We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jerid Gooding. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jerid below.

Jerid, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

I moved from Boone, North Carolina to New York City in 2011. I was incredibly excited about the city — making a name for myself and exploring the multi-faceted arts scene — but I found elements of doing so discouraging. There was no easy, singular destination to find out what was going on, or to discover what was happening around you. Time Out and other major publications like The New York Times and The New Yorker had the obvious acts performing around the city: shows at the Guggenheim, performances at Lincoln Center. But if I could walk down the street and see and feel the real pulse of the city, why couldn’t I search it on an app? What if I wanted to get out and have a night on the city, with just a little bit of direction?

I decided I wanted to build a tool for artists that don’t have big PR teams and crazy marketing budgets to get their shows out and discoverable to the public. The standup comedian testing new material; the jazz trio just out of school: Wildly talented, yet still in the moment unknown. I saw this huge gap in the market for patrons to be connected with new experiences, and artists to be connected with new fans.

I’ve been iterating and talking about this idea since even before I first moved to the city 13 years ago. Since, the internet and social media apps have come a long way — but there has always remained this gap. So, last year, after working for years in the film and photo industry, I decided to make a pivot and turn my focus in earnest toward the creation of in—yc.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

When I first came to the city, I worked at a hospital during the day and at a men’s vintage clothing store called Olaf’s in Carroll Gardens on weeknights and weekends. There I met a well-known New York artist named Ron Gorchov who was a regular customer, and when I was laid off at the hospital, he hired me as his producer/manager/agent despite my lack of experience in the art world.

There were many parts of this world that I found dissatisfying, but I also loved being around art, and most artists. I never had exposure to the arts in North Carolina: I knew nothing. And no one will tell you this, but it doesn’t matter. You should enjoy and learn about what you love, no different than wine or any other hobby.

This is what led to the creation and idea of in—yc (pronounced “nyc”). The original idea came to me in 2010 before I moved to the city, a little nervous about how to figure everything out. Between then and now, there has never been a singular, centralized place to discover the arts. All of them. At all echelons. I wanted to change that. Since starting to work on the app late last year, I’ve made a lot of mistakes, but feel that those have led me to what is now a really strong product.

In a nutshell, artists and businesses can upload their events to the app, where they are vetted for authenticity. Beyond that, however, there is no curation, no advertisements, and no algorithms. Events show up on a map so users can see what’s around them and stumble upon new experiences and support the arts in new ways. At the same time, artists are able to get more organic exposure, and the businesses that support the arts benefit by selling more tickets/food/alcohol. Everyone wins.

The app is still in its beginning stages, but as more and more artists and businesses upload events, it’s only going to be more and more valuable. What’s also very unique is that artists don’t have to be attached to a brick and mortar: You can drop a pin on a street corner, or a specific location in the park. So, if you’re an artist who wants to busk, people can see where you’re popping up in the city. It will actually create MORE creativity and fuel the art scene in this city, because artists will know they have eyes seeing their post. That nice spring day in Prospect Park now has a road map to the jazz trio by the fountain, or the typewriter poet writing custom poems by the farmer’s market, or the modern dance performance happening on the other side of the park.

Once we have a handle on mapping the arts scene in New York, the vision is to extend to other cities in the U.S. and beyond. That way, this level of guided artistic spontaneity and organic growth of the arts scene will be accessible everywhere.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I started working with the artist Ron Gorchov in 2012 before his show at Cheim & Read. He was an incredible, inimitable character, but often stressful to work for. As I was trying to figure out how to shift into another line of work, the building where Ron’s studio was — a high-ceilinged, large-windowed warehouse in Red Hook, Brooklyn — had a 7,000 sq. ft. space open up on the top floor. Though it was in very rough shape, seeing the vast empty day-lit space was very inspiring. I thought it would be an incredible photo studio.

I had no experience in photo/film, but reached out to a few people and got some input and suggestions. I got the lease in 2017 with the idea that I could run the studio during the day and then work with Ron at night. I made the leap, cleaned the space up, and built it out. Please Space was born and it pretty quickly got exciting with major motion pictures, TV shows, and a few ad jobs. A Rolling Stone cover with Travis Scott put me and Please Space on the map and we were off to the races.

By the time I’d built up my portfolio well enough to quit working with Ron and dedicate my full-time attention to Please Space, it was January 1, 2020. Of course, I soon-after felt the effects of the oncoming pandemic, and was in for a world of heartbreak and financial ruin. Somehow, however, I was able to keep it together through it all and bounce back stronger than ever, and last year — as I once again pivoted toward the unknown-to-me industry of tech and app-building — sold Please Space to my friend and long time General Manager.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

I’ve made every financial mistake in the book. It’s amazing I got through it. I signed the lease for Please Space with savings I had and got a couple of business credit cards with the highest limit I could. After a couple years of good revenue I was able to get a proper bank loan to help with the interest and pay down my credit cards. Then the pandemic came, and the landlords of Please Space’s warehouse were unwilling to cut breaks on rent, which meant that I quickly descended into what felt like a black hole of of debt. I was getting cash anywhere I could find it: PayPal loans, QuickBooks loans. It was incredibly bleak.

I don’t necessarily advise this. But the idea of getting investors who ultimately only want to make a buck and could change the direction of my vision or business identity, or potentially ruin it, was out of the question. For in—yc, then, I am not seeking investors, but hope to explore other methods of funding the app that keep it authentic, grassroots, and incorruptible. That’s a big part of the vision behind everything that I do: for it to be honest and real.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.inyc.us
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jeridgooding/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jerid-gooding-24932b149/

Image Credits

Jerid Gooding