Eventcombo is offering equity at a $27.3 million valuation. That’s a high sticker price, particularly for a relatively new company that generated less than $1 million in annual revenue last year. In fact, $27.3 million represents a nearly 28 times revenue multiple, which is a bit high for such an early-stage business. Eventcombo has demonstrated decent traction and year-over-year revenue growth, and built-out software as a service (SaaS) companies can justify higher multiples due to their competitive moats. All in all, though, Eventcombo’s price rating is middle-of-the-road.

The market for event management technology is very large simply due to the quantity of events that occur each day around the world. In fact, the total global events industry was valued at $1.1 trillion in 2019 and is expected to hit $1.6 trillion by 2028 at a CAGR of 11.2%. 

That’s an enormous market, but Eventcombo is only capturing a sliver of it. The company is based in the US and seems to be focused on hosting virtual events (likely a pivot due to the COVID-19 pandemic). As such, Eventcombo is really aiming for the roughly $31 billion US virtual events market. But virtual events are becoming increasingly popular, so the market is expected to grow at a strong 23.2% CAGR globally over the next several years. 

While Eventcombo faces strong competition in the events management software space, the company is still playing in a large and growing market that will continue to seek increasingly advanced tech tools. That’s why Eventcombo’s market rating is one of its strongest.

Eventcombo was founded by Saroosh Gull, who has more than two decades of experience in various program and project management and business analysis roles. Just before founding Eventcombo, Gull served as a senior business analyst at Chase, working on the bank’s Zelle product. Head of Technology Syed Ali is listed as a co-founder on LinkedIn but not on StartEngine. He has more than 20 years of experience as a web developer, including in roles at L’Oreal USA and Publicis. 

The Eventcombo team also includes Saily Joshi (vice president of business development) and David Solodukho (head of user experience, or UX). Joshi holds a BA from Northwestern University and a JD from the University of Pittsburgh. She has worked in various business development roles for small firms since 2006. Solodukho appears to only work part-time for Eventcombo, as his primary role is in operations UX at Walmart. He also has more than 20 years of experience as a developer and UX designer, including five years at Jet.com. 

Eventcombo is led by seasoned professionals with many decades of combined experience in project management, technology, business development, and product roles. The core team doesn’t have any obvious experience gaps. However, it’s worth noting that none of Eventcombo’s senior leaders have held particularly influential roles at big companies. The team member with arguably the most impressive experience is David Solodukho, who only works for Eventcombo part time. In addition, no one on the core team has built a company before. Therefore, Eventcombo’s team score is relatively high but not stellar.

Eventcombo touts its strong differentiation from event management tools that only manage RSVPs or only facilitate video conferencing. And Eventcombo does seem to offer a wider range of features than Eventbrite or Cvent. However, Eventcombo may be falling into the common SaaS trap of touting an all-in-one tool. It’s convenient to be able to collect RSVPs and facilitate video conferencing with one tool. But if Eventcombo’s combined RSVP and video conferencing functionality turns out to be less useful than the separate tools of its competitors, Eventcombo’s all-in-one feature is no longer an advantage. 

Eventcombo also lacks strong defensibility, which is risky in this emerging and highly competitive market. Eventbrite doesn’t currently offer the ability to facilitate virtual conversations, but it has nailed the RSVP process. It wouldn’t be very difficult for the company to add additional functionality to compete with Eventcombo. 

Eventcombo has a strong differentiation pitch as an all-in-one tool for events management, but it’s not clear yet whether that differentiation is truly effective in a crowded, competitive market. As such, Eventcombo’s differentiation rating is relatively high, but not perfect.

Eventcombo was founded in 2015, but the company appears to have made most of its progress in the last two years. In total, Eventcombo has managed an impressive 40,000 events. The company has also generated decent revenue with year-over-year growth. In 2019, Eventcombo made $818,795. In 2020, revenue jumped to $967,830, despite the extreme challenges of running an events business during the pandemic. What’s more, Eventcombo is approaching profitability. The company was profitable in 2019 with a roughly $155,000 net income, and its 2020 net loss of $149,454 was still relatively slim. 

Eventcombo doesn’t offer extensive data about year-over-year event growth, number of clients, number of attendees, or other key metrics. But based on the simple data provided (total number of events and financials), Eventcombo seems to be growing steadily and burning capital efficiently. That’s why the company’s performance rating is one of its highest.

Overall, Eventcombo is a relatively low-risk investment. The company has already launched a product that’s generating meaningful revenue. The team is large and balanced across business, tech, and product functions. There is some financial risk in that Eventcombo has not yet generated more than $1 million in revenue in a given year, which doesn’t match up perfectly with its high valuation of $27.3 million. That said, Eventcombo’s impressive traction thus far significantly decreases risk.

Eventcombo seems to be a solid business demonstrating year-over-year revenue growth. However, the events market is very dynamic, given the recent rise of virtual events, and there are a huge number of entrepreneurs rushing into this space with high-quality, well-branded products. Eventcombo doesn’t seem ready to compete with those flashier ventures. Its branding could use some work, the core value proposition isn’t immediately clear, and the company’s founding team doesn’t have deep entrepreneurial experience. 

The lack of compelling, positive signals is particularly concerning given Eventcombo’s high valuation, which doesn’t quite seem to be justified at the company’s current stage. It’s also worth noting that Eventcombo recently raised a prior crowdfunding round at a slightly lower valuation and offered no explanation  for its decision to raise a new round at a higher valuation. 

There’s a chance that Eventcombo can weather strong competition and continue posting year-over-year growth to become a leader in the event tech industry. But at this point, it’s too soon to say.

Despite Eventcombo’s lack of polish, obvious differentiation, and clear team advantage, the company has been posting strong metrics and growing steadily. It seems as though Eventcombo pivoted a bit to lean into the virtual event trend of the COVID-19 pandemic, and it apparently paid off. Revenues grew 18% between 2019 and 2020, and the company wasn’t far from profitability last year. Plus, Eventcombo has managed 40,000 events over the last five years, which is no small number. 

A very large market with strong CAGR, increasing willingness to adopt tech tools for event hosting, and other positive tailwinds are boosting Eventcombo’s prospects. While the company’s founders aren’t seasoned entrepreneurs, the full team is relatively large with good coverage across a variety of key functions. With these positive signals and Eventcombo’s traction thus far, there’s reason to believe that Eventcombo can continue to grow toward an ultimate exit.

Eventcombo is an events management platform offering all-in-one functionality for both event organizers and attendees. The company pivoted quickly to focus on virtual events during the COVID-19 pandemic, and results were positive. Eventcombo made almost $968,000 in revenue last year and has hosted more than 40,000 events on its platform. It also has a strong team and a rapidly growing market. 

On the other hand, venture capital dollars are pouring into the virtual events industry. New (and well-funded) competitors are launching every day. Eventcombo’s product lacks genuine differentiation, and there’s no clear evidence that its founding team has the experience to scale a SaaS business in a competitive market. That might make prospective investors pause, particularly given the company’s high price tag of $27.3 million. Therefore, Eventcombo has been rated a Neutral Deal. 

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