Editor's Note: Gather's co-founder and SVP of business development, Alex Lassiter, was quoted in September 2018 saying that the company would hire at least 100 people in 2019. A spokesperson for Gather notified Atlanta Inno in December 2018 that this figure has changed to 35 hires in 2019.
Atlanta-based Gather, an event management software platform for restaurants and venues, has officially relocated to a new office to manage a growing team, which will more than double to 130 total employees by the end of the year and add at least 100 people in 2019.
Alex Lassiter, co-founder and SVP of business development at Gather, said the company works with restaurants, businesses and event venues to provide software that makes the event planning process simple and easy for planners.
"We just launched the Gather Booking Network, which takes basically all of our venues and distributes them to about 15 million event planners across the country," he said. "So folks looking and searching for event space can find Gather clients and so not only do we help streamline things through the backend but we can also really grow their business as well."
Lassiter credits a strong, problem-solving team for Gather's rapid growth in the past few months.
"I think our founding team is strong, but beyond that, we’ve been able to recruit some really amazing folks that have a growth mindset and help us solve problems," he said.
The startup hopes to more than double its current headcount to 130 people by the end of the year and add more than 100 jobs through 2019. Gather will be hiring for engineering, sales and management positions.
"From an internal perspective, I want Gather to have the brand that this is the best place to start and grow your career," Lassiter said. "I think there are a lot of companies where you can hone a specific skill, but I’d really like Gather to be a place where you can reach your full potential, a place where you can challenge yourself...I think externally in the market…I want people to think of Gather the same way they think of OpenTable on that side of the business."
In June, Gather acquired EVENTup, an online marketplace for event venues. And in the past year, it helped plan and manage more than 700,000 events for more than 5,000 restaurants and venues in the U.S. The company also recently added former OpenTable regional vice president of sales Thomas Angst to its executive leadership team.
Lassiter said he has worked carefully to integrate EVENTup and Gather as one culture that is growing together.
"It hasn’t been too long, so I think we’ve got a ways ahead of us to further integrate the products and integrate decisions," he said. "But I think all of us sort of see the benefits, and we’re excited to work together.”
To prepare for the projected growth, Gather relocated to offices in the 715 Peachtree building in Midtown last month. In addition to providing a great place to grow for employees and a strong asset to the events world, Lassiter said he wants Gather to continue to try to disrupt the industry.
"I think our aim is not to just create a great product, but it’s actually to change the industry and we have a lot of ideas about the ways we’re going to be able to connect these venues to event planners and also ways that we can help event planners' lives be a lot easier and help them connect to the best restaurants and venues that fit their needs," he said. "So there’s going to be a lot around that in the next six to 12 months and we’re excited about the opportunities there."
