Mypunchbowl joins growing list of Evite rivals
Evite has long been the 800-pound gorilla in the online invitation area.
MyPunchbowl is the latest company trying to make a better version of Evite, by introducing better pre-party planning. It adds modern Web features for collaboration — via a chat board at any stage of event creation (see bottom of screenshot below). It also introduces a method of workflow (see left panel we’ve pointed to in the screenshot below). The process takes you through all the steps or organizing an event, from saving a date, inviting friends, vendor selection, and sharing photos on Flickr afterward; see arrow in screenshot below). We tinkered with it, without actually going through the whole process, and it is user friendly. Techcrunch also has a review here.
Co-founder Matt Douglas says Mypunchbowl is designed for bigger events, such as birthday milestones (Grandma’s 80th birthday, Joe’s 30th birthday), class reunions, graduations, Superbowl gatherings. In that way, it hopes to be more thorough than other sites such as Renkoo, Skobee and Socializr, Matt tells VentureBeat.
By the way, this site has been built by Matt, one other full-timer person, and two contractors. The Boston start-up is self-funded, though they are starting to look for venture money. It shows you how easy these things are to build.
The company is about to announce a deal with party supplier, iparty — part of MyPunchbowl’s service of letting users know where local supply stores are.
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About the Author, Matt Marshall
Matt launched VentureBeat in September of 2006, with the realization that no one else was covering the entrepreneurial and tech innovation scene with the velocity or depth that he was. Prior to founding VentureBeat, he covered venture capital for the San Jose Mercury News from 2001 to 2006. In 2002, Matt was awarded "Journalist of the Year" by the Northern California Society of Professional Journalists. Prior to working at the Merc, he was a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal in Bonn, Germany from 1995 to 1998, and a writer for the Washington Post in 1994. Matt holds a PhD in Government and an MA in German and European Studies from Georgetown University. In addition to VentureBeat, Matt is also the Executive Producer of DEMO, the leading launchpad event for emerging technologies.
