The Launchpad is a series that introduces Mashable readers to compelling startups. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.Name: YPlan
One-Liner Pitch: A curator of relevant events within the next 48 hours that lets you purchase tickets in two taps.
Why It’s Taking Off: The iPhone app operates as a personalized concierge catering to last-minute planners looking a shortlist of events where tickets are still available.
Rytis Vitkauskas and Viktoras Jucikas (pictured above) were working late one night and wanted to blow off some stream — ideally, somewhere they could throw back a few beers and enjoy some live music. They spent an hour on Google, looking for a nearby show or event to swing by, but found little luck.
“Nobody was capitalizing on that ‘What am I going to do tonight?’ question,” Vitkauskas said.
So the two quit their jobs — Vitkauskas, 29, a venture capitalist, and Jucikas, 32, a data strategist at Goldman Sachs — and approached YPlan with a very specific audience in mind: People who want to do something fun right now.
The London startup, which has attracted 300,000 customers since launching in late 2012, is now putting down roots in the U.S. Three weeks ago, Vitkauskas and Jucikas opened up the iPhone phone to users in New York City. It curates events for the upcoming 48 hours — from a Yankees game to an exclusive gala at the Lincoln Center to a comedy club to a wine tasting — and lets users book any event listed with two taps. Then, you just show up at the event and present the confirmation on your smartphone.
The lists of events are targeted to your preferences (it gets smarter each time you use the app) and manageable to sort through, displaying a limit of 10 to 15 events per day. The events are handpicked by a curation team of 12, Vitkauskas said, who work with event partners — more than 700 in London, and a few hundred so far in New York, including Apple — and keep an eye on what’s trending on Twitter.
No event planner wants tickets to go to waste, and historically, the only way to attract people is through heavy promotion and discounts. Almost every other seat goes unsold at live events, according to Vitkauskas; the last 48 hours before an event are often a negligible part of overall sales.
That narrow time window is YPlan’s sweet spot. It has a razor focus on people looking for a last-minute jaunt.
We Are the 90%
“We’re attracting an audience that otherwise wouldn’t have come [to a given event] — people who are keen to do something, but don’t know what,” Vitkauskas said. More than 90% of the people who book tickets through YPlan had no intention of going to that event before discovering it.
Other mobile discovery apps, like Sōsh, are also couched as right-here-right-now event finders. Sōsh launched in New York City in April, giving it a few months' advantage. You may recognize both YPlan and Sōsh from advertisements on your Facebook news feed, but the two differ in one important way: The former lets you purchase tickets from within the app, whereas the latter only provides data on how to purchase.
YPlan closed its $12 Series A funding round in June, led by General Catalyst Partners, which has also invested in startups like Airbnb and Kayak. Ashton Kutcher, Guy Oseary, and Ron Burkle's A-Grade Investments also participated in that round. Last July, the company raised $1.7 million in seed funding in Europe; its total funding to date stands at $13.7 million.
Last-minute ticket seekers can also reap special benefits from YPlan, like discounts –- free popcorn at a movie, a free glass of a wine at a comedy club –- and access into otherwise sold-out events. For example, tickets to a Sleigh Bells concert and the Global Citizen Festival in Central Park, which were both sold-out events, were offered at face value for YPlan customers.
“It’s not about going out on the cheap, it’s about the easiest access to the best event,”
“It’s not about going out on the cheap, it’s about the easiest access to the best event,” Vitkauskas said.
If you purchase a ticket and can’t go, YPlan asks that you call them, and they'll “try to figure it out.” Most of the time, Vitkauskas said, YPlan can cancel with the event organizer on behalf of the customer and refund him, or they try to find an alternative. But that doesn’t happen too frequently, since customers are booking tickets very close to the time of an event. Often, they will already be on their way out the door; they're just looking for a fun time.
The New York-based version of YPlan primarily serves events in Manhattan and Williamsburg, and the plan for the foreseeable future is to keep building momentum in those areas. However, the company is intent on expanding around North America; Vitkauskas mentioned San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Austin and Chicago, to start. Coordinating operations on both sides of the Atlantic has proved challenging, Vitkauskas said – especially with the time difference.
YPlan is available on the App Store and will come to Android within the next few months.
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