Setting the Scene
Businesses and brands spend billions on outsourced hospitality activations and services, yet struggle to connect with high-quality talent.
Challenges include:
Identifying top-tier chefs, sommeliers, mixologists, and entertainers.
Booking difficulties due to inconsistent communication and diverse vendor requirements.
Operational inefficiencies such as a lack of standardized processes and scheduling conflicts.
This week’s company provides a freelance marketplace connecting hospitality talent with clients.
In a Sentence
Night Inn is a centralized marketplace to find freelance hospitality talent for elevated experiences.
Centralized: The all-in-one platform streamlines communication and operations, ensuring efficient processes from experience building to client booking to payments.
Elevated: Night Inn connects top-tier hospitality talent like chefs and sommeliers to corporate businesses, allowing professionals to run a lucrative freelance business outside of their bars and restaurants.
Bulleted Version: Night Inn is like TaskRabbit for hospitality talent, where industry experts such as chefs and mixologists can list their services for companies to easily book and manage.
The Basics
Industry: Marketplace, Hospitality
Headquarters: New York, NY
Year Founded: 2021
Employee Count: 2
Investors: Riverside Ventures, TBD Angel Syndicate, Various Hospitality Angels
Amount Raised: $200k angel round
Business Model: 20% take rate on all bookings
Early Traction: $618K GMV in 2023, $117K net revenue, forecasting $1.5M GMV in 2024, 85% retention for real estate clients, 50% for corporate clients which include Blackrock and Deloitte
Due Diligence
WHAT WE LIKE
Market: The U.S. corporate events market is valued at over $100B, with trends shifting toward a freelance economy, as 39% of the US workforce is already participating.
Lucrative for Talent: Night Inn’s early talent on the platform earns significantly more than working traditional restaurant hours, even after the 20% take rate
Solving Talent Discovery: Night Inn addresses a significant problem by providing a streamlined platform for businesses to find and book top-tier hospitality talent, which is typically fragmented and hard to access.
POTENTIAL RISKS
Niche: Night Inn’s business model is booking-dependent, which, given the company’s niche focus, could limit explosive growth and predictive revenue.
Limited Reach: While Night Inn offers a valuable service, its corporate user base may not yield the network effects needed for rapid expansion across geographies.
Luxury: As a luxury service for B2B and high-end clients, Night Inn’s offerings could be among the first to be cut during economic downturns or corporate budget cuts.
Founder Profiles
Mike Wolkon, CEO: Previously at Xandr, Deloitte, and Microsoft.
Rena Ogura, CPO: Previously at Deloitte.
To request an introduction to the founder, respond to this email.
Comps
Experiences: Part of Airbnb.
Peek: Backed by Great Oaks Venture Capital, Velo Partners, 12BF Global Ventures, SV Angel.
Viator: Backed by Technology Venture Partners, Carlyle Global Partners.
Why Night Inn: By providing an all-in-one platform to connect B2B clients with top-tier hospitality talent, Night Inn is setting the table for a new era in the corporate events industry.
See You Tonight
Tonight we will be welcoming 1000+ founders and funders to connect in NYC.
Hundreds of logos have already been submitted to be featured on the massive billboard in the center of the venue.
Thank you to our sponsors for powering this event and the Bulletpitch community: Fidelity, Google Cloud, Citizens Private Bank, Polsinelli, and Insomnia Club.
You can learn more about how our sponsors position startups for success here.
If you are NYC based and haven’t already signed up, it’s not too late!
Cast Your Vote
What do you think of Night Inn?
Last Week Today
The results are in: Bucephalus, an AI platform poised to overhaul outdated supply chain systems used by retailers and CPG brands, was favored in last week’s poll.
Subscriber feedback: “Love the concept but can’t figure out how to pronounce the name of the company.”
