Video Archives

Attendio, Inc.

Product Name

Attendio

Market Segment

Consumer

Funding

$965,000 in bridge financing from individual angel investors, Felicis Ventures and Sunbridge Partners.

Competitors

Eventful, Upcoming.org, Zvents

Product Description

Attendio is a free event-discovery service that conveniently delivers events of interest via the Web, mobile phones and calendar programs (e.g., Outlook 2007 or Google Calendar). Attendio continually adds relevant local events, invitations, reviews and recommendations from selected friends and expert “Recommenders.” Music lovers can automatically see when their favorite bands are playing or what concerts their jazz-authority friend recommends. Parents can quickly discover child-friendly activities. Never miss out on what’s going on around you again!

Market Opportunity

PROMO Research estimates that $171 billion was spent on event marketing in 2005. Foresight Research estimates 21% of marketing budgets are dedicated to event marketing, with 76% of corporations spending on event marketing. Forrester Research estimates urban 25- to 40-year-olds spend about $600 billion on lifestyle expenses, including events, ticketing and dining.

Demo Says

Event calendaring seems to be on a track of continuous evolution. No one’s found the magic formula yet, but there are a few standouts that have realized the importance of throwing social networking into the mix. Aimed at an older demographic of Gen-Xers and Boomers, Attendio’s “social utility” raises the bar of event calendaring with proven “Recommenders,” a narrower category focus and integration with your own personal calendar. Rather than making users browse around for events (who has time?), Attendio pushes the events to you from users with similar interests. With plans for adding conferences and professional events down the road—and featured status on the new Windows Vista calendar—Attendio has a strong shot at leading the pack.