When was the last time you left the house to buy tickets to an event? Do you still know where the nearest ticket office is?
Living in a time when everything happens a click away, the transition of traditional ticket offices to the online environment has become a necessity. Thus, ticketing platforms facilitated the public’s access to a wide range of events and offered the perfect solution for their organizers to sell tickets.
But the sale of tickets for events, be they festive or business, also came with the need to have access not only to the modern ticket shop itself but also to a solution that would integrate marketing channels and tools, plus an adapted CRM system. The Moldovan startup unde.io offers exactly such a solution to the event organization industry. Bogdan Sorin Babii, the founder of the startup, tells us about how it works and what advantages it entails in this interview.
Startup Moldova: Hello Bogdan. Briefly tell us about your startup idea and the service you offer.
Bogdan Sorin Babii: Unde.io is a platform dedicated to event organizers to build a loyal audience and increase ticket sales. Organizers have access to a modern ticket shop, a CRM system, and marketing tools adapted to the events industry. Our mission is for every event organizer to sell all tickets to events created with unde.io.
Startup Moldova: We are happy to know about the existence of such a solution in the Moldovan market, which at first glance seems sufficiently “monopolized”, namely in the field of ticket sales. What makes you special, compared to other companies offering the same services?
Bogdan Sorin Babii: One of the most important stages in the process of organizing events is promotion and ticket sales. Most organizers resort to a number of tools, such as advertising on social networks, articles on news sites, and services of local influencers. The real challenge, however, is calculating the effectiveness of these promotion methods and how much money each leu invested in these processes brings.
With unde.io you can create an event in less than 5 minutes and start selling tickets. In addition to integrated marketing tools and a customer relationship management system, we offer organizers statistical data on event performance and visitor demographics.
Startup Moldova: Where did the idea for this startup come from? What was the moment you decided to make a change?
Bogdan Sorin Babii: I have been organizing events for 5 years, and for a good promotion, I needed access to a series of services and tools for informing participants, creating invitations, discounts for loyal guests, etc. During the pandemic, online ticket sales became even more current, and the commission charged by other local platforms seemed absurdly high to me, especially since they offered no other utility than a ticket store.
This frustration was also shared by my friends, Stas, Nicu, and Cezar, and in 2021 we created the first version of the platform. Unde.io unifies the functionality of a CRM system and a ticket store, while also providing organizers with access to best event marketing practices.
Startup Moldova: What were the biggest difficulties you faced at the beginning?
Bogdan Sorin Babii: The hardest thing was to convince myself to refuse the comfort of a corporate job, with a stable salary, and start this adventure. Another challenge was attracting investment, especially in such a risky and unstable time, and with a system that is not exactly investor-friendly.
Startup Moldova: Whom is your product aimed at? Who is your target customer?
Bogdan Sorin Babii: Our product is oriented towards business events: conferences, exhibitions, seminars; or any other type of recurring events that want to increase their ticket sales.
Startup Moldova: Did you manage to attract startup investments? How? From whom?
Bogdan Sorin Babii: At the moment we managed to attract investments from local investors to cover part of the development costs. The initial contact with them was after the Deal Dinner organized at the end of the acceleration program by XY Partners.
Startup Moldova: Who is part of your team?
Bogdan Sorin Babii: Me, Bogdan Sorin Babii – I organize electronic music events, and I previously worked in the biggest bank in MD in the Marketing department.
Stanislav Antonov – College friend with an unstoppable drive – Web Developer with more than 3 years of experience in outsourcing companies (FeelIT, Romark)
Cezar and Nicu Nistor – Brothers and good friends from high school, with extensive experience in international software development companies (Cedacri, Pentalog)
Startup Moldova: What growth and development plans do you have?
Bogdan Sorin Babii: At the moment we are in the process of registering the company in Romania, in order to facilitate expansion in the European market and attract new investments. Our product is scalable and can be easily implemented at events in any corner of the world, and for 2023 we propose to launch a marketing campaign in Romania. In 2024 we plan to host Europe’s biggest tech-oriented summits.
Startup Moldova: Bogdan, we wish you many events and satisfied customers! In fact, even our Foundation is considering the decision to use your platform to sell tickets to organized events.
And we encourage our readers to follow your startup on Facebook, Linkedin, and the Web, of course.
