Editor’s note: NC IDEA announces six North Carolina startups as spring grant winners and recipients of a collective $300,000. This story is part of a series of profiles on the winners from ExitEvent.
CHARLOTTE – The wedding industry is a behemoth, and its growth isn’t slowing down. In 2016, the average wedding in the US cost $35,329. That’s $2,688 more than the year before, and $7,447 more than the national average in 2007. The venue is the top expense.
Enter The Wed Clique. Charlotte-based Lisa Ganderson and Rachael Classi (pictured above, left to right) founded the startup in July 2016. After beta testing a sort of Slack for wedding planning last fall, the company pivoted at the beginning of 2017. The current iteration focuses on a major pain point — helping venues and vendors work together to achieve a bride’s vision.
“What we started to understand and pull back the layers on was (the reality that) vendors work together a lot,” says Ganderson. “We thought we really should create a product that solely allows them to do that better.”
- VIDEO: Watch a video preview at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zxNsGSfIQw
The idea behind The Wed Clique stems from a new way brides plan their weddings, by browsing Pinterest and creating a board of inspiration. Ganderson says a whopping 75 percent of weddings are inspired by style shoots created by vendors and posted to Pinterest.
The Wed Clique works as a B2B e-commerce site. Venues and vendors can collaborate on 10-15 different wedding styles and create a visual portfolio for brides and grooms to choose from as they plan the big day. Couples can buy packages of venue and vendor services that match their vision with the click of a button.
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