Stagend is the one-stop-shop for entertainment: we work with more than 4'000 live entertainers to create unique and memorable experiences.

More and more often there are moments of togetherness in everyone's life, be it for meaningful moments or for a clear and defined purpose. Companies, in particular, are increasingly recognising the power of company culture and thus convivial moments are on the rise. Our mission is to bring joyful moments to occasions and events thanks to competent entertainers. Successfully doing so enables us to achieve our company's goal anew every time.

• Entertainer catalogue: we have more than 4’000 entertainers. Last year, 700 of them were activated and received an average of 6.4 enquiries each.
• Sales increase: in 2022 the B2B segment had +88% sales compared to 2019 and in the first 3 months of 2023 +85% compared to 2022.
• AI engine: we had a +126% increase in customer activation. In addition, 43% of customers find a suitable entertainment in the first offers suggested by the AI-based system. Previously, the rate was at 19%.
• Events industry: according to a 2022 report by Allied Market Research, growth will continue in the coming years, with a projected CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 11.2% from 2021 to 2028.

History of the company

Our story goes back a long way and starts with a passion for the stage and music. Marco Alberti (co-founder and CEO) has been playing guitar since he was 6 years old and discovered the electric guitar for himself as he grew up. He fell in love with it and after a few years became the guitarist of the metal band, Soulline. Back then, in November 2002, little did he know what was coming: 21 years of stories, more than 300 concerts all over Europe, 6 studio albums and many, many miles on the road. And also many, many conversations, a fundamental experience that led to getting to know the market first hand. It turned out that both the musicians and the promoters all complained about the same thing: as a band, you have a hard time playing outside your own region, and as a promoter you have a hard time finding and booking the right bands.

So Marco started to develop the idea of Stagend, frustrated by the lack of options the web offered for the concert market. Thanks to his studies at the HEC department of the University of Lausanne, he took a course taught by Yves Pigneur (!), who talked about the Business Model Canvas. This course, a bit strange, yet innovative, still sketchy but insightful, led Marco to Stagend's current business model.

The idea took shape with co-founders Martino Piccioli, Oscar Mora and Mattia Minotti, and brought the startup its first award as best business idea of the year 2011 by the Startups.ch Award. At the time, the idea was to develop an app interconnected to a booking system that would bring together bands and DJs with festivals, clubs and their attendees, thus supporting and incentivising reservations. The launch in 2013 was a flop: many bands were excited about the system, but unfortunately almost no organisers used it to discover and book bands. 

From left: Martino Piccioli, Marco Alberti, Lorenzo Cimasoni.

Quite unexpectedly, the website started receiving new requests: party bands for company events, guitarists for official ceremonies, DJs for private parties. Full of curiosity, the founders observed the market and discovered a demand they were eager to meet. In 2014, the startup was restructured on several levels: Oscar and Mattia stepped back, Lorenzo Cimasoni joined as a new co-founder, and the system and catalogue of artists was revised.

Thanks to Business Angels and the support of TiVenture, Stagend got a second chance, and with the first hire of Claudia in sales, who is still with us, the first booking came in 2015. After years of further learning about markets, understanding the dynamics and preparing for growth, a key learning came in 2018: the business model would scale poorly in its prior form, as the human resources required were too high to make ends meet. With this insight, and later also struck by the pandemic, the team decided in 2019 to bravely move forward and, through an Innosuisse project, develop a smart system that automates and improves the intermediation between entertainers and promoters, instead of falling foul of these obstacles. This AI-based system - we call it matching - was tested in 2022, after the pandemic, and has shown brilliant results: more than 40% of customers find the entertainment in the first list of the proposed matching. Looking back briefly at 2021, it was the year that marked another big step forward for Stagend, as we entered into a partnership with Nvalue for a greener world, ensuring that all events organised by Stagend are powered by 100% renewable energy. So today we are ready to grow. With this crowdinvesting campaign, we want to further structure ourselves internally at team level, further establish ourselves on the Swiss market and reach the break-even point. Join us on our journey and let's bring joyful moments to occasions and events together.

For more information and an overall financial overview, please see "Details"