Your company wants to host an event and needs you to find a venue. Where do you start? This question is often asked and until now there hasn’t been a single resource that provides vetted venues that match your preferences. Enter Foray, a marketplace for discovering and booking private event venues in the city. The platform offers an interface similar to Airbnb that allows you to browse through options, providing costs (both in person and total amount), capacity, and various package options for food and beverage. The recently-launched startup aims to provide a holistic experience so once the venue is negotiated, booked, and paid for through the platform, Foray will also help you manage the guest list.
AlleyWatch caught up with Foray Cofounders Harry Heffernan, Ted Maynard, and Ryan Gilbert to learn more about the business, the company’s strategic plans, and much, much more…
Tell us about the product or service that Foray offers.
Foray is a digital marketplace for booking private event venues. Whether it be a happy hour, a birthday party, or a corporate holiday party, Foray gives you the ability to browse, book, and manage your event venue all on-platform.
How is it different?
Foray stays with users for the entirety of their event lifecycle. From sourcing venues, to determining availability, to getting offers, and finally managing the guest list and event payment, Foray is a one-stop-shop for events. On the venue side, we provide more flexibility than our competitors, who often make burdensome mandates on how the bars and restaurants must use their software.
What inspired the start of Foray?
All 3 of us had experienced the pain of sourcing a venue first-hand. Being unable to find venues, get transparent pricing from them, and seamlessly book them made us confident that there needed to be a better software solution
What market does Foray target and how big is it?
Foray targets the Party & Event Planner Industry, a $3B market in the US alone.
What is the business model?
Foray takes a 10% commission on all events booked through the platform.
How are you preparing for a potential economic slowdown?
The prospect of an economic downturn isn’t all that damaging to our business model for a couple of reasons. Our primary success metric is events booked, and in a recession our venue partners on the supply side of the market will naturally lower prices if private event demand decreases, which critically maintains booking volume from Foray. We also expect a phenomenon where in the case of a recession causing a portion of our demand of people who might have splurged for a birthday party last year to be replaced by people who have decided to right-size their destination wedding to a local restaurant for example.
What are the milestones that you plan to achieve within six months?
200 venues, 50 events per month
What is the one piece of startup advice that you never got?
The type of person you’re selling to matters a lot. It’s not enough for them to need the thing and tell you they want it. If they’re not the kind of people who have a desire to take on a new tech product in their life, things will be more difficult. And a marketplace is only as good as both sides’ ability to use it.
If you could be put in touch with anyone in the New York community who would it be and why?
We’d love to get in touch with Danny Meyer. We’re ultimately in the hospitality space, and no one provides higher-value to their hospitality customers than Danny Meyer.
Why did you launch in New York?
There are three main reasons why New York was the perfect place for us to start our business. The first has to do with the way New Yorkers live: apartments in NYC tend to be much smaller than other cities, making house parties less of an option. When people want to get large groups together, they generally have to do so at bars and restaurants. Relatedly, NYC also has an incredible density of bars and restaurants. While other cities might have just a handful of bars that frequently run events, NYC has a never-ending supply of good event venues. Lastly, New York is where our network is. We’re all from the New York area, and knew that we’d have an easier time finding our initial customers in the city.
There are three main reasons why New York was the perfect place for us to start our business. The first has to do with the way New Yorkers live: apartments in NYC tend to be much smaller than other cities, making house parties less of an option. When people want to get large groups together, they generally have to do so at bars and restaurants. Relatedly, NYC also has an incredible density of bars and restaurants. While other cities might have just a handful of bars that frequently run events, NYC has a never-ending supply of good event venues. Lastly, New York is where our network is. We’re all from the New York area, and knew that we’d have an easier time finding our initial customers in the city.
Where’s the best place to hold a team offsite in the city?
One of our favorite and most popular places to host a team offsite in New York is Evento. Nothing brings people together like great food and drink. Not only will you learn key cooking techniques, you’ll be able to dine and drink together in an elevated environment. Whether you’re making pizza, pasta, or practicing mixology, you’ll feel the energy and the passion of Evento’s Italian pizzaioli, who will share their secrets with you!
