Nunify: This No-Code Event Tech Platform is easing B2B Meetings

Nunify was founded in the year 2014 by Pallav Barah and has already hosted more than 3000 physical and virtual events.

When were you founded & What is the product/service you provide?

Our company was founded in 2014. 

Our platform Nunify (formerly AIDAIO) is a no-code Event Tech platform to host any event & meeting – webinars, workshops, virtual events, conferences, and town halls. 

Since 2014 we have over 90+ features and cookie-cutter templates, using which you can build websites, iOS apps, Android apps, and onsite check-in without any coding skills or tech help.

What is the company’s long and short-term vision? Where do you see your industry going in the next five years?

Our short-term vision is to expand our platform to B2C events and be the pioneer of Event Technology globally. Currently, we cater to all types of B2B Events & Meetings. 

Long-term our company is to continue to democratise hi-end tech. Our company believes in a Triple-A approach – Affordable, Accessible, Awareness. Since 2014 all types of brands – small, big, enterprises, corporates, and individuals used nunify to launch hi-end tech like iOS & Android apps with one click!  We want to make cutting-edge tech accessible to everyone – like Augmented Reality, MetaVerse, Virtual Reality, iOT, etc.

As quoted by our founder Pallav Barah – “No other industry went through such an accelerated transformation in a short period of time as the event industry did in 2020. Within one quarter the event organiser went from using tech as a niche to using tech to survive with virtual events and webinars. Tech in Events is still in the infancy stage in 2022. 

Event organisers have always been early adopters of new ideas to push the limits – Combine that with mainstream tech adoption and their creativity, we as a tech platform couldn’t be any giddier. Events in 5 years can be the place where every new niche/mainstream tech gets launched, adopted, and validated”

How did you get inspiration for the Company? How did you go about researching and validating the idea?

We started off as WordPress/Shopify for mobile apps i.e. brands/individuals can launch native iOS & Android apps with a click with no coding skills or tech help. 

But in 2014 only Event organisers in India were ready to adopt mobile apps. Back then agencies and events used mobile apps as a vanity and WOW factor. We got our first 3 events without building the platform yet which gave us the validation that mobile apps in events surely have a demand – albeit niche and premium. 

Is the company funded? If No, then are you open to funding?

No – we are bootstrapped. Yes, we are looking to raise funds to scale to new markets and countries. 

How does the product work & What problems does it solve?

Nunify is a Do-it-yourself platform for the entire event lifecycle. You signup to our platform and create your digital event with one click and drag & drop builders. 

Problems Nunify solves

1. Multiple platforms for webinars, virtual events, in-person events, and hybrid events
2. Integration headaches for registration, check-in, audience engagement, networking, sponsors, gamification
3. Rigid templates with poor branding, networking & sponsor integrations
4. High Cost for Managed services & tech support

What are your USP and innovation? How are you different from others?

Do-It-Yourself; No coding skills or tech help needed; 90 features to cater to any type, size, the channel of events and meetings

What are some of your competitors & what advantage do you have over them? & Briefly explain your revenue model?

Hopin, Hubilo, Airmeet, Zuddl. The advantage over others is our platform aims at Do-It-Yourself; No coding skills or tech help is needed; 90 features to cater to any type, size, the channel of events and meetings

Our revenue model is per event;  annual/monthly subscription & multi-year enterprise contracts 

What difficulties did you encounter when you started the company & Were you impacted by the Covid outbreak?

The Events market used to be a very high-touch & non-tech-savvy market. So to validate ideas, and find potential customers our founding team had to spend a lot of time in the field. We also built a solution that was 2-3 years early

Yes, the Covid outbreak halted our plans to scale with in-person event tech. 

What are your future plans & launches?

We plan to launch subscriptions to help with SMBs and expand our reach to US & UK. Upcoming launches include augmented reality and smarter networking

Current company size, work culture, Hiring Funda

We are currently 12 in India besides having an EU partner. Our culture is Unify to Simplify. 

We believe in unifying our colleagues, our partners, suppliers, customers, their customers & users, and even competitors. 

We simplify complex tech & ideas to make it accessible to everyone – convert niche to mainstream. 

This journey repeats itself in a continuous loop for us since we continue to meet new hires, partners, customers, competitors, and more importantly new challenges.

For us change is CONSTANT, the status quo is disliked. 

Folks who join us immediately realise we push boundaries, experiment to learn and validate to scale – all while having fun. (assisted by our favourite two brews – coffee and beer) . 

How did you launch your company when you had just 0 users. Which channels/ tools/strategies worked the most for acquiring the first 100 users?

Field Sales & Cold calling with a referral from our founders’ existing network. 

To get to our early revenues our primary channel was to partner with agencies- They also helped us learn and be more nuanced with our platform 

A piece of advice for the readers

Once again to quote Pallav “As an employee, if you aren’t taking risks – your job will soon be on the line”.   

And if you aren’t allowed to take risks – your employer’s job will soon be on the line.

And for new founders “Be comfortable to be boring and monotonous – 99% of Entrepreneurship will be that. The early years of a startup isn’t how you dreamt of it. Long periods of silence with flashes of excitement are normal – whether it be a new customer, investor, partner, or colleague”.