Hire a Host

What Hire a Host does

Hire a Host (legal entity: Hire A Host America, LLC) is a privately held, founder-owned event staffing and event services company headquartered in Burnsville, Minnesota, operating exclusively in the Minneapolis-St. Paul (Twin Cities) metropolitan area. Founded in 1996 by Melanie Vejdani, the company provides a vertically integrated suite of event services: catering coordination with a network of partner restaurants, food trucks, bakeries, and private chefs; fully licensed bar service (hosted bars, cash bars, BYO alcohol) under its catering liquor license; professional waitstaff and bartenders; full-service event planning with dedicated event specialists; and equipment rentals including tables, chairs, linens, glassware, tents, staging, and lighting.

The business serves three primary customer segments: corporate events (with named clients including General Mills, Cargill, Ecolab, Securian, University of Minnesota, Allina Health, and McKnight Foundation), weddings, and private/home events. The service model is differentiated from traditional caterers by offering complete menu freedom — clients may source food from any vendor while Hire a Host provides the labor, bar service, and coordination — positioning the company as a service-first rather than food-first provider. There is no proprietary technology platform; the offering is delivered entirely through human labor coordinated via website quote request forms (general and 7-step wedding-specific), phone inquiries, and personalized proposals.

The company employs 51-100 staff (per firmographic data), uses quote-based event pricing with no publicly disclosed rates, and operates without external institutional funding or a parent company. Founder Melanie Vejdani also established Olivia's Organic Cafe in 2019 as a separate adjacent hospitality venture. Distribution is direct-to-consumer and direct-to-enterprise via website and phone, with content marketing (drink recipe downloads, Twin Cities venue guides) and reviews on Google and The Knot serving as the primary demand-generation channels.

Name

Hire a Host

Legal name

Hire A Host America, LLC

Website

https://hireahost.net

Company type

Private

Founded year

1996

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

Hire a Host is a Twin Cities-based event staffing and licensed bar service company, founded in 1996, providing waitstaff, bartenders, catering coordination, event planning, and rentals for corporate events, weddings, and private parties in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Event Staffing Services

NAICS

Food Service Contractors (722310), Caterers (722320), Convention and Trade Show Organizers (561920)

SIC

Services-Amusement & Recreation Services (7900)

akta.pro primary industry

Event Culinary Staffing & Back-of-House Services (Chefs, Servers, Bartenders) (THAHAKAN)

akta.pro secondary industries

Event Catering (Weddings, Social, Private Parties) (THAFAIAB), Catering Equipment, Rentals & Setup (Non-decor) (HSACAGAL)

Keywords

• Event staffing services
• Corporate event bartending
• Wedding catering coordination
• Event planning services
• Private party hospitality

Headquarters

HQ city

Burnsville

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Event Staffing Services: Revenue generated from providing professional waitstaff and bartenders for events. Staffing services include setup, service, and cleanup. Priced based on event size, service duration (2-hour minimum), and staffing requirements.
2. Catering Coordination: Fees for coordinating food service from multiple vendor partners including restaurants, food trucks, bakeries, and private chefs. Service model emphasizes flexibility in menu curation rather than in-house food production.
3. Licensed Bar Service: Revenue from providing fully licensed bartending services, including setup, service, and cleanup. Offers flexibility for clients to provide their own alcohol or have Hire a Host supply it. Cash bar options available where they provide alcohol through their liquor license.
4. Event Planning and Rentals: Comprehensive event planning services including dedicated event specialists, vendor coordination, and rental equipment (tables, chairs, linens, glassware, tents, staging, lighting). Full-service event execution from planning through cleanup.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Hire a Host provides event staffing, bartending, catering coordination, event planning, and rental services for corporate events, weddings, and private parties across the Twin Cities (Minneapolis–St. Paul) region. The company supplies licensed, insured hosts, waitstaff, and bartenders who handle food and beverage service, set-up and clean-up, and full event coordination. It serves both business clients (e.g., General Mills, Cargill, Ecolab, Securian) and individual hosts planning weddings or private celebrations.

Product overview

Hire a Host is a unified event staffing and planning service operating in the Twin Cities (Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota) since 1996. The company provides an integrated suite of services including Catering & Menu Planning, Bar & Liquor Service, Professional Waitstaff & Bartenders, Event Planning & Coordination, and Equipment Rentals. The offering enables customers to choose individual services or a comprehensive full-service solution, covering the complete event lifecycle from menu curation and bar service to on-site hosting, setup, and post-event cleanup. Services are organized into three main event segments: Corporate Events, Private/Home Events, and Weddings.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Catering & Menu Planning Catering coordination and menu planning services for events, working with a range of cuisines including BBQ, Asian, Mediterranean, Italian, and others. Hosts do not need to use a single in-house caterer, giving clients menu freedom.
• Bar & Liquor Service Licensed and insured bartending and bar service for events, including cash bars and hosted bars. The Glass House bar service is offered as a turnkey package starting at $30 per person with a minimum spend.
• Waitstaff & Bartenders (Hosts) Provision of professional event hosts, waitstaff, and bartenders for events of all sizes, hand-picked for experience and fit. Service covers set-up, service, and clean-up.
• Event Planning & Coordination Full-service event planning and day-of coordination, from concept through execution, tailored to weddings, corporate functions, and private parties.
• Rentals Rental items for events including tables, chairs, linens, tents, and other event essentials, available bundled with staffing service.
• Corporate Events Tailored staffing and bar service for corporate functions such as board meetings, holiday parties, networking events, and company celebrations. Serves business clients including General Mills, Cargill, Ecolab, and Securian.
• Wedding Events End-to-end wedding staffing, bartending, catering coordination, and rentals for rehearsal dinners, ceremonies, and receptions, including bar upgrades and signature cocktails.
• Private Events Staffing and bar service for private parties, anniversaries, birthdays, graduations, and celebrations hosted at homes or private venues.

Quantifiable outcome

• Hosts can be fully present and enjoy their own events instead of managing logistics
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers14 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Broad incumbents

• Maritz Travel: Corporate event management firm operating in the meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions (MICE) space with major enterprise clients. Comparable as a broader incumbent serving the same enterprise corporate-event segment that drives a primary revenue stream for Hire a Host's corporate events service line.
• Encore Event Technologies: Provider of live-event production, AV, lighting, and staging services for corporate and private events. Comparable as a broader event-services incumbent that bundles complementary production services and competes for share of corporate event planners' vendor budgets.
• Zola: Wedding registry, planning, and vendor marketplace serving engaged couples across the U.S. Comparable as a broader incumbent targeting the same end-customer (couples planning weddings) where vendor-discovery and lead generation increasingly compete with boutique staffing brands like Hire a Host.
• The Knot Worldwide: Operates The Knot and WeddingWire, the dominant wedding marketplaces connecting couples with venues, caterers, and event vendors. Comparable as a broader incumbent in wedding vendor services with overlapping customer acquisition channel for mid- to high-end brides, which can either complement or substitute for Hire a Host's referral flows.
• AEG Worldwide: Owner-operator of sports and entertainment venues that also produces and hosts live events. Comparable as a broader incumbent in venue-based live events whose owned-facility model contrasts with Hire a Host's vendor model but overlaps in catering and bar services to large audiences.

Others

• Cvent: Enterprise event management software and venue-sourcing platform serving Fortune 500 corporate event planners. Comparable as an enabling/adjacent vendor whose customers overlap with Hire a Host's enterprise corporate-event segment (e.g., General Mills, Cargill, Securian) and whose growth into vendor booking threatens disintermediation.
• Eventbrite: Global event ticketing and management marketplace serving both consumer and corporate event organizers. Comparable as a broader event-services incumbent whose platform approach to event planning contrasts with Hire a Host's relationship-based local service model.

Direct peers

• Hosts Global: International hospitality staffing agency providing servers, bartenders, and front-of-house staff for corporate and private events. The closest direct peer to Hire a Host, operating an essentially identical business model of supplying licensed, trained event labor on a contract basis to venues, planners, and direct clients.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/HireAHost
• Instagraminstagram.com/hireahost
• YouTubeyoutube.com/@HireAHost
• Xx.com/hireahost
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/hire-a-host

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Hire a Host