yourself out there in the world, big things can happen. Nicholas Parasram is a living testimony. If you have an iPhone, be sure to check out Eventible and FLYR on the Apple App Store and be sure to check out Sonar Projects & Get WILD Tour. This guy is only getting started and we expect to see a lot more from Team Parasram in the future.
Follow Nicholas Parasram on Twitter for updates: @Nparasram or reach him at:
