Heartbreak, frustration, and a healthy dose of vengeance. That’s not how most business stories start, but for the founder of E365, it was the perfect fuel. Back in 2006, as a second-year engineering student nursing a broken heart, Kinjal stumbled into event management with zero ambition and even less of a clue. His girlfriend’s family disapproved the life in rock bands. So, when a school senior suggested he become an event manager to “earn more money and prove to them,” something clicked. That same evening, E365 was born.

What began as a desperate move to mend a personal crisis evolved into one of eastern India’s most significant forces in the live music and event ecosystem. The journey was anything but glamorous. It was a two-decade-long masterclass in resilience, navigating an unregulated industry filled with political roadblocks, ego clashes, and financial freefalls. This is the story of how a rock music obsessive built an empire by taking risks, ruffling feathers, and staying true to a vision when no one else believed in it.

The First Great Risk: Betting on the Underdogs

In the early 2000s, the event industry was dominated by Bollywood bigwigs and local stars. For a newcomer with no connections, the odds were stacked against him. So, he made a pivotal decision: he would stick to what he knew better than anyone else—rock music. While established agencies laughed at his obsession with independent acts, he saw a growing hunger for it among school and college students.

Kinjal used platforms like rsjonline.com to connect with indie bands, turning the campus festival circuit into his niche market. Between 2006 and 2012, E365 organized more campus concerts than almost any agency in India, traveling the country and championing every promising indie act they could find. They rode the wave as television and radio began to notice India’s independent rock movement. This single, calculated risk—to ignore the mainstream and focus on a burgeoning subculture set the foundation for everything that followed. It was a bet on authenticity that paid off, proving that genuine passion could carve out a space even in the most crowded of markets.

Hurdles, Hustle, and Anticipatory Bail

As E365 grew, so did its ambitions. The team planned their own music festival, but a last-minute opportunity changed everything. An agent informed them that the Finnish rock band Poets of the Fall was planning an India tour. In just 21 days, they cancelled all other work and pivoted to deliver what would become an iconic concert for Kolkata.

The chaos that ensued was a trial by fire. Just one day before the show, the government cancelled their amusement tax exemption and tourism sponsorship, claiming international concerts could harm local musicians. The venue was raided. An environmentalist demanded the show be stopped over concerns about noise levels near waterbodies. To ensure the show went on, the founder had to get an anticipatory bail and an injunction against any further attempts at cancellation.

Despite fitting 4,000 fans into a 3,000-capacity venue, with another 3,000 outside unable to get tickets, the concert was a massive success. The band themselves certified it as one of their top five global performances. This experience became a microcosm of the challenges that define India’s live event industry. With no official policies to protect or nurture the “orange economy,” promoters often find themselves at the mercy of politicians, bureaucrats, and other influential figures whose egos are bruised by a denied free pass. E365 learned to navigate this landscape by standing firm, refusing freebies to the entitled, and proving that the concert economy was a serious business. They went bankrupt more times than they made money, but they survived.

Fixing a Broken System: From Agent to Ecosystem Builder

Through his work, the founder noticed a fundamental flaw in the Indian artiste management model. Most managers function as transactional booking agents, and relationships with record labels are often short-lived. There is rarely a long-term, collaborative vision. He attributes this to “human insecurities and egos, and lack of professional clarity.”

To fix this, E365 is moving beyond the traditional model. They are building the world’s first AI-native orange economy operating system designed to empower the fan, concert, content, experiential and creator economies with a focus on lifelong, co-owned sustainability. This ambitious project aims to redefine how artistes and their teams build careers together, moving away from transactions and toward building lasting ecosystems.

When backing an artiste, the team looks for three non-negotiable qualities: an ambition to create original content, a genuine way of communicating with fans and the industry, and—most importantly—a clear ten-year vision. He notes that 90% of artistes lack this long-term clarity, which is essential for building a sustainable career.

A Pandemic, a Betrayal, and Rebuilding from Scratch

Just as E365 reached its peak in 2019, with over a thousand bookings and a growing team, the pandemic hit. The live event industry was the first to shut down and the last to reopen. The founder poured all his personal and company savings into keeping the team together, taking on bank loans to sustain them.

But the greatest blow came from within. As they were scaling a new deep-tech startup, they were sabotaged by an internal coup. A director, funded by outside money, poached clients, artistes, and nearly half the team—the same people they had supported through the toughest months of the pandemic. This betrayal was a painful lesson in trusting people without proper legal documentation.

Instead of collapsing, they took the hit and started rebuilding from scratch. This time, the foundation would be stronger. Now, nearly two decades after that fateful Valentine’s Day registration, E365 is humbler, leaner, and more focused than ever. They are heavily invested in science and technology, working with top global brands, and are on the verge of being debt-free and profitable again. The teenage blunders are over. The focus is on long-term value, radical honesty, and building something that will last.

For anyone looking to enter the live experience industry, the message is clear: it’s not easy money, and it’s certainly not glamorous. It’s a tough job that demands resilience, humility, and a long-term vision. You must be willing to learn constantly, leave your ego at home, and, above all, think about the long game. The journey is difficult, but as the story of E365 proves, the show must always go on.

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