7 minutes
Featured Startup

A New Kind of Event Rental Marketplace

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Alexandra Wewel
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Kimberlee grew up in a house filled with music. Everyone from John Williams to The Temptations were on the daily record rotation. So, it was truly fitting that she started her events career in the music industry building community live events from the ground up at a Los Angeles recording studio, Crown City Records.

There, Kimberlee learned how to organically grow a community and manage SMB marketing. After finding a love for live music, she gravitated towards touring agencies. Eventually, she was poached by WME Music as pop touring department coordinator. In this role, Kimberlee helped route, contract, and manage stadium tour logistics for top pop music acts such as Bruno Mars, Lady Gaga and Usher.

As much as she loved music and touring, Kimberlee felt her curiosity pulling her away from entertainment and into tech. The emerging tech scene of 2014 was enough to make anyone want to learn to code and be a part of a unicorn! She ended up joining Snapchat, running business operations for the CSO, Imran Khan.

From Unicorns to Startups

The emerging tech scene of 2014 was enough to make anyone want to learn to code and be a part of a unicorn!

There, she built out and managed all strategy events, C suite client conferences and IPO roadshow logistics with investing partners. Being able to watch Evan, Bobby and Imran build out the business closely during her tenure was nothing short of inspiring. It played a huge part in Kimberlee's journey to leadership.

In her last tenure, Kimberlee was asked by Khan to be the first employee of his new e-commerce startup, Verishop. There, she built out two departments (production and events), managed a team of 30 freelancers, opened two studios, organized all internal & external facing events, and built and originated all business processes currently in use today.

Today, Kimberlee is the mom of a very handsome, curly-headed two year old named Luka, who is truly her greatest accomplishment.

Kimberlee is joined by her Co-Founder and husband, Aaron

As SVP at one of Southern California’s most recognized commercial real estate brokerages, CBM1, Inc., Aaron's industry expertise extends from capital markets to small shopping centers. His experience is grounded in nearly a decade of focus on small businesses and startup support in the retail sector.

Aaron has helped hundreds of businesses enter the brick and mortar space in retail settings. The array of personalities, industries, and qualifications has fortified him with the ability to anticipate the needs of any small business. Conversely, Aaron's representation of national commercial property owners and REIT’s has added a scope of expertise in capital markets and investing.

He built a career by de facto advising startups in the retail sector. While his scope of expertise is narrow, many of the principles of success extend beyond the retail setting. Aaron offers an understanding of these principles grounded in real world examples.

Mooch: A New Kind of Event Rental Marketplace

Kimberlee and Aaron are building a new kind of event rental marketplace, changing the way the public discovers, plans, and rents event supplies. They do this by tapping into the power of community.

Mooch is a peer-to-peer and business-to-consumer event rental system that sources community surplus tables, chairs, dinnerware, etc. and promotes them as event rentals. Businesses and individuals hold "invisible inventory." This inventory uniquely solves the problem that many have, but few recognize: “how do I most efficiently and affordably present my party, gathering, or event?”

Filling the Gap

Mooch is a peer-to-peer and business-to-consumer event rental platform that sources community surplus tables, chairs, dinnerware, etc. and promotes them as event rentals.

Whether it be a birthday, wedding, baby shower or dinner party, these everyday events total a $5.5 Billion annual need. This need is clumsily being met by means of manually borrowing a limited amount of goods from family and friends or obtaining goods from dated event rental suppliers.

These suppliers have consistent roadblocks and stonewalls encountered by both amateur and professional event planners. Issues include a lack of upfront pricing, overused inventory, exorbitant fees, and an absence of an effective centralized marketplace.

Enter: Mooch Event Rental Systems

Event rental suppliers are generally underpowered, difficult to locate, and behind the tech curve. The industry is a "no-win" for the everyday consumer, and the rules need to change. Mooch is the answer.

Mooch will disrupt the current event industry by providing centralization, convenience, price transparency and a wide array of products for every occasion. This is accomplished while resisting supply-chain pressures, promoting domestic consumption, and scaling nationally. Mooch is reskinning a proven platform model and applying it to an untapped market. It improves the lives of its users and brings communities together.

Unlocking Community Resources

The best part, it holds absolutely no rental inventory, allowing resources to go further. Need an extra table for your holiday dinner? Your neighbor has it. Need 75 place settings for your wedding? The Church down the street has it. Need 300 folding chairs for your companies off-site? The hotel around the corner has it. Mooch does not hold any inventory, because the community already does. This means that the goods will cost less and money will stay in the community. Most importantly, we will reconnect with each other.

Need an extra table for your holiday dinner? Your neighbor has it. Need 75 place settings for your wedding? The Church down the street has it. Need 300 folding chairs for your companies off-site? The hotel around the corner has it.

Mooch has 3 Tiers that Providers generally fall within:

  • Tier 1 connects neighbors to neighbors in their communities who are interested in renting items such as beach tents, pool floaties, large pans etc.

  • Tier 2 connects peers to the broader community entities such as churches, schools & restaurants, renting items such as tables, chairs, matching goods etc.

  • Tier 3 connects peers to larger businesses in their communities, such as hotels, renting the upper-echelon of rentals and unique goods.

All three tiers allow consumers to save money when planning an event, make money when providing goods for events, and reconnect with each other.

Mooch's vision is to be the facilitator in communities and create a place where customers can affordably and easily rent event goods from their neighbors and local businesses. They accomplish this while simultaneously adding additional revenue streams for those same parties.

The long-term vision is to be an analytics and advertising central hub for professional event planners and inventory warehouses, allowing customers to see these companies' creative boards and profiles for hire.

How You Can Help

Bet on a better event rental marketplace. Over the last quarter, Mooch has been accelerating through TulaCo. Now, they are turning their attention to raising a pre-seed round. 

If you would like to be a part of the future of event rental systems, reach out to Kimberlee at kimberlee@moochpro.com.

Advice to Fellow Founders

"Be kind & whatever you do, don’t hesitate. There is a reason why your business idea chose you, seize it." -Kimberlee Guido, Co-Founder of Mooch

Follow Kimberlee on her socials: twitter | instagram | linkedin | tiktok | facebook

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