Boole start-up of the week: Qmeeto

Our start-up of the week is Kerry-based Qmeeto, a new all-in-one event management platform that could transform events in the corporate world.

“In the corporate events industry there’s been a big shift from large conferences and congresses to smaller, more personalised events,” explained Yvonne Murphy, co-founder of Qmeeto.

“In fact, 64pc of all events taking place in Ireland and the UK now have less than 100 attendees.”

‘We want our customers to love our platform because it provides a one-stop destination that helps get their job done faster and keeps the entire team accountable
^{– YVONNE MURPHY}

Qmeeto is a new all-in-one event management platform designed to help event planners offer a more professional and personalised experience for their corporate attendees.

“Planners can manage online registration, send our corporate-branded emails, build up personalised agendas with multiple breakout sessions, create customised itineraries with travel, accommodation and transfers and punch out reports in real time.

“Whatever the task, Qmeeto is one of the simplest ways to stay in control of all the different elements and keep your attendees happy.”

The market

As Murphy rightly points out, events are integral to many companies, yet event management software already on the market either focuses on registration and ticketing or is clunky and outdated, with tons of complex features and unnecessary functionality.

“Not to mention the hours of tedious training involved. When designing Qmeeto, we stripped it all back. It is designed to be simple and clean — to provide the right tools when needed, and keep them out of the way when not.

“Our target customers are corporate event managers in Ireland and the UK. Qmeeto is best suited to event planners, executive assistants, PAs and HR managers who are involved in organising multiple meetings and events throughout the year. These are small-to-medium-sized meetings such as advisory boards, sales meetings, focus groups, field trips and so on.”

The founders

Qmeeto has a nice mix of skills on the team. Murphy has 15 years of advertising, marketing and technology experience, with particular expertise in branding and digital strategy.

Maurice Murphy, CEO and co-founder, is responsible for overall product design and direction, technology and infrastructure strategy and technical operations.

“He’s an award-winning designer and brings more than 20 years’ experience in the creative and technology industry,” Murphy said.

“Kevin Coady is also a vital part of the team. He’s been with us from the start and is our head of development, with extensive software experience in the banking and financial sector.”

The technology

Qmeeto is a cloud-based enterprise SaaS application.

With increasing professionalism, organisations are looking for technology like Qmeeto that will help them offer a more professional and personalised experience for their corporate attendees, while making them more efficient.

“Our technology allows event professionals to engage with their attendees in a more professional and exciting way.

“We charge an annual/monthly subscription. It has been developed in asp.net and is extremely well supported.

“This is great for companies as it eliminates the high cost of development on their side and they can choose to add users at minimal cost when needed.

One-stop shop

Murphy says the ambition for Qmeeto is to be regarded as the No 1 event management software for the corporate market.

“We want our customers to love our platform because it provides a one-stop destination that helps get their job done faster and keeps the entire team accountable.

“A great example of this: planners can punch out attendee itineraries with travel, accommodation and agenda in minutes. No more battling with word documents!”

Cash is king

Murphy says the business has been growing steadily in the last few months and Qmeeto is working closely with customers in the UK and Ireland to continuously improve and promote the system.

“We’ve always been of the belief that investment should be used for growth rather than survival. So for the moment we’re focusing on our customers and, more importantly, keeping them on board.

“In the beginning the most challenging part of the business was managing our cash flow, we were entirely self-funded and building an enterprise system is a massive undertaking. Thankfully we’re now bringing on customers and generating revenue so we can really focus on pushing on with the business.”

Build your MVP and get selling

Focus is everything and Qmeeto has been eager to get off the starting blocks.

“The Irish start-up scene has exploded over the last few years,” says Murphy.

‘Once you have an MVP, get out of the building and speak to as many customers as early as possible’
^{– YVONNE MURPHY}

“Here in the Kerry Technology Park we have lots of new start-ups and there are plenty of accelerator and incubator programmes going on. There are quite a lot of support and grants out there if you need it, but it can be easy to fall into the trap of spending too much time filling out forms instead of building your business.

“Once you have an MVP, get out of the building and speak to as many customers as early as possible. It’s so important to get early-stage feedback, rather than wasting an incredible amount of time building features that nobody wants.

“Accept that most of your assumptions will be wrong and be prepared to turn to Plan B. Finally, surround yourself with a good team. If you find people capable of seeing challenges instead of problems, hang onto them.”

Want stories like this and more direct to your inbox? Sign up for Tech Trends, Silicon Republic’s weekly digest of need-to-know tech news.