For many people, their wedding day is the most important day in their lives. However, organizing a wedding can be stressful and time consuming. Some brides love deciding each individual detail, while others would rather avoid dealing with the minutiae. Millennials and Gen Z generations are getting married later in life and are more inclined to pay for their wedding themselves instead of having their parents do so. However, there are still many vendors that require check or cash, rather than credit card payments. Couples must save substantial amounts of money to prepare for their weddings, which is further complicated by vendors preferring certain payment methods over others. 

The current generation is technologically savvy and would often rather find the necessary arrangements online, as they don’t have time to spend on things like picking out napkins or meeting various photographers. 

Event Hollow intends to solve the stressful part of wedding planning for those who need to organize a wedding in a short period of time and do not mind paying a bit extra for it. Their service is an excellent solution for people who work full time, who have not been to many weddings and are unfamiliar with the key details, or who do not have the support of friends and family to get them through it.

Event Hollow offers several features that mimic some of the functions of traditional wedding planners. The platform offers an integration of features that are unique to e-commerce in the wedding marketplace. Some of these features include giving the customer the ability to book online vendor transactions, offering integrated vendor calendars for coordinating availability, and the ability to sign one contract which encompasses multiple vendor features and services. Accessing each service individually can be inconvenient and time consuming, and this platform seeks to alleviate these issues. Another feature offered by Event Hollow is financing, which is also a great option for those who don’t have all the funds available before the wedding. 

The site uses a convenient questionnaire to determine the needs of the customer, and it then offers services based on their answers and budget. A similar tool is being utilized by Betterment in the financial services industry, which offers automatic investment solutions based on an online questionnaire that assesses the investor’s risk level. Betterment has been extremely successful with this feature, so it stands to reason that Event Hollow is likely to find similar success.

According to IBISWorld, Wedding Services was a $78 Billion industry in the US in 2019. Of that market, we estimate the total addressable market for Event Hollow would be about 25%, which comes to around $20 Billion. According to The Knot, approximately 2 million couples plan to get married in 2020, but not all these people will shop for wedding services online. Below are further reasons for why the addressable market size is not as high:

• For many weddings, the vendors are chosen based on personal referrals or organized by parents that are not tech savvy.
• Budget conscious consumers who plan their wedding far in advance have enough time to think about the details, talk to various vendors, and shop for the best price. 
• Fashion-conscious brides who have specific taste are unlikely to settle for someone narrowing down their options.
• Of the couples planning to get married, some will opt for something very small or just a city hall option as opposed to a large event.

According to the wedding report, in 2019 there were 27,470 weddings in the Bay Area. Event Hollow estimates to get involved in 369 of those, which is a bit optimistic due to all the reasons listed above but not unrealistic. 

Some of the competitors in the online wedding planning arena are Zola, The Knot, and WeddingWire. Zola is an online e-commerce site providing wedding registry, wedding planners, and retail services. They’re a profitable company that had revenues of $9 million back in 2014, which grew to $120 million in 2017. Another competitor, The Knot, is an all-inclusive wedding planner. They have the top-rated Wedding App which provides registries, inspirations, and vendors. However, the customer must book each of these individually. Upstart and Promise Financial are companies that provide wedding loans, but that is all they offer. 

Event Hollow’s management seems to have a healthy combination of wedding planners and experts as well as startup professionals who bring organization and marketing know-how. 

Jennifer Edmon, the Founder and CEO of Event Hollow, has a strong background in the wedding space. She was a wedding planner and ran a wedding floral business (Blue Daphne Events & Floral Design) for 10 years. She is also a reputable source of knowledge in the space as she has been published in over 30 magazines and online publications.

David Stone-Resneck is the Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). He is a serial entrepreneur, having run MyData.Health (a mobile health tracking tool) and exiting Thalea Technologies (a mobile application service firm). He has a strong business background in the venture capital space, and he has been an Investment lead at Bay Angels. He brings a strong business background that compliments Edmon’s background in the wedding planning space.

Robert Sweeney is the Chief Technical Officer and seems to be very qualified from that aspect. He has over 15 years of experience in the technology space, having held high level software engineer positions at Springshot, Sophcon, and Dell.

Danielle Correa is the Head of Customer Success, and she has several years of experience in Wedding Venue and Banquet Catering management. 

Additionally, this team has a strong advisory panel including venture capital firms like the Shatter Fund and the Sway Fund. These firms have committed to investing in Event Hollow’s seed round. Some others include strong corporate advisors like Mike Rogers (CEO of the Revenue Group) and Evie Smith (CEO of Rebellious PR).

• Strong Management: Event Hollow includes entrepreneurs, software engineers, marketing, and wedding experts who all bring value to this business. They are further backed by some strong business minds and commitments from venture capitalists.

• One-Stop Shop: When people try to shop for multiple services for one occasion, they spend a lot of time doing it. A one stop shop saves time and stress as shown by Amazon.com, which is a household name solving several needs at once. Event Hollow provides a convenient one stop shop solving all the customers’ wedding needs in one location. They also offer financing options, so there is no need for the customer to find that elsewhere. 

• Solution to a Long Existing Problem: Event Hollow’s product nicely solves a problem for a segment of those who are planning a wedding. Some people simply want a nice wedding with all their friends and family next to them but just do not care about all the hassle associated with organizing it. 

• Expansion Plan: Edmon mentioned in her public comments that local wedding planners will be the key to expansion, as they know the most reliable local vendors. Also, they are thinking about corporate and social events, which would be a very fitting extension of their services. Those events are not as personal as a wedding, and they would easily be organized in this manner.

• Exit Opportunities: This industry is changing in many ways, providing possible exit opportunities for Event Hollow. Companies like Match.com or eHarmony could acquire it to offer ancillary services to their customers. An IPO is also feasible, if they receive the strong user base that they are expecting. 

After evaluating the company, we are assigning a “Deal To Watch” rating to Event Hollow. Even though the firm’s vision is very strategic and timely, it also has risks that an investor should consider.

Event Hollow launched on Feb 14, 2020. Although it does not have any revenue yet, there are customers actively planning on their site with the total shopping carts adding to $500K. This amount will temporarily reduce, due to the COVID-19 outbreak, but it could pick up later in the year. However, the company’s valuation of $6 million is optimistic considering they are currently not generating any revenue. 

Some of the risks in this business are related to uncontrollable factors like the marriage rate, which IBIS World expects to stagnate. They state that industry revenue is positively correlated with the marriage rate, and this could impact the growth of Event Hollow.

A wedding is a very personal and important event for every couple. Many still prefer to interact with vendors they know or for whom they have referrals. This trend will continue to be a headwind in this business. Event Hollow provides a set list of vendors who may be very good in providing services, but couples may prefer to use different ones or might not trust the choice.

Furthermore, this business has low barriers to entry, and competitors like Zola and The Knot could easily expand their product offerings to include financing and integrated contracts, which could hurt the expansion plans for Event Hollow. Also, other wedding planners could make similar one stop shops for wedding planning by utilizing their existing contacts.

Overall, the idea is very good. Management has synthesized experience across the wedding and business space and combined it into a very elegant business model. They have the advantage of creating a unique marketplace, and they are the first to offer such a combination of services. Limitations arise when considering just how many couples will be willing to trust their choices, but if the company can expand into planning other events, they will overcome this issue. Event Hollow is worth watching as they continue to grow.