Today we’d like to introduce you to Anu and Bhargava Chiluveru.
Anu and Bhargava, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
About six years ago, after struggling with poor health and depression post-college due to the recession, both of us went through a transformation of health and mind. We focused our energy on mental and physical health and had a renewed perspective on life. Soon after we got married and rather than having a great beginning, both of us felt trapped in our jobs. Bhargava broke off first to form Chil Media on April 1st, 2013 and Anu joined the company to run operations that summer. The company was originally formed as an agency but soon split into two separate divisions, one catering to businesses and corporations while the other catered to consumers.
Soon after breaking away, we had a chance to travel around the country and internationally to experience different cities to see if we wanted to consider moving to any of them. After realizing Atlanta had some of the most unique cultures around along with a lot of potential for growth, we decided to stay here. However, we realized we couldn’t grow our business without leaving metro-Atlanta’s suburbs and moving right into the city. This move helped us be more in touch with the arts, the city’s culture and also participate in its evolution.
While developing our companies from our studio apartment(s) and coffee shops in Midtown, Bhargava pursued his passion of fine art photography and digital manipulation and ended up winning “Best Fine Art Photographer” in Creative Loafing two years in a row. His works have also been featured in the AJC, Creative Loafing, Forbes.com, Buzzfeed, the Atlanta Airport, The Streets Magazine, Venue and various other publications.
Meanwhile, Anu pursued her passion for improving her health in the form of running, kickboxing and yoga. She took advantage of the early days of King of Pops Yoga right in Old Fourth Ward, joined running groups and various other activities around town. After not running for close to a decade and struggling with hypothyroidism and PCOS for years, Anu finished multiple 5ks and two half marathons. She began training for a marathon when she found out we were pregnant with our baby girl.
In the meantime, we moved our businesses from our house to various co-working spaces around the city to experience more of a community such as The Goat Farm in West Midtown and Alkaloid Networks off the Beltline before ending up at Switchyards in downtown where we are currently.
We started a project called fourofour, which empowers local artists with entrepreneurship skills. Our baby girl arrived on September 9, 2017, and we’ve been concentrating on balancing our family life with our businesses.
Has it been a smooth road?
There’s definitely been a few challenges along the way. Not having experience in managing a business is something both of us struggled with early on. We knew our strengths but sometimes we made a few silly mistakes due to lack of experience that cost us over time. However, because we dove into it head-first, we also learned lessons that have made us better business minded along the way. We also continued to educate ourselves by attending workshops, reading books or listening to podcasts.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Chil Media and fourofour story. Tell us more about the business.
Chil Media is a multifaceted creative agency with three divisions—Chil Creative, Chil Studios, and Fourofour.co. Anu handles the operations and Bhargava runs creative.
Bhargava leads the agency side with Chil Creative. Supercharged by his core team and network of creatives, Bhargava transforms a company’s vision into an immersive experience strengthened by identity, style, and cohesion. Chil Creative partners with its clients to bring what was once imaginary into the real world through user-focused web design, strategic brand development, social media content development and management, high-end product photography, and full-scale video production.
Under Anu’s leadership, Chil Studios visually captures expressions of self, family, love, and identity. Chil Studios calls on a community of Atlanta’s most talented photographers and videographers to capture weddings, special events, family portraits, lifestyle shoots, individual portraits, stylized personal branding sessions, and more.
Fourofour.co was born from our two greatest passions: supporting the arts and building community. This lifestyle brand is a dedication to Atlanta’s extraordinary artists. Fourofour is both a platform for self-expression and an added revenue stream for the city’s most imaginative illustrators, designers, photographers, and creators. In partnership with Fourofour, these artisans transform their works into wearable art and affordable prints, which then become channels of expression for the collectors who buy them.
During our tenure, Chil Media helped launch over 20 brands, various video campaigns and covered more than 35 weddings and have shot hundreds of portraits ranging from lifestyle to engagement and family sessions, worked with Nemours national and international Non-Profit organizations.
Within a year fourofour.co has held an event for local creatives every month and collaborated with over 14 artists and made the cover of Creative Loafing. We can say that we are proud to have figured out how to monetize our creative skill sets across various channels while actively taking part in empowering the community. The culture of our organization sets us apart.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
We hope to continue providing services that tackle the ever-evolving new media landscape with the help of some the amazing creatives around town. Atlanta is ever-evolving and we hope to help in that process.
Pricing:
- While we work with businesses and individuals to provide customized packages based on their needs, there are many products available for purchase directly via. www.fourofour.co starting at $20.
Contact Info:
- Address: 151 Ted Turner Drive Atlanta, GA 30303
- Website: www.chilmedia.com AND www.fourofour.co
- Email: anu@chilmedia.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/fourofour.co
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/fourofour.co
- Twitter: www.twitter.com/fourofourco
Image Credit:
Lauren Holley (@graphiknation) – Photo under Headline
@whyiloveatl
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