It’s been 20 years since Shira Yevin, the lead singer of punk band Shiragirl drove a pink RV into the Vans Warped Tour grounds, the now-defunct punk rock festival notorious for being male-dominated. In response to the festival’s lack of female-fronted bands, Yevin’s band crashed the festival and set up an impromptu all-female stage. This led to the creation of Warped Tour’s Shiragirl Stage, which hosted over 300 bands, including Joan Jett & The Blackhearts and Paramore. It was later honored with a Warped Tour exhibit at the Rock and Hall of Fame.
After Shiragirl Stage, Yevin went on a “lifelong crusade for carving out a space for women in music and other male-dominated industries,” she told TechCrunch. This began with the launch of Gritty in Pink in 2020, a Live Nation-backed platform designed to empower women in the music industry.
A few years later, the company rolled out its flagship product, InPink, a job marketplace for females and non-binary artists, among other professionals across the music and live entertainment space, such as tour managers, photographers and video editors who specialize in concerts, and graphic designers for poster creation. Like freelance platforms Fiverr and Upwork, users can publish listings to highlight their services on InPink’s marketplace and connect with major brands.
“On the freelance talent side, it’s hard to find opportunities without a network or personal connections. If you’re not in the ‘boys club,’ most jobs aren’t even posted. And then, of course, admin headaches, sending invoices, chasing down payments, and fairly pricing services are major struggles for all freelancers but for women in particular…We’re aiming to build the next-generation career platform for talent and help [women] upscale and network,” Yevin said.
In addition to its focus on women and non-binary creatives, InPink also aims to address other DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) needs with a feature called “Diversity” tags, which filters creators based on specific diversity criteria: Asian, Black, Indigenous, Hispanic/Latina, Queer, and POC.
InPink has grown to over 3,000 users and has facilitated several dream gigs for people on the platform, including Leanne Bowes (bassist) and Constance Antoinette (guitarist), who work with Demi Lovato. Moa Munoz, meanwhile, secured the bass player position for pop star Olivia Rodrigo.
The company has processed $300,000 in transactions to date.
Looking ahead, InPink continues to develop new features, such as two AI-powered tools: a fair pay scale that analyzes market rates to determine fair compensation for female creatives and a matching tool that will help companies discover talent more efficiently.
The fair pay scale is particularly notable as female musicians are still being underpaid or don’t know how much to charge for their services. As cited by a study from the Recording Academy, about 18% of respondents who identify as performers or music creators earned less than $40,000 a year in 2019. More broadly, women freelancers reportedly charge 47% less than men on online marketplaces.
Yevin explained that InPink’s fair pay feature will recommend how much users should charge based on “location, the service, and the scope of the project.” The AI will pull from “diverse” sources to “make sure that [the price] is as accurate as possible,” Yevin said, yet declined to share further as it is still in the early stages of development.
Meanwhile, the forthcoming matching tool helps job seekers discover projects that best suit their skills and interests. The AI also analyzes past performance to make optimal matches for companies.
“In the future, it’s going to be more of an AI prompt, so you can prompt what you are looking for and get what you need in a quicker way,” Yevin added.
The AI features are expected to launch in early 2025 or sooner.
Other ideas on the product roadmap include a paid Pro subscription, which will be available to higher-level talent who have worked with notable names. The company is also looking to expand beyond the music industry and offer its services to adjacent sectors in entertainment, such as sports and live events. Yevin said InPink is already working with one sports client, Angel City Football Club (the LA-based women’s soccer league), to help them hire talent for pre-shows.
“We’re already seeing the potential with other industries,” Yevin said. “We see InPink transforming the future of work for music, entertainment, and beyond and making it more flexible and equitable in the process.”
Gritty in Pink has raised over $500,000 from Alternative Wealth Partners, Gaingels, LiveNation, Long Beach Accelerator, and angel investors. The company is set to close a $1 million pre-seed round soon and was recently accepted into the Berkeley SkyDeck incubator.