The startup Nowadays, founded by sisters and a Y Combinator alum, secures 2 million dollars to automate event planning.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is being leveraged in innovative ways, even by the developers of this technology, who often do not fully understand its potential beyond simple tasks like drafting emails. However, several early-stage startups are emerging with highly effective solutions. A notable example is Nowadays, a participant in Disrupt Battlefield 2024 and a graduate of Y Combinator, which is revolutionizing the planning of costly events.

Nowadays uses language model (LLM) technology to automatically plan large-scale events. With access to a database that includes 400,000 venues worldwide, and relying on its own model that combines technologies from OpenAI, Anthropic, and its own code, the company emails various suppliers such as venues and catering services to obtain quotes. It even makes phone calls to expedite responses to unanswered emails. The collected information is organized and presented to the event planner, who can then make decisions and sign contracts.

Founded in 2023 by sisters Anna Sun, CEO, and Amy Yan, COO, Nowadays has facilitated the organization of events worth over $4 million, working with tech giants like Google, Amazon, Notion, and Supabase, according to Sun. The idea emerged after Sun graduated from MIT, while her older sister, Yan, was already working at Google after graduating from Johns Hopkins. Despite the eight-year age difference, both held roles as presidents of their college classes and faced similar challenges when organizing large events. Sun recalls how tedious it was to obtain quotes, such as when she had to manually pick up 2,000 McNuggets from McDonald's due to a lack of options for large deliveries, which led her to wish for a more practical solution.

Since being accepted into Y Combinator in the summer of 2023, Sun convinced her sister to leave her job at Google to join her startup. "We received our acceptance letter the day before my graduation, and that same day, Amy gave her two-week notice at Google," she recalled.

Nowadays is designed for events with budgets over $20,000, charging a 5% fee on the services it secures, or organizers can opt for an annual subscription. While it is primarily used for corporate events, it has also been utilized for planning weddings and anniversary celebrations, such as 50th anniversaries. Interested users start by filling out a form to describe the event, location, budget, and specific needs. Sun notes that some people look for creative features, such as meeting rooms with high ceilings for tall team members.

Since its launch, Nowadays has primarily grown through referrals from its early users, most of whom are corporate event planners. One of them introduced the company to a venture capitalist, who quickly invested $300,000. Additionally, one of the clients also decided to invest. Recently, the startup raised $2 million in a seed funding round without a lead investor, with backing from VCs like Y Combinator, Basis Set Ventures, and several other angel investors.

In an increasingly competitive landscape, established companies like Cvent and Eventbrite are starting to incorporate AI tools into their services. On the other hand, Partiful, a New York-based event planning app, has been recognized as the app of the year by Google.