Other big players in this space not mentioned in the TC article are:
Reverbnation Gigfinder: <a href="http://blog.reverbnation.com/2010/06/15/gig-finder-the-largest-free-searchable-venue-database/" rel="nofollow">http://blog.reverbnation.com/2010/06/15/gig-finder-the-large...</a><p>Foursquare Venues project (with some layer on top - hint, hint): <a href="http://blog.foursquare.com/2011/03/14/1up-the-importance-of-platforms-and-how-we’re-extending-ours/" rel="nofollow">http://blog.foursquare.com/2011/03/14/1up-the-importance-of-...</a><p>Indie On the Move: <a href="http://www.indieonthemove.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.indieonthemove.com/</a><p>Venuetastic - YC's "Ebay for venues," and taking a cue from AirBnB.<p>These guys are positioning to be the Ebay of transportation: <a href="http://www.uship.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.uship.com/</a>
Just checked <a href="http://www.venutastic.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.venutastic.com/</a> and you guys already had it with a redirect. Strong work.
Wait, <i>that</i> Helen? So that's what you've been up to since college. Nice job. (And you too Christine.) :)<p>A lot of great features in this thing, even from day one. The right number of different ways to do things. Very strong UI work already. Still a few kinks in the flows - how do I add a venue to my Event without also contacting the venue? - but something I'd feel comfortable recommending to my mother.<p>It's also clear you guys took cues from airbnb, not letting users get too distracted by worrying about what they <i>can't</i> chose until they've already been sucked in by the sheer imagery and selection of what they <i>can</i>. Heck, I don't even live in San Francisco, and even I found myself on here way longer than expected just looking at the various venues and how it all worked. (A "corking fee"? Fascinating.)<p>I see your "for ____ people" field only fits four digits. Do you see yourselves eventually letting people search for and select even larger venues (conference centers, stadiums, what have you)? Or is that sort of business a bit too high touch?
EDIT: Ah, you can still type in five digits; it's just not wide enough. Eh, my question still stands. :)
Awesome idea!<p>As unsolicited feedback, I think the UI is a bit complex on search result and booking pages. Could benefit from doing a lot less there I think. But overall it looks great.
Like this one alot. As someone who has booked venues before and had to run around searching, this would have saved me tons of time. Combine this with SpeakerGram (for booking speakers) and EventBrite for ticketing and I can plan a conference in a snap :-)