The Online world has enabled countless business models, one of the most useful and popular being the online marketplace in which potential buyers of a product or service are matched with sellers who have inventory. Think of expedia for best travel deals, or airbnb, a community marketplace to discover unique accommodations around the world.

A new entrant into the online exchange market is Seattle-based eVenues.com that matches consumers with meeting venues in cities throughout the U.S. The Startup is building the smartest marketplace for consumers searching and booking small meeting and event space like an Office Conference or a Company party eVenues– bookable by the hour or day.

 Ideally an event planner would have to call multiple venues to find the best deal and space, eVenues offers a one-stop shop for a variety of meeting spaces.

eVenues’ locations range from commercial properties, boutique hotel boardrooms and training classrooms to coffee houses, private dining restaurants and small clubs/bars. By using the service, renters can reap significant savings, both in time and money, as compared to other traditional methods.

The service allows users to easily search, compare, and book smaller-scale venue space instantly also offering detailed venue information about each location, such as size, capacity, AV and Internet capabilities, etc. and an option to even find available desk space, inexpensively and on short notice which is pretty awesome.

eVenues was one of the first movers in the online event/meetings booking space with initial investments from some of the high profile investors like Dave McClure, Fabrice Grinda, Sky Dayton and Chamath Palihapitiya). The Startup has been rightly called the “airbnb for offices.”

But the bigger news is that the Company which is based on Mercer Island, the "new Palo Alto of Seattle” has officially launched in San Francisco and San Jose.

For its rollout in the Bay Area, eVenues currently has 25 small event spaces listed on its marketplace that can be booked directly, including: Cova Hotel, True Silver Gallery, Parisoma, and a number of private venues. 

“Compared to the normal, painful process of searching, playing phone tag with venues and waiting for quotes, eVenues offers an easier, quicker and more cost effective way for anyone to find and book small meeting and event space by the hour or day,” said David Jennings, CEO and co-founder of eVenues. “Given the increase in smaller-scale events, we’ve seen a huge demand in small, affordable spaces, but most people don’t know where to begin. eVenues wants to put all those places under one roof and introduce other time-saving services associated with orchestrating smaller, professional events.”

In addition to the 25 bookable venues in San Francisco and San Jose, the eVenues marketplace lists more than 450 other venues in the Bay Area that can be browsed, but not booked directly. eVenues  allows the availability requests for these spaces to be sent to venue owners. The Company which operates on a no-questions-asked refund policy is constantly updating their database with new listings.

The Founders David Jennings and Nic Peterson have a winner here. The concept sounds so much appealing and "welcoming" especially with the news of the Company's expansion into the Bay area.

Some of the unique offerings of eVenues are,

·         The free use of proprietary. Space listings on eVenues are free and renters are able to browse at no cost and without registering.

·         The Company’s powerful web-based scheduling software allows customers to book instantly or just-in-time, which is unprecedented in the meetings and hospitality industry.

·         eVenues also offers a cost calculator for venues to estimate what they should consider charging per hour based on their location, layout and size. The calculator is available at here.

"With the economy the way it is and more home-based businesses and freelance professionals entering the workforce, we know that people are seeking to break out of the traditional long-term lease obligations. Consumers are seeking attractive and affordable pricing in a changing environment, but until now there has not been a destination site where you can find such a thing," said eVenues co-founder Nic Peterson.

 eVenues already specializes in discount boardrooms, event spaces, and training rooms but wants to enroll all kinds of "perishable" spaces like small yoga studios, boardrooms of law firms, and other spaces that can be turned into quick cash for their lessees and owners.

Recently the Company found and listed many unique smaller venues such as neighborhood cinemas, non-profit community halls or churches, and small yacht clubs.

eVenues, has won the top spot at the Founder Showcase, a quarterly open start-up pitch competition and networking event in the recent past.

The Company may also launch a mobile application most likely by the end of the summer.