It’s that time again: young startups pitch every Tuesday in the “Lions' Den before the jurors Frank Thelen, Jochen Schweizer and Co. for a lucrative investment. The Munich startup doo didn't have to climb into the lion's cage to secure an investment. One of the first investors in 2014 was venture capitalist and "Lion's Den" juror Frank ThelenA second, seven-figure financing round followed in early 2016.
doo is the leading self-service platform for event management and event marketing in Germany. Founded in late 2013 by the managing directors Christoph Sedlmeir and Dr. Michael LiebmannBoth previously worked at Bain & Company for years as a management consultant. After graduating, they followed Bain's slogan “We train entrepreneurs” So, venturing into entrepreneurship was the logical next step. In this constellation, the idea of a software-based event platform for planning, monitoring, and customer communication quickly took shape.
White-label solution & event analytics
Meanwhile, doo offers its customers a flexible White label registration solution to automate your attendee management. Whether it's an exclusive customer event for a DAX-listed company, a trade fair, or a global congress, the startup offers a modular approach to covering all relevant steps of the event, from communication and promotion to on-site admission.
Simple and intuitive navigation through the software allows the organizer to set up attendee management for their event in a very short time. This is the starting point for the sales process – naturally in line with the CI of their individual online presence and appropriate integration into social networks.
At the same time, doo supports its customers in marketing their events through an integrated newsletter and campaign tool. In addition, they offer features such as event analytics, with which they are the only provider to date to provide big data analyses for events.
Transferring e-commerce technologies to the event industry
Hasn't that been around for a long time? Not quite. With event analytics, you have a unique selling point that helps your clients make their events even more successful. It allows you to measure the success of all marketing channels and increase attendance numbers through continuous campaign improvement.
Users of doo therefore not only receive automatic big data analyses, but also intelligent recommendations for action derived from them.
In addition, doo offers the opportunity to win back abandoned shopping carts at events. These mechanisms are currently used in e-commerce and are being transferred and offered by doo to the event industry. The combination of ticket sales and attendee communication is currently unique in its form.
The biggest challenges
When asked about the biggest challenges, doo, like many other young companies, cites the initial phase as the most difficult. Although the startup received significant support from Bain & Company and quickly secured its first pilot customers, the team repeatedly faced major challenges, such as setting up sales from scratch. They quickly realized that their original target audience—digital volunteers—wasn't sufficient. Because the technology is highly flexible, they were able to quickly adapt to the new requirements.
The question quickly arose as to how the startup could be further developed and, above all, how it could be scaled. It was precisely in this phase that the Chamber of Commerce and Industry for Munich and Upper Bavaria on Bits & Pretzels 2014 contacted doo and informed them about the KfW coachingTen days of coaching with a coaching expert followed, spread over a period of four months. First, there was a briefing, followed by preparatory and collaborative discussions, followed by joint discussions with potential service partners. Especially in this early phase of the company, the expert coaching accelerated growth and company formation.
Figures, data, facts
Especially following the additional financing round at the beginning of this year, the signs point to growth. In 2015, the startup managed to at least double its revenue quarter after quarter. This steep trend is expected to continue in 2016, and Q2 2016 in particular was a very strong quarter, as the additional measures and team development implemented during the investment round in Q1 2016 are taking effect.
“Thanks to our loyal customer base, they have very little to fight against churn, so additional customer acquisitions always translate directly into growth.”
With the expansion of its product to include event analytics, doo expects another significant jump in customer acquisitions and revenue in Q4/2016.
Munich as a startup location
The founders have lived in Munich for many years. With the support of Bain & Company, the company was founded in 2013, essentially out of the office. The first clients were also located in Munich, so it was only a matter of time before the startup office was also established there. The founders of doo see Munich as a startup hub:
"Although Munich is somewhat more expensive than other cities, we see our state capital as the technology hub of the future, especially now that industry giants like Google and Amazon are moving here. Such companies, above all, attract talent. We just have to be careful that these industry giants don't snatch the talent away from us."
What does the future of doo look like?
"In the future, we want to continually improve our product and adapt it to customer requirements. At the same time, we are working to further expand our expert status in the industry."
An important tool to develop this expert status is the doo Knowhow Blog with the mascot doodeThe blog aims to show event managers how much hidden potential lies in their events. Questions such as What is SaaS?, Which tools help me plan events? How does online marketing for events work? are discussed and presented clearly for the readers.
