COVID threw the corporate event planning industry into a tailspin. Uncertainty around in-person gatherings, restrictions, and health protocols has solidified that the future of events will likely not be similar to what we were accustomed to before the world changed in the late Winter of 2020. The Vendry is a marketplace and professional social network for corporate event planners to navigate the future of their industry with its tech-enabled platform. With so much uncertainty around the industry, one this is certain – events of the future will have some technology-powered hybrid component and The Vendry is able to offer vetted solutions to its growing community (~18K+) whether it’s outdoor venues or event staff that’s fully vaccinated. Aside from vendor procurement, the platform also offers the exchange of best practices through discussion forums, a job board, and also serves as a trusted information provider showcasing key industry news and resources.
AlleyWatch caught up with The Vendry Founder and CEO Daphne Hoppenot to learn more about building an events-focused business in the midst of a pandemic that shut down in-person activity, strategic plans, latest round of funding, and much, much more.
Who were your investors and how much did you raise?
We raised $6.5M in seed round funding led by Peter Boyce, Founder of Stellation Capital. Additional investors included Founder Collective, Primary Venture Partners, WGI Group, Leadout Capital, Operator Partners, Brilliant Friends, Howard Lerman, Brian Distelburger, Jason Harinstein, Geoff Yang, and Ed Zimmerman.
Tell us about the product or service that The Vendry offers.
The Vendry is a marketplace and professional community for corporate event planners. The platform digitizes the traditionally manual event planning process by connecting professionals with the venues and vendors they need, as well as each other to seek inspiration, exchange resources, and share job opportunities.
To date, the platform has over 17,500 members and has helped plan thousands of live and virtual events.
What inspired the start of The Vendry?
It was 2018 and New York City was overrun with pop-up shops, festivals, and other activations targeting the Millennial and Gen-Z consumer, aka the “experience economy generation.” At the same time, the B2B sector was pouring money into events. From Dreamforce to SXSW, research was showing event marketing as an important and growing channel.
Our founding team has a wealth of experience with both B2B and B2C events. I had previously run partnerships at software company Yext where we partnered closely with the events team on everything from trade shows like CES to intimate dining experiences. Our CMO Carter Blatt was an executive at CSM, a global experiential agency that produced events for brands like MLB, Audi, and Netflix. We knew from personal experience how broken the event planning process was for corporate event planners. For most of these planners, the first moment of frustration comes when they’re looking for a venue for their event. Unlike the wedding sector, where brides and grooms can rely on online marketplaces like The Knot to find a venue, corporate planners have very different needs (“downtown near the convention center”) and their sourcing process currently depends on word of mouth, agencies, or Google searches.
We saw a massive opportunity to help with a category we care deeply about and got to work building a marketplace with their needs in mind.
How is The Vendry different?
What makes us stand out is our strong focus on serving the needs of corporate event planners. Unlike brides and grooms, planners working in-house at organizations are usually planning multiple events at any given moment in time, dealing with multiple layers of stakeholders, and navigating an evolving set of requirements. They have very specific workflows and pain points in their planning process that we’re working to address through our sourcing technology.
What market does The Vendry target and how big is it?
The corporate events industry is valued at more than $211 billion in the United States, and is expected to grow another 18.5% to $322 billion over the next decade. Since we launched our updated suite of marketplace tools in January 2021, we’ve received more than $10 million worth of RFP’s that run the gamut of requests, whether it’s virtual production partners or live event venues.
The corporate events industry is valued at more than $211 billion in the United States, and is expected to grow another 18.5% to $322 billion over the next decade. Since we launched our updated suite of marketplace tools in January 2021, we’ve received more than $10 million worth of RFP’s that run the gamut of requests, whether it’s virtual production partners or live event venues.
What’s your business model?
We are currently pre-revenue. Our focus is on building our software suite and successfully onboarding planners and suppliers onto our marketplace. In the future, we’ll offer paid marketing solutions to suppliers who want increased exposure to the demand generated through our platform.
How has COVID-19 impacted the business??
The pandemic has proven that the live events industry was long overdue for change. In a rapidly changing environment, event professionals were desperate to connect with peers for advice and information, and we saw the impact of that as our community tripled in size between March 2020 and September 2021.
Events are changing rapidly in two ways: they’re offering more digital and livestream components to virtual attendees, and they’re (by necessity) needing to add new health & safety precautions in place for the live attendees. All this has a great impact on the sourcing needs of an event planner. We’re seeing most venue RFP’s (request for proposals) asking for outdoor space, for venues and vendors with fully vaccinated staff, or hybrid capabilities. From a technology perspective, we’re taking these evolving needs into account so that we can match planners with the right suppliers under these new sets of requirements as efficiently as possible.
What was the funding process like?
It’s an interesting time in the live events industry. A lot of the rules are being re-written and the industry has had a massive shift in personnel, bringing in a lot of new, younger folks who are open and excited to try new and more efficient ways of doing things. What we found with investors is that some of them weren’t comfortable making an investment in live events before the pandemic was truly “over”, but another set was excited to get ahead of the market and the anticipated resurgence that is bound to happen at some point. Obviously, we raised from the latter.
What are the milestones you plan to achieve in the next six months?
We look forward to launching a full set of enterprise sourcing tools for corporate events teams, especially as they set their plans for 2022. We’ll be using our new capital to double the size of our engineering team, speed up product development, and get more corporate events teams onboarded to The Vendry.
What advice can you offer companies in New York that do not have a fresh injection of capital in the bank?
If you’re looking to raise capital, my advice is to focus on a single metric that shows early traction and aligns with your long-term vision. Not all investors will agree on the impressiveness of your numbers, or the alignment with that metric and the long-term business opportunity, so the key is for you to be able to demonstrate confidence in your story and to continue opening up new investor conversations until you find the perfect match.
Where do you see the company going now over the near term?
To build upon the momentum behind virtual and hybrid events, we plan to continue expanding our tools and offerings in a way that helps planners and marketers execute events that span multiple mediums and locations. People are no longer traveling to in-person events at the scale they were pre-pandemic, so it’s essential to meet attendees where they are, whether that’s through local activations, live streams, or implementing virtual reality for an enhanced experience.
What’s your favorite outdoor dining restaurant in NYC
I live in Carroll Gardens and have a baby and a toddler, so I have to give a shoutout to Bar San Miguel which is a block from my house and has a lovely backyard patio.
