Outsmart!: How to Do What Your Competitors Can’t

Chapter 2. Compete by Seeing What Others Don’t: How Sonicbids Spotted a $15 Billion Market

IN AN ERA WHEN OUR CELEBRITY-OBSESSED SOCIETY HANGS ON EVERY WORD AND DEED—BOTH GOOD AND BAD—OF A HANDFUL OF HOT PROPERTIES, IT’S EASY TO FORGET THAT HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF TALENTED ARTISTS GO ALMOST UNNOTICED. FOR THESE MUSICIANS, SINGERS, ACTORS, MAGICIANS, AND THE LIKE, GETTING NOTICED AND GETTING WORK IS AN ARDUOUS TASK. BUT THANKS TO BOSTON ENTREPRENEUR PANOS PANAY AND HIS COMPANY, THEIR STRUGGLE MIGHT COME TO AN END.

Not long ago, I had the chance to sit down with the 35-year-old Panay in Boston’s South End. Sonicbids, the business he founded and serves as the chief executive of, ranks 88th on Inc. magazine’s list of the top 5,000 privately owned ...