It’s the beginning of April and Julie Roth Novack, the founder and CEO of Chicago-based PartySlate, is scrambling to apply for a small business loan as she works to keep her events startup afloat amid the Covid-19 crisis.
The process is confusing, she says, with the rules and guidance around which businesses qualify constantly changing. Plus, the online forms are buggy, and many banks are disconnected from, and unprepared for, the process.
“It was kind of like the ‘Hunger Games,’” Novack says from her home in suburban Glencoe. “Everyone’s out for themselves trying to get access before the money runs out.”
But a couple weeks later, PartySlate was granted a small Paycheck Protection Program loan through a community bank in Minneapolis that it was connected to by one of its investors. The money gave PartySlate, which has raised more than $11 million in venture capital funding, three more months of runway.
“It saved some jobs,” Novack says. “That’s really what the intent was.”
Over the several weeks leading up to receiving the loan, PartySlate had already taken steps to minimize its expenses amid the Covid-19 crisis and the pandemic’s impact on the events industry. As an event planning platform, PartySlate’s business was in danger of becoming obsolete as virtually no one was hosting events.
The startup, which offers a photo-rich online platform that connects users to event professionals and venues in 14 cities across the country, laid off a few employees, went on a hiring freeze and reduced staff salaries when the pandemic initially became serious in the U.S. The goal was to cut $1 million of expenses over the next 18 months, Novack said at the time.
Fast forward to the end of May and Novack said she’s feeling more hopeful about PartySlate’s ability to come out of Covid-19 and the economic downturn successfully.
“We go through many different stages when a crisis hits,” Novack says. “First, a little bit of shock, and then people come together, and get a plan and you move forward. We feel optimistic that we did our expense cutting. Now we’re back into business-building mode.”
Soon after the virus began spreading in the U.S., PartySlate tapped into its expertise as event planners. The company’s primary mission since it launched in 2016 has been to help others plan successful events, not host its own. But as Covid devastated the in-person events industry, PartySlate pivoted to producing weekly digital events.
The virtual event strategy aims to keep current PartySlate users engaged, as well as attract new customers who may want to use the service once the pandemic ends. To date, PartySlate has hosted 10 virtual events, ranging in topics like LinkedIn marketing and website building.
“We have kind of a cult following for these digital events,” Novack says. “We have people that say they look forward to every Tuesday at 2 p.m. to listen into our webinar. I really feel that we’re giving back to this industry.”
Individual PartySlate events have attracted as many as 1,000 registrations, Novack says. An event in April featured Mindy Weiss, a Los Angeles-based celebrity party planner.
"We go through many different stages when a crisis hits."
“We are interviewing the top experts in the industry,” Novack says. “This helps amplify and communicate how the experts and leaders feel events will come back.”
To attract clients in new cities where PartySlate hasn’t been officially operating, the startup is beginning to host virtual fireside chats with local, high-profile event planners. The first event focused on London and the next one, scheduled for June 4, spotlights Las Vegas.
Novack says the virtual events as a whole have been successful in boosting PartySlate’s sales leads, accelerating the number of users joining its platform. Since the events began, more than 1,300 new free and premium profiles have been created on PartySlate, Novack says. (The company recently rolled out a new, low-cost, ad-free and enhanced profile option for clients that gives them more ways to share content for $79 per month.)
Observing her clients and others in the event industry, Novack says she has been delighted to see event planners get creative, even amid the challenges in hosting something during a pandemic.
One group of event planners in Los Angeles hosted a driveway graduation party that included a photo booth and DJ, while visitors drove up to visit briefly in small groups. Others in New York hosted a virtual wedding and socially-distanced block party.
Examining the future of the industry, Novack said she expects small events to come back first as guests will likely still have anxiety about being in large crowds. Many of these events will also be hosted outdoors to minimize the possibility of Covid transmission among guests.
Food and beverages will also be served differently. Buffets and self-serve models will likely go away and be replaced with served meals.
As for when things will completely get back to “normal,” Novack predicts the event industry will have to endure an 18-month recovery, with much of that timeline depending on the availability of a coronavirus vaccine.
“We feel optimistic that once things start opening again, we’ll rebound,” Novack says. “It will be a setback on our growth, but our brand is building, and we’re improving our product so much that we feel we’ll be stronger when we come out the other side.”
The stress of the virus compounded with the challenges PartySlate faced haven’t been easy on the staff. Novack has tried to keep her employees’ mental health a priority, even recently requiring each employee to take off the Friday before Memorial Day weekend.
PartySlate’s entire team of 35 has been working from home since mid-March and will do so until the fall, even though Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker and Mayor Lori Lightfoot have announced plans to begin reopening some businesses at the beginning of June. Novack said PartySlate won’t return to its River North offices until at least September.
“Almost all of us have known someone impacted by Covid,” Novack said, admitting that even a PartySlate employee had a mild case of coronavirus this spring.
For now, working remotely is sufficing for PartySlate, and Novack is optimistic about the company’s future.
“I’m really proud of our team,” Novack says. “We hit a crisis and had limited resources, and innovation happened.”
