We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Maya Venkataraman a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Maya thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?

In July 2022, I went to my first-ever KPOP cupsleeve event…in Texas. For a while, I had seen friends from other states attending KPOP cupsleeve events, getting freebies (free things to give out), getting goodies, and meeting other fans. I had met more Ohioan KPOP fans outside the state, rather than inside. Returning back to Ohio, I realized that organizing an event didn’t have to be so hard. I had been part of an online group made up of Ohio KPOP fans, so I put the idea out there. The response was immediate and overwhelming. So many people had shown enthusiasm, which was the push I needed to start reaching out. The first thing I needed to do was find the right place. I spent two days driving around Columbus, going to over eight bubble tea stores to figure out what to do. Once I had options, I compiled an email that included images a video from a friend in another state, and a detailed description of my vision. After I sent that out, I waited. I was beyond relieved to find a few places greatly interested and willing to work with me. My next step was to plan the who, what, where, when, and how. That was the beginning of the hard part. I needed to decide what to celebrate, what free things to offer, and how to spread the word.
The first step for me was making an Instagram account and choosing a name: OhioKpopThings. It wasn’t that hard for me to choose a name, I like naming things and I wanted it to be clear what this was all about. So I made the account and posted all the information on both Instagram and Facebook. Then, I decided to keep it simple for the first event, and by simple I mean, make about 80 goodie bags with candy, stickers, and photo prints. I chose, what I thought, were the top 8 most popular groups, and made bags for them. This was all out of pocket, but I was excited. I had a lot of interest and when I had made the account, I had someone volunteer to help, which is how I met my now business partner, Destiny. I had found a location, The Brewed Leaf, and discussed the details with them. So I spent weeks making the freebies, spreading the word, and getting excited. That same week I had actually gone to see a KPOP concert in a different state, and so I actually decided to use that as my first foray into the KPOP event world. I had posted that I had freebies to give out and met some Ohio KPOP fans at the concert. But that was tame compared to what was to come.
On August 27th, 2022, I held my first-ever KPOP event. It was from 3pm to 6pm, at The Brewed Leaf, I had a photo wall, and a table with goodie bags, and wore one of my KPOP-themed shirts. As 3pm hit, it started off slow, but it had started. There were actual people there coming to get stuff from me, and I was relieved. Destiny was there to help me in taking pictures for the photo wall and keep me from getting too overwhelmed. As time wore on, more and more people came, and it was to everyone’s surprise that we had a line out the door. No one, including me, especially me, was expecting these many KPOP fans. It was overwhelming but in the best way possible. I met so many KPOP fans, saw people make new friends, and had so many people thank me for doing something. It was easily one of the greatest moments of my life. It was hot, I was sweaty, but I was happy. Finally, after 6 PM, as I was clearing up and reeling from the event, I realized that I was on the right track.

Maya, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

We are OhioKpopThings. Our name is a quick thesis as to who were are: We are an organization for KPOP fans in Ohio. Our main goal is to provide information about all the KPOP happenings in Ohio, whether it is events, concerts, stores, parties, etc. We started as a two-women partnership that focused on planning KPOP cupsleeve events. A cupsleeve event is a gathering of KPOP fans to celebrate anything: a birthday, a group anniversary, a group music release, and more. We create cupsleeves, freebies (free things to give out), various activities for KPOP fans to participate in, and a safe space for KPOP fans to hang out. We also collaborate with local KPOP dance crews, and concert companies that bring KPOP artists to Ohio, and sell merch. Our merch includes handmade KPOP merch and official albums and merch from KPOP artists. If you are looking for a KPOP event near you, a place to buy KPOP merch, or just make more KPOP friends, we are the answer. Not only do we put on our own events, but we will also share and promote any other KPOP events that are happening in and around the state of Ohio. If you are planning a KPOP event, let us know and we will share it with our followers. If you own a small business that makes KPOP-inspired designs and merch, look no further, we got you. Not only will be promote you, we will offer you a space to sell your products in person at our events. We are all about supporting small businesses because we are one. We are your one-stop to finding more KPOP in Ohio. We know it’s hard, and so we’re making it easier for you.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

We have had many mountains to climb, but one of the biggest ones was not letting OhioKpopThings take away from our own personal lives. Not only were our events being funded out of pocket, but they were taking up our weekends and weekdays. For the first three months, we had non-stop events and money spending, and we realized that was NOT okay. We needed to get some money back in our pockets and we needed to get some time for ourselves. Our first decision was to sell merch. We decided to sell goodies from our past events, and even make some new products to sell. We could not keep funding this out of our own pockets, but we also didn’t want to sacrifice the standard of our events. As we grew, we offered more things for people to purchase from us, and we continued to receive money back. This allowed us to refund ourselves and also invest the money we earned into providing better experiences for our followers. Our second decision was to cut back on events. It’s hard to not want to please everybody. It’s hard not to want to celebrate everything around us. It’s even harder to not be able to spend time for ourselves because we’re trying to please everyone and celebrate everything. Three months in, we sat down and decided, enough is enough. We cannot keep sacrificing our free time for this, as much as we want to. So we set ourselves some rules. We decided to limit ourselves to two cupsleeves a month and give ourselves a two-week break every few months, starting with the holidays. It wasn’t easy, we felt the absence of all the things we could have celebrated. We felt the questions from our followers about why we weren’t putting on events. But we also felt the pressure leave our shoulders and the relief of being able to spend time with our friends and family. We love putting on events, we love giving to our followers, and we love celebrating KPOP, but we also love moderation and being able to fund our events without bleeding ourselves dry. So we made some changes and now we are able to celebrate events on a grander scale, due to the time we give ourselves between events, and we are able to create newer experiences without having to find the funds.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

A year has gone past now, and we’d like to think that we are well-known in the Ohio KPOP community. It didn’t start out that way though. Before this even started, we hadn’t known anyone who was doing what we were doing now. So we started our new thing, putting on cupsleeve events in Columbus, OH. Our first few events were really successful, and certain things really put us on the map: our deco area and our diversity in KPOP events. When we first did this in September 2022, we were surprised to learn that decorating toploaders wasn’t really a common thing in this community. We provided the stickers and the toploaders (photo card holders) and people went to town. It was slowly, but surely, one of the biggest things that gave us a reputation, as it became one of the most popular activities at our events. People all over Ohio, even in different cities, had started doing it. Now, we didn’t come up with this idea. Events all over the country had been doing it, and we ourselves had been doing it for a while now. Seeing it become so popular was shocking, but so amazing. This was an activity we introduced to people that had become something they enjoyed so much. As time wore on, it became our signature activity at our events and even allowed us to introduce similar events for people to enjoy. When people come up to us thanking us for allowing them to do this, it makes our hearts swell, because what we do is for them. It is for the Ohio KPOP fans, and we just introduced them to another way to demonstrate their love for their KPOP idols. Furthermore, we also gained a reputation for being diverse with the kind of events we held. Not only did we have various locations and activities, but we also held various types of events. You would usually find us at bubble tea stores, but we also ventured into conventions, concerts, and collaborating with other groups. We have held KPOP panels at conventions, we have helped by vendoring at restaurants during promotion events, we have held pre-concert events, and we have collaborated with a local KPOP dance group. Doing cupsleeve events are fun, but we also want to spread the KPOP fun all over the place. Branching out into restaurant promotion events, conventions, and pre-concert events has allowed us to put our name out into communities that we hadn’t considered. People know that we will do more to make sure our followers can enjoy and celebrate KPOP.

Contact Info:

• Website: ohiokpopthings.crd.co
• Instagram: @ohiokpopthings
• Facebook: OhioKpopThings
• TikTok: @ohiokpopthings