VentureBeat

peter caputa said:

None of these new event planning tools have a good business model. They are slight variations on eVite. Don’t people remember that eVite never really had a good business model? They bled until they were bought out by IAC.

There’s a lot of money to be made in the event business. And there are a lot of different ways to do it: registrations, advertising, sponsorship. But, helping people plan Grandma’s Birthday party or buy balloons aren’t any of those ways.

The best they’ll be able to do is make money from local advertising, local bookings or party planning supplies. And that’s if they can steal market and mindshare from eVite to generate some page views, which is unlikely given that eVite dominates that market and has a huge network effect to protect it.

peter caputa said:

Not to mention that eVite integrates with Citysearch - the largest local directory on the web - and Ticketmaster, the biggest online ticketing company in the world.

JC said:

And YouTube makes money how….?
The point at this stage in MyPunchbowl’s development is not to be in the black.

Evite is archaic, and any regular user will tell you how un-user-friendly it can be. MyPunchbowl makes some big strides in that area. Evite’s mindshare, not network effect, is what needs to be overcome. And there are many examples of how quickly well thought out grassroots sites can do exactly that.

Peter Caputa said:

I guess we’ll see. I wish them well, as I do any startup.

rick gregory said:

Youtube is a bad example for reasons so obvious I’m surprised they have to be enumerated:

1) There’s always an outlier esp. in new product categories. But the exceptions are called that for a reason.

2) Youtube only succeeded because it had first mover advantage. This is precisely what Mypunchbowl and the rest of Evite’s competition do not enjoy.

3) Youtube never became a successful business… they simply got lucky and hit the jackpot. they built the right product at the right time and made some crucial correct decisions (use of Flash, integration with Myspace). But would they ever have become a hit standalone business? And what would they have done if Myspace hadn’t been there?

All that said, I’m going to check them out since I’m the guy who has to organize my monthly wine tasting…

Mike Rundle said:

It always amazes me when someone produces something that’s been done before and is still jazzed about it, enough to dedicate a chunk of time to the project. If I’m going to start a company and do something that I’m excited about, you can bet the farm it’s not the 57th Evite clone, YouTube clone, Netvibes clone, or Flickr clone.

vandana said:

Koolvite.com offers a differing alternative to Evite and MyPunchBowl based on the premise that its the invite that matters. We believe that there is an audience that wants their invitations to be richer, distinct and with a personal touch.

We expect to be live by February but below are some sample invitations that demonstrate our concept.

http://www.koolvite.com/getEvent/getEvent.jsp?&guestId=50e0902c1023e3c4011024075a0300fb

http://www.koolvite.com/getEvent/getEvent.jsp?&guestId=000000000f35a2a1010f35a5840100de

http://www.koolvite.com/getEvent/getEvent.jsp?&guestId=50e0902c1023e3c4011026c470090098

PG said:

Invite for good is another alternative with some social good. One can use it as regular e-invite tool. Alternatively, if interested in social cause one can add a charity gift registry to the invite.
http://www.inviteforgood.com

norm said:

mypunchbowl, it far better than koolvite, more practical and functional layout and options.

Jill said:

I use two evite sites…one for business and one for everything else. SendAnInvite.com lets me have complete control of my evite in that I can WYSIWIG my evite completely, use my own logo plus add information to the rsvp forms like preferences and my own user defined fields, etc. Very feature rich. They make money by charging for sending your email so it does cost, but for 12 bucks I can email 100 clients, so it’s worth paying for the control they give me.

The other site I found was a newer site called BareBonesInvites.com. They’re free to use, have Google ads in their evites, but they don’t send the email for you. They give you the link so you can email it yourself. I like that since there’s a better chance that my email will get thru if I send it myself.

I tend to stay away from alot of sites that have no business model and support sites that at least appear to be legitimate businesses trying to make a buck either thru advertising or subscriptions. Support the little guy !!!