Tina Mashaalahi of KweekWeek, THE Event Discovery App - Talks to Startacus

by Startacus Admin

Looking to manage both the event host and the event attendee in one fell swoop, leading London startup KweekWeek recently managed to bag over $3 million in seed investment. Quick off the heel of this success, we thought it wise to catch up with Co-Founder Tina Mashaalahi to find out more about the rise of KweekWeek, their plans for the platform and to offer up a couple of virtual high fives too. Flattery ain't a bad thing on occasion you know!

So grab yourself a coffee, pull up a pew and read all about our little chat …

So we know about KweekWeek, but if you can give all our readers a mini pitch about what it is and who it is for, that would be fab!

KweekWeek is a holistic events platform that connects event organisers and consumers in a single space comprising promotion, ticketing, updates and recommendations.

KweekWeek lets organisers of all kinds of events create free customisable landing pages for upcoming events, open and manage ticket sales through a real-time dashboard and easily create a calendar of repeat events. It also offers event attendees a way to keep track of events they are interested in, book events and make sure they never miss an event again.

Stop the press, but we recently read that KweekWeek has recently raised over $3million in seed investment. That’s amazing! How did it feel to raise that level of capital?

It felt incredible to raise that much capital as it means we can now fully throw ourselves into expanding our business further. The investment will be used to continue the development of the KweekWeek product, to grow the company’s technology and sales teams and to initiate its expansion into new markets with a launch in New York & a few European cities planned for the end of the year.

Not that long ago you were a civil engineering graduate. So, looking back, how did you manage to take that leap together with former banking professional Mehdi Nayebi and end up developing KweekWeek?

We did extensive research and found that there was a crucial gap in the market for events discovery and ticketing. Searching for and booking events can be a very fragmented process from a consumer’s point of view. It usually involves going through multiple sources to find out about interesting events, deciding where to buy the tickets from, researching the venue - processes that typically involve several disconnected sources. KweekWeek makes it easier to get all the information in one place, with their preferences being recorded so they can be alerted about future events they may be interested in.

You’re not alone in the event discovery app sector, so what do you think it is that makes you stand out?

One important way we stand out is that we provide attendees with access to a hugely diverse array of events on-the-go and in real-time via our app such as art exhibitions and wine tastings to music events and fashion shows. As such, we represent the exciting and eclectic events scene in London.
A second way we stand out is despite the fiercely competitive environment we have managed to get high profile promoters such as HMV that could have used other existing solutions.
Lastly, this year alone our platform has seen over 1 million visitors which is 25x more than in 2013. This enormous increase in traffic to our platform shows our model is clearly working and that we are considerably standing out from other event discovery platforms.

What’s next for KweekWeek? Any exciting plans you can share with us?

As we have been able to raise over $3million in seed investment, we are now in a strong financial position to expand internationally. New York, Istanbul and a few other European cities are first on our global hit list but stay tuned, as we are a very ambitious company!

Startacus is a community filled with self starters. What one piece of experience would you want to pass on to others?

If you are considering creating your own startup then I would definitely encourage you to find out as much as possible about the market you'll be competing in. This will not only make you aware of your main competitors but also, and most importantly, see what has and hasn’t worked. When working on the initial version of your own idea, you can then build upon this and be able to find product/market fit faster.
                         


To find out a little more about KweekWeek or to keep up to date with the latest developments, check out their Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Youtube and Instagram Pages!

If you enjoyed reading about the successs of KweekWeek, then Why not check out these other impressive startup stories? 

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• #kweekweek
• #
• #ticketing
• #discovery
• #tina mashaalahi
• #mehdi nayebi
• #inspiration
• #success
• #seed investment
• #£3 million

Published on: 3rd November 2014