Alexander Abell found himself in an ironic situation during the coronavirus pandemic: The founder, who had launched an app designed to connect colleagues on their lunch breaks, lost 30 pounds while he ran the one-man show at Lunchpool.
"I was working so hard with this new opportunity, partially because we went a year with no revenue," Abell said. "And it was like, 'Holy cow, we're making money.' But it was one of the biggest ironies I saw."
Lunchpool, which launched in 2018, offered its first virtual event called Break Tampa Bay in January before the coronavirus pandemic was on the radar for many. But toward the end of February, he received a call from the Florida High Tech Corridor Council, interested in having Lunchpool host its event, which was then slated for in-person.
"They said, 'We have thousands of dollars invested in the venue and people are canceling left and right,'" he said. "I thought this was going to be a huge problem for event organizers. They rely on people to gather together and if [Covid-19] starts to come over here, their livelihood is going to go away."
Five months later, Lunchpool has hosted 178 events, from Startup Week Tampa Bay to the Dolly Parton Imagination Library and has an upcoming event in Australia.
"I realized the markets we decided to go after — which is nonprofits and associations — they have budgets for in-person events," Abell said. "That's who we're competing against, not Zoom and other videoconferencing platforms. I really think they need that high-touch service we can provide."
With Lunchpool, participants are placed at virtual tables in which they can network similar to how one would during an in-person event. The platform also features a virtual hall, if needed, allowing participants to "visit" booths. Abell's next focus is to streamline the platform to automate where it can be, while still keeping an in-person touch. The platform can hold up to 800 participants and add an even higher capacity upon request.
The company, which has remained bootstrapped from the start, has now grown to nine people with plans to add a 10th employee next week. There is no set goal for a specific number of hires by the end of the year, according to Abell, who simply said he wants "as many employees as possible, as soon as possible."
He believes there will always be a need for a virtual component to events, whether to avoid cross-country travel for a conference or to make it to a board meeting that could not find a scheduled date that worked for all members.
"I don't believe people should sit in front of a computer all day but there are definitely times it will make more sense," Abell said. "People crave engaging experiences and I think that's what's going to stay."
While Abell continues to try and have his company keep up with the massive demand — which he said increased 600 percent since last year — he's also eyeing new ways to expand Lunchpool in the future.
"It's a feed tailored to what pools you're in — it's Meetup blended with Facebook groups mixed with Etsy — because people are creating these experiences," Abell said, adding this is in the "very early ground stages." "Now everyone has shifted online and had Zoom fatigue and now virtual event fatigue, you will see a bit of a dip. People want to go outside and be face-to-face. But, you'll see the future is a virtual world that's an extension of the physical world and that's what we're offering."
