Persistent attitude furthered online business Scripped.com

Sunil Rajaraman graduated from the Anderson Business School of Management in June 2008 and found himself struggling to keep his business, Scripped.com, alive in the grips of an economic recession.

Rajaraman founded the business, which provides free screenwriting software and networking opportunities to writers as an alternative to hiring an agent, with his two friends Zak Freer and Ryan Buckley.

Rajaraman said he came up with the idea for Scripped.com after seeing that Freer, a film student and script writer who had graduated from USC in 2003, was not succeeding because he lacked the networking skills to make it into Hollywood.

“You have all sorts of gates and barriers that prevent people from making it, and you look at that and it’s just wrong,” Rajaraman said.

The three friends set their sights on raising funds for their new business after Rajaraman graduated in 2008. They met with a dozen venture capitalists, although none of these meetings came to fruition.

At a low point, Buckley received a bad offer from an investor who proposed a small amount of money in exchange for 25 percent of the company.

“We got a terrible offer. We were reaching a desperation point. The guy who wanted to invest in us just could see how desperate we were,” Rajaraman said.

For the first time since the beginning of their friendship, Rajaraman, Buckley and Freer found themselves in a strained relationship as they argued about the future of their business.

In February 2009, the group grappled with thoughts of closing the company for a lack of funding.

But after redoubling their efforts in March, they were presented with a few small investors through the Anderson School who saved the company from going under.

Rajaraman credits the Anderson School and the Herald and Pauline Price Center for Entrepreneurial Studies for helping him network and professor Sanjay Sood from the Anderson School for showing him how to commercialize his brand, despite being unfunded.

Today, Scripped.com has acquired over 25,000 writers, and Rajaraman eventually hopes to have studios source through them for scripts in the future. On Friday, Scripped.com organized a panel entitled “Hollywood 2.0″ that was held in Korn Convocation Hall in the Anderson School of Management. The panel brought together experts from the film industry and new media to discuss the future of Hollywood and how new media and Web sites like Scripped.com are transforming the industry.

“We want to put ourselves out there as leaders in this new media,” Rajaraman said.

The event included two panels. The first panel consisted of technology journalists who discussed the changing landscape of social networking Web sites like Twitter, Facebook and MySpace and how new media transformed the entertainment industry.

The second centered on financial challenges streaming has posed to individuals in the entertainment industry. Panelist Alex Albrecht, who co-created a web show called Diggnation, one of the first video podcasts, ran a contest with Scripped.com for a 15 to 20 page sci-fi thriller he wants to produce and received 80 full scripts, according to Albrecht.

When asked why Scripped.com has gained success, Rajaraman said, “You have to be willing to hustle and do whatever it takes to make your company succeed. If you’re not willing to do that, you might be starting the wrong kind of business.”

Freer described Rajaraman as being always eager to reach out. Freer said Rajaraman was once at a wedding where Chelsea Clinton was present, and he made it his mission to slip Clinton a business card.

“That’s the true Sunil: Always willing to do anything and everything for friends and the company,” Freer said.

Scripped.com provides free screenwriting software to writers on the basis that there are good writers everywhere, not just in Los Angeles. Rajaraman said he hopes to open up the world of talent in Hollywood.

The company also hosts contests to find scripts that merit attention from movie producers. In the last contest, a 43-year-old woman from Scotland beat out two Writers’ Guild members for best script, Rajaraman said.