The event planning business is a competitive space, with a number of companies and startups competing for a piece of a very lucrative pie. All-in-one party planning platform MyPunchbowl is opening up a new revenue stream today by licensing its technology to outside companies. And the startup has already hit gold. MyPunchbowl has signed a licensing deal to distribute its planning platform on the Oriental Trading Company, one of the U.S.’s largest direct merchants of party supplies, arts and crafts, toys and novelties. While financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, we heard from a source that the transaction was worth “millions of dollars.”
MyPunchbowl allows users to create beautiful online invitations and track RSVPs. The platform also provides tools that let you find supplies, organize an after party and even set a date, via an algorithm that recommends the best date for your party. The site also allows you to set up gift registries, save-the-dates, message boards, integrate Google Maps’ to display the location, and share comments, photos, and videos. Basically, MyPunchbowl helps you plan and organize an event from start to finish.
According to the terms of the deal, MyPunchbowl has built a party planning site for Oriental Trading to enable their customers to plan a party on the Oriental Trading website. Oriental Trading products will also be available to users planning a party of MyPunchbowl’s standalone site. MyPunchbowl’s CEO and co-founder, Matt Douglas says that the startup is developing a number of other licensing agreements with media and retail companies to use the planning application.
Along with the licensing news, MyPunchbowl is also expanding its leadership team. Harry Lin, the former General Manager of Evite.com has joined th startup’s Board of Advisors, and Robert Perkins, former SVP of Marketing for Pizza Hut and head of Global Marketing and Licensing for Calvin Klein, has joined the Board of Directors.
Launched in 2007, MyPunchbowl has turned into a all-in-one party planning site in a matter of two years. The site added birthday reminders, ecards, wedding planning tools, and also just acquired a local business directory to boost vendor listings. Competitors to MyPunchbowl include Socializr, Pingg, Someecards, Cocodot, and MySpace, Facebook and Evite.