In recent times we’ve seen the rise of many businesses predicated on the idea that a user subscribes to an ecommerce service instead of buying a la carte. Thus, BirchBox delivers beauty product samples every month. Stylistpick sends fashion, Shoedazzle sends shoes. The list goes on. But what if you had a similar service but there was no need for shipping items in the post, plus it had wider appeal outside of, for instance, fashion?
Launching in London first, Planvine is a new service which, for a monthly subscription, reserves two tickets to events based on your pre-selected interests. This solves a big problem a lot of people have – including myself. You’d like to go to something but never remember to get tickets or just can’t get organised.
Planvine researched its market and found many twenty-to-thirty-somethings don’t end up actually doing things that interest them. Planvine CEO Barnaby Clark says London has a lot to offer but what’s stopping people is the time it takes “to find the cool stuff and the hassle of booking tickets.”
Founders Clark, Chris Crossley and James Stillwell reckon they will end up as an aggregator for ticketing agencies who have problems reaching this audience. The startup has closed a pre-seed investment round so far from Sardis Capital, with Osman Mardin joining the board.
It’s clearly an interesting market. HowAboutWe in the US takes a dating approach to events just aiming at couples, but has raised a $15 million Series B from Khosla Ventures on top of a prior $3.1 million from RRE Ventures.
TechCrunch readers can get in on the best site with this link which avoids the invite process.