People of the Sky,
In my previous note, I marked the priorities for this year as improving the platform, funding events, and building the Curator’s School. Little did I know that skybookings would achieve all of last year’s revenue in just two months.
While this is good news, it brings several new dynamics. We had to upgrade our infrastructure, refine the brand and offering, and solve new operational challenges as they emerged. Now we are in the throes of reimagining skybookings to accommodate growth while preserving our DNA.
The DNA
Skybookings has become a home for those who painstakingly imagine and craft magical experiences. Through their work, culture evolves, new tastes emerge, and an inter-generational discourse finds resonance. With their curated events we discover new aspects of ourselves, we explore our cities and countries, all the while creating meaningful bonds through shared moments. This is what we call making magic.
Our role is to assist curators on their journeys of making magic by providing robust technology, deep support, funding, and a conducive environment for shared growth. Each of these promises are a fully-fledged business in themselves that will only grow in complexity over time.
This is why we have made two important decisions.
The New Group
Skybookings is evolving into a group structure with three subsidiaries.
skybookings.com remains the operating system — the technology infrastructure — for curators. This is the engine room that powers all other initiatives. It is where curators list events, sell tickets, manage their patrons’ experiences, get data, and get paid. The offering will grow to include vendor and supplier management, escrow services, and other tools that curators need to make magic.
Skybookings Capital provides curated capital to grow event properties. Backed by data at skybookings.com, we identify promising curators and funds them to realise their potential with capital structured around the realities of the events rather than the assumptions of traditional finance. Skybookings Capital is the catalyst to making magic.
The Curators’ School, which launches in May, will be fertile soil for growth through community, partnerships and knowledge-sharing. When it opens, it will be unlike anything the events industry has seen.
The role of Skybookings Group is to build partnerships, coordinate and invest meaningfully into the experiences ecosystem.
Growth through Partnerships
We cannot do everything by ourselves. More importantly, we do not believe the events ecosystem can be owned by any single entity. This is a world of shared participation, shared growth, and shared meaning.
Our role is to invest in the ecosystem and curate its components to add sustainable value. In this spirit, we will be rolling out several partnerships, some of which will be invitations for equity participation for those who want to be part of the journey for the long-term, or initiatives designed to bring more capacity, more expertise, and more reach into the skybookings community. Details on these partnerships will follow shortly.
Like a Bonsai Tree
Building skybookings has been like nurturing a bonsai tree. While we shape it, it also takes on a life of its own, and in some ways shapes us as well. Its growth has presented new challenges and priorities, as shared below:
Scalable capacity for skybookings.com. The engine room is growing faster than we anticipated. In keeping with the bonsai tree analogy, we have been transplanting skybookings.com into a larger pot while keeping its roots in tact. We are building the operational and technical capacity to serve more curators, more events, and more patrons without compromising the quality of experience that defines us.
Fulfilling our mandate at Skybookings Capital. We have already deployed funding to several curators as part of our pilot phase, which ends in March. The successful completion of the pilot will result in a larger capital raise from investors to roll out Skybookings Capital at scale. Therefore, if you are a curator with a compelling property that needs support, apply at info.skybookings.com/capital. The opportunity is real and the capital is ready.
Restructuring Skybookings. To build at the pace the market demands, we have re-imagined the business entirely. The new group structure presents several opportunities for those who wish to participate in the ecosystem: from ambassadorial opportunities to operational partnerships, we will soon roll out a series of partnership programs to facilitate the shared growth we envision.
A Final Thought
The platform is growing. The capital is deployed. The school is launching soon. The ecosystem we are building together is taking shape.
Importantly, we are not out to disrupt the events industry or compete with existing ticketing companies. We are building an ecosystem for curators with a shared belief — that curated experiences transform culture, stimulate personal realisation, and form powerful bonds amongst people.
Finally, this new chapter is itself a journey. Setting up all structures, building the partnerships and meeting all the statutory requirements will take time. Nevertheless, this is the direction we are headed.
So… Let’s make magic.
Vusi Sindane
Founder & CEO, skybookings
