WOW STORY OF THE DAY: Three Self-Funded Engineers From Hyderabad Built the Uber for Reels. Professional Video, Shot and Edited, Delivered in 10 Minutes.

 A Family Business, a Personal Frustration, and an Idea That Changed Everything

•⁠  ⁠Voleti Karthik graduated from Chaitanya Bharati Institute of Technology in Gandipet, near Hyderabad's Financial District. So did co-founder Manikanta Bukka. Shreyak Singh, the third co-founder and CTO, took a different path and left engineering school early. What united them was a shared frustration that Karthik experienced directly while trying to get quality content for his family business.

•⁠  ⁠"Great content was either too expensive, delayed or difficult to coordinate," Karthik recalls. "We built Flashoot to solve that so that creators, startups and even local businesses can get professional content instantly."

•⁠  ⁠The three founders self-funded the venture entirely from their own resources, working from humble beginnings in Hyderabad with no institutional backing and no safety net. They built the platform, trained the creators, and launched in 2023 under the parent company Konchamkode Private Limited.

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•⁠  ⁠The central insight behind Flashoot is deceptively simple: the best camera in the world for social media content is already in every young person's pocket.

•⁠  ⁠Flashoot standardised that insight into a full operating model. Every creator, called a Flashooter, is trained, certified, and equipped with an iPhone 13 Pro or newer device. After training, each creator goes through a demo shoot evaluation and instant editing assessment before being activated on the platform. Clients book a Flashooter through the app, the creator arrives, shoots, edits, and delivers a fully finished reel in under 10 minutes. Flashooters earn up to 70 percent of every booking, making the platform a genuine income engine for India's youth.

•⁠  ⁠"We are not just onboarding creators. We are onboarding livelihoods," Karthik says. "Our mission is to turn passionate youth into paid professionals. With the right training, mindset, and mobile tools, they become micro entrepreneurs."

•⁠  ⁠The platform serves restaurants, clinics, D2C brands, event managers, wedding planners, and individual creators. Services start at ₹1,999 per hourly shoot, with premium verticals including Flashoot Luxe and Flashoot Drones.

Scale, Numbers and Real-World Impact

•⁠  ⁠Flashoot has delivered 70,000-plus reels and processes 1,000-plus bookings per month. The platform onboarded over 1,000 new creators in a single 30-day window in 2025, described as one of the fastest creator network builds in India's content economy. The company has raised $252,000 across two funding rounds, including a March 2025 round that valued the company at ₹22 crore. The platform operates across Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi NCR, Hyderabad, Pune, and is expanding to Chennai, Jaipur, and Kolkata. Internationally, Flashoot operates in the UAE and the United States. The company is piloting a Tier 2 and 3 town model serviced via WhatsApp and calls for markets where app-based workflows need simplification.

•⁠  ⁠Flashoot appeared on Shark Tank India Season 5 Episode 46, asking for ₹2 crore for 2.5% equity at a ₹80 crore valuation. The Sharks appreciated the concept but passed on the investment, citing AI editing competition and business model scalability concerns. The national visibility from the episode amplified the brand's reach significantly.

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•⁠  ⁠The sharpest lesson from Flashoot's journey is this: the most defensible creator economy platforms are the ones that create economic opportunity for the supply side, not just convenience for the demand side.

•⁠  ⁠Flashoot's 70% creator payout model is not a marketing strategy. It is the architecture that ensures talented young people in Hyderabad, Mumbai, small towns, and emerging markets choose Flashoot as the platform where they build their career. When your supply side earns well and grows through your platform, you build loyalty that no competitor can easily replicate.

•⁠  ⁠"We have seen extraordinary talent in small towns who just need a platform," says Manikanta Bukka. "Flashoot is bridging that gap with structure, speed, and scale."

•⁠  ⁠Three boys from Hyderabad, self-funded, with no famous college names on their CVs, built India's fastest content creation network. The phone in every young person's pocket was always the studio. They just built the platform to unlock it.

Sources: The Tribune, Zee News, Telangana Tribune, Tracxn