Welcu Rescues Event Pros from Planning Hell, Attracts 80+ Top Brands in Private Beta

WHAT: Complete self-service solution for event planners. Manage guests, design and track invitations and RSVPs with consistent branding, etc. Integrates with Eventbrite for ticket sales. Coming soon: networking capabilities so guests can connect with each other before, during and after the event.

Welcu [ @welcu ], originally from Santiago, Chile, is focused on invitation-only and corporate events.

LAUNCHERS: Nico Orellana, CEO [ @norellana, LinkedIn ]. Sebastian Gamboa, CTO. [ @sagmor, LinkedIn ].

INSPIRATION: "We've been geeks and event planners for the last four years putting on the biggest tech conference for entrepreneurs in LatAm and we've discovered that the biggest pain for event planners is to work with multiple tools because it sucks," Nico told LAUNCH by email.

BUSINESS MODEL: Charge $3 to $7 per attendee and monthly subscriptions fees starting at $39.

COMPETITION: Established players like CVENT, StarCite and ActiveNetwork.

ON THE COMPETITION: "Together they make like $9B in revenues, but they all suck," says Nico. "No transparent pricing, too much support and very annoying sales force."

CUSTOMERS/GROWTH: More than 80 brands in private beta including Coca-Cola, Sony Ericsson and Xerox. Of that group, 50% became paid customers. More than $30K in sales.

ON COMPANY LOCATION: Nico confirms that the engineering team will remain in Chile while the founders will stay in Silicon Valley post-500 Startups.

INVESTORS: Eric Schmidt's TomorrowVentures, 500 Startups and some Groupon executives in Latin America.

RAISING: $600K.

SCREEN SHOTS

Track the status of guests.



Lists for subscribing your guests and distributing tickets are flexible and shareable.



Customize and keep your brand at the top when sending RSVPs.