Gritty In Pink launched a marketplace and saw sixteen months of continuous growth

Shira Yevin’s mission to change the entertainment industry didn’t start with Gritty In Pink: it’s been her continued focus for twenty years now. 

Working on the Vans Warped Tour in 2003, Shira realized there were no female musicians on stage. Her band, Shiragirl, drove their pink RV into the gates, set up a stage, and crashed the tour. A year later, the band was managing their own stage on the tour with a slate of over 300 female-fronted bands – including Paramore. 

Coined “Gritty In Pink” by the media, a community was born. When the Vans Warped Tour ended in 2019, Shira decided to officially launch Gritty In Pink, initially as a monthly live music event. But after the pandemic set in, Shira quickly had to pivot:

“Marketplaces were an exciting idea to me. At the end of the day, women need to get hired, and they need to get paid. A talent marketplace is a great way to do that.”

As she set about the fundraising process, Shira realized she needed to build an MVP for her marketplace. But there were problems: she wasn’t technical, and she had very little money. 

Fortunately, she quickly found Sharetribe. Shira explains: “We were looking for a no-code marketplace that we could set up quickly. Sharetribe really stood out as the perfect solution. We loved the name, the user experience of the platform, and the affordability – it was perfect for us.”

After setting up her marketplace INPINK, Shira organized her first event on the platform. Within a week of launch, there had been more than $2,000 of transactions on Gritty In Pink, supported by sponsorship agreements with major brands. 

It was a clear sign of traction. 

“Our community loved what we were doing,” explains Shira. “Over time, our vision is for Gritty In Pink to evolve to become the biggest platform for brands to hire diverse women creators in every industry – not just the music business.”

After raising initial funding from the Long Beach Accelerator and the Live Nation Women Fund, Shira knew she needed to start building a better marketplace with more advanced features. She decided to start customizing a self-hosted Sharetribe marketplace. 

“We had a developer, but we knew we needed more help. We found Marketplace Studio, a development agency in Toronto, through the Sharetribe Expert Developer Network.”

To date, Gritty In Pink’s growth has come entirely organically, but Shira has ambitious plans for the future. The marketplace is starting to partner with larger artists. Shira and her team are constantly releasing new features that improve the user experience while remaining focused on recruiting top talent to the marketplace. 

“A lot of companies want to hire diverse women, but they aren’t quite sure where to start. We’re proud to have diversity tags that highlight queer women, black women, and more, helping connect industry professionals with diverse, talented creators.”

As she reflects on Gritty In Pink’s progress so far, Shira is grateful for the role Sharetribe has played:

“Sharetribe allowed us to build Gritty In Pink so much quicker than if we had to build everything custom. The onboarding process was great, and as a startup, the pricing made sense for us. Since we started using Sharetribe, we’ve had sixteen straight months of month-over-month growth. We’re excited for what the future holds.”

> Check out the INPINK Marketplace

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