Colgate alumni Cody Breene ’13 and David Lederer ’13 were back in central New York this past week to promote their start-up online musical booking platform, “Giggity.” Giggity, which began with the help of Colgate’s entrepreneurial program Thought Into Action (TIA) in 2012, is designed to make it easier for musicians and

consumers to connect.

Breene and Lederer, who have always been interested in music, saw the industry transforming in ways that needed to be addressed. They shared the vision that live music is an industry growing in popularity, particularly on college campuses, but one that is not always easily accessible.

“We saw the process of booking a gig as a really intimidating thing if you had never done it before,” Breene said. “We wanted to make it as easy as possible for people to get live music. It’s complicated and confusing. Most people don’t know how to go about booking an artist, and there was no good platform for doing that.”

Conversely, they also saw it as a challenge for artists to connect with interested consumers.

“Right now, if you’re an artist who wants to get marketed to a university, you have to be a big name who has an agent working full time to get you gigs,” Breene said. “But the artists who want and need the college venue the most are the up-and-coming artists.”

Working with TIA mentor Anil Narang ’85, Breene and Lederer were able to get Giggity off of the ground while at Colgate.

“The experience in TIA is incredible because it’s not school work where you have assignments, but instead you have a goal that you’re trying to make a reality,” Breene said. “As the TIA mentors told us, done is better than perfect.”

Since graduation, Breene and Lederer have devoted all of their time to developing a website, networking with artists and professionals in the music industry and making a name for themselves on a number of college campuses across the Northeast.

Last week, Breene and Lederer traveled to Colgate, Ithaca College, Cornell University, Syracuse University, Hamilton College and Binghamton, making central New York an incubator for their company. However, they also have plans to expand their services to Boston, visiting over ten schools in the region next week.

Breene and Lederer are living in Bedford, N.Y., and have been operating out of a shared workspace called “WeWork” in New York City. They admit that developing a start-up company has not been all fun and games, but that they have also learned a lot from their experiences.

“It’s definitely just about sticking with it,” Breene said. “If something doesn’t work, or even if your whole plan falls apart, you learn so much about the industry you’re in and you can leverage that in so many ways. It’s about learning as quickly as possible and adapting.”

As Giggity continues to grow, the company looks to hire marketing interns and individuals with web development skills. Anyone interested should contact Cody Breene at [email protected].

Contact Cody Semrau at [email protected].