Two brothers, Ben Maughan, 27, and Tim Maughan, 30, have just launched a crowdfunding campaign on Seedrs in a bid to raise some capital to further develop their event planning business, Add to Event, and transform the way the UK organise events.
The online business aims to make event organisation simple and stress-free by pairing event organisers with the best local suppliers depending on their criteria. The web app allows users to post details of their desired event on the website so that local suppliers can instantly get in touch with quotes for their services. With a huge number of registered service providers, the website can be used to organise any event, from small children's parties to huge corporate events.
Accenture, BBC and Sainsbury's are just three of the companies that have already used the application for organising corporate events.
Brothers and founders of Add to Event, Ben Maughan (left) and Tim Maughan (right)
Ben and Tim Maughan, brothers from Cheltenham, founded Add to Event after being fed up with how hard it was to find great suppliers for events in their area. The pair were trying to organise a mini-festival when they realised the true need for a platform such as theirs.
Ben Maughan says: “We had a great idea for a mini festival but found we were spending hours trawling through event directories and calling various suppliers only to find they were already booked or not available for the dates we were looking for. This was extremely frustrating and very time consuming.
Tim Maughan explains: “We had a good search but couldn’t find any companies that were trying to address the problem so decided to build the solution ourselves! We run a digital agency so have all the skills required to build a web app so it made perfect sense.”
The site now receives hundreds of requests a day from people all over the UK and the brothers are now seeking extra funding in order to rapidly expand their user base. Ben and Tim have turned down offers from angel investors in order to raise capital through an equity crowdfund, to give their customers the opportunity to part own the company and share in their success.
Add to Event is joining a popular wave of marketplace businesses that are changing the way people request local services. Consumers are becoming more demanding and are constantly on the lookout for services that make their lives easier. Other well-known online marketplaces include Hassle, enabling people to find local cleaners, Mybuilder, to find local tradesmen and AnyVan, to find and book a man with a van.
More information on the crowdfund campaign can be found here.