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Tixelated Launches Crowdfunding Platform for Event Planners

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Tixelated Launches Crowdfunding Platform for Event Planners

Ellie Manning August 14, 2012

When it comes the event experience, in most cases, attending the actual event is the most enjoyable part of the process. Washington-based startup Tixelated is trying to change that with their planning and crowdfunding platform for events, which aims to enhance the social experience of events from start to finish. The web-based platform, which is targeted primarily to college students, is currently gearing up for a large public launch just in time for the school year.

“I’ve been an entrepreneur my whole life, and I’ve mostly been involved in the event space,” Tixelated co-founded Philippe Chetrit said in an interview. “What I noticed is that there’s nothing really wrong with events, but how we get invited, get tickets, and fund events needed to change. I really wanted to disrupt that space and build something original.” Tixelated is currently aiming their platform at college kids looking for an alternative way to organize and fund events and parties. The platform gives event organizers two ways to fund their events: a goal-based fundraiser, which allows event planners to raise money for events by crowdfunding for a seven-day period; and a donation-based fundraiser, which allows guests to chip in money to events, without requiring guests to hit a certain funding goal. Tixelated charges a 5 percent fee for both funding methods, charging $0.25 for every $5.00 donation to both the host and the guest. For the crowdfunding method, Tixelated only charges guests for donations if the goal amount is raised and then transfers the funds to hosts via PayPal or Dwolla. To get college students on board, the company is currently using brand ambassadors to promote the platform and are rewarding students with incentives and prizes for hosting events. ”We’ve built a platform that makes it fun and collaborative to host an event, and provides users with a way to get friends to chip in,” Chetrit said. “It’s amazing the difference in people’s psychology when they’re not forced to go through a paywall. People enjoy being able to opt in or out.”

While Facebook is a major competitor with its built-in events feature, and Eventbrite and Meetup are other popular alternatives for hosting events, Tixelated is hoping to stand out by specifically focusing on students. “With Facebook it’s pretty vague as to who they’re targeting. Kids might think it’s too public or informal, and there’s no way to collect money,” Chetrit said. Tixelated is planning to offer more social features and bring gamification to the platform in the future. Chetir said one other major form of competition comes from hosts collecting money from guests at the door of events, but he said Tixelated is offering a different experience than this approach. “We’re adding value back into the events by making the entire process much more social from the time the invitation goes out.” So far Tixelated, which has been completely bootstrapped to date, has hosted around 25 events on the platform. Chetrit said that on average, each event brings 40 new users onto the platform with around 25 percent of them going on to create their own events. Though Tixelated is strictly desktop web-based for now, Chetrit said they are currently in the process of developing their mobile site, a necessary step as they’re going after tech savvy users aged 18-24. “We want to really grow the product as our users grow,” he said. “Eventually we want to replace the online event organizing experience with one that is much more social and engaging.” With students already turning to Facebook to organize events, the company’s biggest challenge will be convincing students they should use Tixelated to organize their events, rather than just showing up to parties with cash or using existing online event platforms.

Tixelated also doesn’t say exactly what might happen if a party gets funded but the organizer doesn’t come through after collecting the cash, and even notes specifically in its terms that it doesn’t screen Tixelated users. With other companies attempting the “Kickstarter for events” model though, including Zokos for dinner parties, the crowdfunding model should gain more popularity, and since it gives hosts an out if their goal isn’t reached, it could be attractive to starving students.

Summary When it comes the event experience, in most cases, attending the actual event is the most enjoyable part of the process. Washington-based startup Tixelated is trying to change that with their planning and crowdfunding platform for events, which aims to enhance the social experience of events from start to finish. The web-based platform, which is targeted primarily to college students, is currently gearing up for a large public launch just in time for the school year.

Description
Tixelated gives event organizers two ways to fund their events: a goal-based fundraiser, which allows event planners to raise money for events by crowdfunding for a seven-day period; and a donation-based fundraiser, which allows guests to chip in money to events, without requiring guests to hit a certain funding goal. Tixelated charges a 5 percent fee for both funding methods, charging $0.25 for every $5.00 donation to both the host and the guest.

Tags: Crowdfunding, Crowdsource, Crowdsourcing, event planners, events, Funding, kicstarter, Tixelated

Posted by Luis Enrique Morales

Aug 15, 2012 01:57 pm GMT Viewed 476 times

Author: Ellie Manning Source

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