This Gurugram-based Startup Releases a New Wave of Innovation Through Interactive Museums and Smart City Experience Centers

Tagbin Services Pvt. Ltd. is a leading experiential marketing company designing and engineering experiential spaces (like Museums, Experience Centers and Events & Shows) that ignite one’s imagination and inspire the senses to generate genuinely magical experiences, leaving unforgettable memories for the audience.

Established in 2013, in PAN India and Overseas, TAGBIN has contributed to the planning and execution of multiple innovative projects in the public and private sectors. Headquartered in Gurgaon, they work in PAN India, Singapore and Dubai overseas through their strategic partners. Tagbin’s experience-focused solutions fulfill the goals of Brands and Institutions such as Museums and Exhibits, Corporate Office Hall of Fame or Experience Centers, Specific Objective-based Experience Centers, Stage Shows, Market Activations, Product Launches, Trade Shows and Corporate Events, Interactive Marketing or HR Activities, Guerrilla Marketing, Unique Outdoor Advertising.

About the founders
Tagbin was founded by Mr. Saurav Bhaik and Mr. Ankit Sinha.

Saurav Bhaik, Founder & CEO
Saurav Bhaik completed his B.Tech from IIT Roorkee in 2013. Innovation and technology has always intrigued his interests. During his college life, he was involved in all sorts of entrepreneurial activities and was also the leader of Robocon’12 -Biggest International Robotics Competition in Asia- Pacific region held at IIT Roorkee.

He never used to miss attending workshops. People have seen him running excitedly about learning new things, no matter the obstacles to be dealt with. He undertook multiple internship projects and worked in different fields like finance, core engineering, marketing, etc. Till the 3rd year of my B.tech he was confused about the line of career to choose from. He struggled to decide which field to choose and work in. Finally when he did his internship with a startup that’s when he realized that taking things from chaos to order is what he love to do.

He learnt the art of blending technology with creativity and then creating a magical experience out of it. Saurav Bhaik started Tagbin Service Private Limited in the year 2013 itself, which integrated Tagging Technology with various Social Media Platform and to spread news about the new concept of experiential technology in the market.

Today, Tagbin is an end-to-end experiential innovators company with a multi-million dollar projects undertaken in different arenas of work– Interactive Museums, Experience Centers and Light & Show.

Inspired by Elon Musk, Saurav bhaik likes to think beyond the realm of realities, making dreams come true. He started at a very young age by reading and learning about new subjects of bringing an affluent change. He is an engineer by degree but his further experiences also built him as an expert in Architect, Design, and Accounts. He understands the complexities of the market and the myriad consumer expectations. Adhering to the challenges and dynamics of the corporate sector, he created an immersive ground of experiences for people which is no less than a magic for the audience. The mantra behind his is to work while others sleep in order to achieve the unachievable.

Ankit Sinha, Co-founder and CTO
Ankit have led the company for past 6 years in all aspects of technology and have shape the Future of the company. His strategic use of innovative technology to build a complete integrated solution, has been the core of many successful projects which have led the Company to what we are today. His entrepreneurial journey started with Tagbin, 6 years ago in 2013 after his Graduation from IITM New Delhi. He initially met Mr. Saurav Bhaik, during Robotics event at IIT Roorkee, and soon, both understood each other’s potentials and started working in multiple projects after joining Tagbin officially as a co-founder and CTO. Since then his vision for the company has been focused towards building an open culture where people can learn & grow and provide opportunities to learn new things for employees. His key involvement in development of products like Eazespot, MITO etc. had been stepping stones to build Tagbin as a strong product and experience focused innovative company. He feels that the best part about this industry is about being at the bleeding edge. Be it any technology he get opportunities to learn new things and also contributing to the community at the same time.

We are publishing an interview with Mr. Saurav Bhaik, CEO and Founder of Tagbin:

Q.: What is the problem you are trying to solve?
Ans: We are mainly solving problems of three different sectors:
(1) Museums across the world has seen very less innovation in the way how they are making people grasp the information inside the museum. So, we are breaking the barriers of conventional ways where museum authorities are more concerned about preserving the objects in it. The museums build by us are integrated with the right content and technology to make it focused more towards human engagement rather than just keeping the objects displayed in focused.

(2) Smart Cities and Urban Planning is a concept that will come into shape only after a couple of years. So, it has become very necessary to allow some tangible ways of visualizing the dream and vision of a smart city or urban planning to attract investors, industrialist and citizens.

(3) Brands has a history of organizational achievements and always want themselves to be at the forefront of the technology to impress their prospectus visitors to close a big deal in both B2B and B2C businesses. We simply find ways in a small space of an experience center to provide people with a positive experience about the organizational offerings, and capabilities by leaving the prospect open for engagement.

Q.: Can you share with us any insights that led you to believe that this is a big enough problem?
Ans: Sure.

• For Museum Innovation Problem: We compared the designs of old museums with the new museums. And what we found is that many old museums are restricted by their idea to preserve their objects in old ways like – maintaining silence, not letting click pictures etc. all of which only restricts people to engage with the audience.
• For Smart City Visualization Problem: When we built the Dholera Smart City Experience Center, we took feedback from various authorities who are making the smart city. And we realized that there is a huge challenge in communicating the exact vision of the project to investors, industrialist and citizens and especially to attract them for an upcoming smart city.

Q.: Tell us about the Product / Solution. Explain how you went about the Product-Market Fit Process.
Ans: The industry where we work is exceptionally new in the market. We have three main solutions for bringing innovation to three different verticals:

1) Interactive Museums:
Reviving the importance of Museums by making them experiential and encompassing is our agenda. Museums talk about their historical appeal, but in today’s world certainly innovation is much needed to bring them parallel to the Global Standards. There are amazing examples of museums which are breaking the conventional way of designing, and includes more engaging, social and emotional experiences. One good example is ‘the AMOS REX Museum’ in Helsinki. Comparing this we saw the way the museums are built in India are mostly object-focused rather than being human-focused centric which is why most of them fail to attract the millennials who comprises of half of the India’s population. So, at Tagbin we are trying to build and reform museums in an interactive way with the help of our latest technologies to make museums more and more human centric.

2) Experience Centers:
a. Smart City Experience Center:
Redefining the way smart cities attract investors and industrialists by using the concept of experience centers is where we came into picture. With the announcement of smart city projects in India, there is seen an expected rise in the need of communicating the right vision of a smart city plan to its citizens, investors, and industrialists for an upcoming change. Interpreting the benefits of a venture which will exist in coming 10 years or more from now is a big challenge that some cities face and that’s where we are bringing in experiential marketing to help them understand the advantage of a future set-up through visual, projection and screening mediums.

b. Corporate Experience Center:
Corporate experience centers are designed for various purposes. Some of the retail showrooms are converting into the digital experience centers to help customers focus more on the experience of the showroom rather than just juggling up with the displayed products. And another need is seen emerging at the Office Experience Centers, (the one’s shaped inside the headquarters or the corporate offices) which demands a complete vision of their organization offerings and new schemes to the people. Thus, making the visitors get involved with their culture, history and reputation in the market.

3) Light & Sound Multimedia Show:
We are also in the business of narrating stories about a place, event or people of value by using a perfect amalgamation of 3D projection mapping, and light & sound multimedia shows.

Q.: What is your USP?
Ans: Due to the lack of awareness about companies like Tagbin the targeted customers (CEO’s, Government Officials, Investors, and Company Directors etc.) tend to reach out to the Event Companies, Architecture Firms, Consulting Firms, or Advertising Companies, who earlier used to outsource services from companies like us.

Tagbin provides a plateful of everything that any targeted customer will ever receive from different vendors. We stand out from the competition because of a right mixture of specialized in-house team for designers and engineers, thinkers, marketing strategists, architects, content curators, creative directors, designers, VFX experts, technology experts, operations and supporters who propagate new experiences without having to outsource anything from outside the company.

Q.: What were your assumptions when you entered the market, learning that you have? Who in your mind is your ideal customer? Do you have at least one of them signed up?
Ans: Tagbin was started way back in IIT Roorkee, when its co-founders were mesmerized with the idea of technology creating magic. The company received its official registration on 13th June 2013. And over the years evolved itself working from a small office in a basement for event technologies to completing multi-million dollar projects for the Govt. of India. Tagbin started as an experiential technology (offering AR, VR, sensor-based interactive servcies etc.) planning, installation and as a supplier for the events, it also ventured into diverse business lines including IOT based home automation system, RFID based tagging technologies, health app, marketing automation tool etc. Each project added to its growth. Today, the prophecy of Tagbin is of an experiential innovator designing and engineering interactive museums, experience centers, lights & sound shows etc.

Our Ideal Customers are:

1. Government & Institutions, National/State Government Tourism Committees, Museum Directors/Museum Building Authority
2. Smart City SPV’s
3. Brands

Yes, we have signed up many completed projects. Some of the recently launched projects are as follows:

1. In Government Sector:
   1) Azadi-Ke-Diwane Interactive Museum at Red Fort, New Delhi – Under ASI, Ministry of Culture, Govt. of India
   2) Yaad-e-Jallian Diwane Interactive Museum at Red Fort, New Delhi – Under ASI, Ministry of Culture, Govt. of India
   3) Ami Kolkata – Experiential Exhibition at Metcalfe Hall, Kolkata – Under ASI, Ministry of Culture, Govt. of India
   4) Textile Gallery, at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi – Ministry of Textiles, Govt. of India
   5) National Library of India at Kolkata Interactive Museum – Under National Library Kolkata
   6) Mahatma on Celluloid at International Film Festival of India, Goa 2018 – Under National Film Archives of India
   And Many More…
2. Smart City SPV’s:
   1) Dholera Smart City Experience center, Gujarat, – DICDL, Dholera Industrial City Development
3. Brands: Coca-Cola, HDFC, Mercedes Benz, Uber, Kohler, Fasah, Dubizzle, Facebook, Kingfisher, Rayban, Adidas, Toyota, Levis, Microsoft, Hero, ONGC, GAIL, VIVO, UCB, Myntra, Many More…

Q.: What has been your biggest failure as an entrepreneur and what did you learn from it??
Ans: We were running varied businesses lines at one point of time. Their management raised a plethora of issues in front of us like lack of resources. As we couldn’t put together varied verticals of different businesses altogether, we eventually, had to close all the others while laying a complete focus on operating one single business at a time. We have learnt from our failure that when you’re incapable of managing basic resources, it’s a bad decision to divert your focus into different verticals. We then focused on building one business at one time, accumulated all our resources and efforts to make it stand out in the market. And that’s how we have reached so far.

Q.: How are you pricing the Product? What is the logic behind it? What is the model you are following – Free / Freemium / Premium etc.? Explain your thought process.
Ans: Our solutions follow a relevant service model of pricing. Based on the services included in the project we charge a certain amount. For government projects, it’s based on the tender value proposed for the project. And corporate projects are based on pitching the ideas or sometimes related to the vendor selection process.

Q.: How did you get your first customer?
Ans: At Mumbai, during the annual fest named as Mood Indigo, we envisioned our product in front of many big sponsors. Our first client was Cadbury Oreo. We pitched out to Cadbury an experiential marketing idea built with an integration of tagging technologies such as RFID tags. We brought into their knowledge how social media can be utilized to create a viral campaign. Our solution was unique and marked a gaiety entry with participation of visitors in mood indigo on Facebook. This we did by automatically branding Cadbury Oreo, scanning their RFID tags.

As we were a new company, it was a pretty rough patch initially to let our idea being bought by any of the big companies. As well as the technology which we pitched was very fresh at that time. Besides all the challenges of not being that famous in the market, our idea got appreciated and accepted by Cadbury. Earlier, Cadbury wanted to execute the idea through their own partnered ad agency. But we convinced them with our clarity in the field to work directly with us as we were capable of doing it all on our own and didn’t require help from ad agencies. With everything in place, the campaign turned out to be a huge success.

Q.: Please tell us about the investors (if any)
Ans: The company was started as a bootstrap start-up. Initially, we received a funding of INR 4 crores from the Angel Investor Mr. Vikramjiet Roy, MD – Maccaferri India, in 2014. Through which we have sustained ourselves very well in the last few years by completing multiple projects successfully.

Q.: Is there any interesting success story? If yes, please write about it. ?
Ans: One of the most interesting projects which we have executed was the “Smart city Experience Centre in Dholera, Gujarat. This project reveals the objective of the Dholera Industrial City Development Limited (DICDL), who wanted a permanent zone to showcase the vision of Dholera’s Future Smart City in an immersive and interactive way.

They needed an experiential center built for better understanding of the investors and industrial tenants about the future smart city of Dholera Green Field Project. We delivered the project by the mid-January 2019 and managed everything in-house from assembling of the material to the appointment of right expertise. Since a smart city experience center is created, big companies like Chinese steelmaker Tsingshan Holding Group have invested $3 billion in the project. And many other international investors and industrialists are willing to invest in the project.

Q.: What is the big picture of your startup? Is this Product/service leading to something bigger? If so, how?
Ans: Yes, designing and engineering digital experiential spaces is a very new line of business and very few people are aware of it which is why is has become very imperative to tell people about its core utilization in the market.

Tagbin is planning to permeate the model of smart city experience center in different upcoming smart cities across the world. The main focus is to help people visualize the vision of a future smart living with the help of experience centers. Secondly, museums in India are using the same old conventional way of construction by using static installation mediums. Tagbin aspire to change that culture by completing a couple of unique museums through unconventional ways with the use of latest technologies.

Q.: Since inception, give us a sense of the value of business done by your venture? Please explain in details:
Ans: Since its inception in June 2013, Tagbin has grown from a small office with a couple of people in a basement in Saket for event technologies to multiple offices in Gurugram, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Dubai, and Singapore, and completing multi-million-dollar projects for the government of India, corporates in India as well international markets like Tokyo, and others. The startup did not only attract clients but also got ‘Series A funding of Rs. 4 crores in 2014 from angel investor Vikramjiet Roy, MD of Maccaferri India. We had a fourfold growth in crores from 2017-18 to 2018-19. Hence, we started with our mission of making museums more interactive and to help smart cities make their exact vision pictured by the investors, people and industrialists.

Q.: What is the insight that you have about this market, which no one else has? Uniqueness about your Startup.
Ans: The industry startup caters to an “exceptionally new” company which brings innovation in space museums, light and sound shows, and experience centers. Tagbin stands out in the market because of the right mixture of specialized in-house team for designers and engineers, thinkers, marketing strategists, architects, content curators, creative directors, designers, VFX experts, technology experts, operations, and support.

Q.: List all the names of the core Team Members, along with their Designated Roles – How you see them evolving over time. What would be each of their Skillsets? – Elaborate also if any of the team members has a specific domain expertise.
Ans: Please check this link https://tagbin.in/team/ for knowing about our team.

Q.: Who do You Perceive as Your Competition? How do you differentiate yourself with them?
Ans: The real competition for Tagbin is the “lack of awareness”. There are only a few companies in India that are into designing and engineering experiential spaces. The lack of awareness about companies like Tagbin leads companies to reach out to the event companies, architecture firms, consulting firms, or advertising companies.

We provide everything in one plate (event companies, architecture firms, consulting firms, or advertising companies). Our specialized in-house team of designers and engineers, thinkers, marketing strategists, architects, content curators, creative directors, designers, VFX experts, technology experts, and operations makes us different from others.

In our line of business, competition varies with the type of offerings:
1) Smart City Experience Center Industry:
Since we are the first company to build a smart city experience center, starting from the project in Dholera Green Field Smart City, we are leading in the industry of designing the smart city experience centers. After news of the successful project in Dholera, many new smart cities have started focusing on development of a medium to showcase the exact vision behind the making of a smart city. Recently a tender notice is published for Amaravati Smart City Experience Center. There are 100 smart cities announced by the government which is at a different stage of progress, and hence the experience spaces market looks huge now.

2) Interactive Museums:
To introduce innovation in museums, there are a very few yet renowned players in India, which includes a big player scheme like Google Arts & Culture and others such as the Indian branch of UK based company HKD’s. Some of them are simply stepping next level in creating new museum experiences abroad. For example; Team Labs – Amos Rex Museum Project and MICRO – project include tiny 6-foot tall museums which can be installed in any place. We always pave a new way to meet our unicorns. For example; our latest success at Red Fort museum was based on different, innovative and interactive experiential designs. Our team tied up their shoes to wholly convert the events happened at the Jaliawala Bagh massacre in a light-hearted and an engaging manner.

3) Corporate Experience Centers:
For corporate experience centers, the market is of moderate competition with certain entry-level players, architects, and advertising agencies trying to capture the market for digital showrooms. But for building experience centers in corporate headquarters, the competition is trivial.

4) Light and Sound Show:
Third vertical of Light and Sound show market is moderately competitive with incorporation of both projection mapping and laser & sound elements. Due to the WOW factor of projects like Building Projection Mapping or Water Screen Projection Mapping Shows the market is very promising, starting from other competitors’ work at India Gate to the showcase the Gateway of India. Henceforth, the craze for such projects is increasing day by day, and plus the competition.

Q.: What would be your goal to accomplish in the next six months?
Ans: Our plan for the next six months is yet again to penetrate the market of experience centers. We also want to remain the leader and pioneer of a separate line of Industry in building the smart city experience centres. Next, we want to bring innovation in museum designs by integrating them with the right content and technology to make them more human centric. We are also looking for Strategic Partners and Investors to align with our business in creating interactive museums, experience centers, and light & sound shows. We are already a profitable company with an established process and market share and looking for a funding of INR 150 – 200 crores, for team and market expansion.

Q.: What message do you want to convey to fellow entrepreneurs?
Ans: Hire people with a passion: If someone has passion, he will learn the other skills. Everything else is replaceable and can be taught. But if someone lacks it, you cannot train that person to become passionate. Passionate hires can swiftly learn the details of a new field.

Q.: Any other information you would like to share?
Ans: Two of our interactive museums has launched this month:

1) Textile Gallery, at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi – Under Ministry of Textiles, Govt. of India
2) Purana Qila, The Central Antiquity Collection Section, ‘The Gallery on Lost and Confiscated Items’, Delhi – Under ASI, Ministry of Culture, Govt. of India

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Thanks Saurav. Best wishes!