Hoopla

What Hoopla does

Hoopla is a free, consumer-facing local events discovery platform serving Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, and surrounding Eastern Iowa communities. The platform aggregates and indexes hundreds of events (2,373+ listed at time of observation) from diverse local venues — including museums, public libraries, farmers markets, concert venues, and community centers — into a single searchable directory. Users browse and filter by keyword, date, category (Out and Active, Community, Kids and Family, Arts and Culture, Eat and Drink, Farmers Markets), location, cost, and age group. Event organizers (libraries, museums, historical societies, entertainment vendors) self-serve their listings through a built-in submission workflow at hooplanow.com/events/new.

The platform is operated as a product of The Gazette, Cedar Rapids' primary daily newspaper owned by Lee Enterprises — a relationship signaled by the privacy policy link routing to thegazette.com and newsletter infrastructure hosted at rewards.thegazette.com/newsletters. The Gazette cross-promotes Hoopla through two weekly email newsletters: "Hoopla" on Thursdays and "Chew on This" on Fridays, packaged as a combo to drive weekend event discovery. There is no mobile app, no public API, no SDK, and no disclosed AI capabilities.

The business model is consumer-free (no subscription or membership fees; ticket prices are set by event organizers), with monetization not explicitly disclosed in the source material. Likely revenue mechanics, inferred from the parent-affiliation and local media context, include newsletter sponsorships, sponsored event placements, and corporate sponsorship bundles (e.g., the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art's Free Summer Admission Program which carries sponsors like Cedar Rapids Bank & Trust, UFG Insurance, Transamerica Foundation, and TrueNorth). Headcount is listed at 11-50 employees, and no funding rounds, revenue figures, or ownership disclosures are provided. The company is private with no stated incorporation date.

Name

Hoopla

Legal name

Hoopla

Website

https://hooplanow.com

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Hoopla is a free local events discovery platform serving Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, and Eastern Iowa, operated by The Gazette (Lee Enterprises) and aggregating 2,373+ events from museums, libraries, and community venues via a searchable website and weekly newsletters.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Boone

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Digital Commerce or Content

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Personnel

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels2 records

Core offering

Hoopla is an online event discovery and listing platform for Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, and the broader Eastern Iowa region. It aggregates events from local venues, museums, libraries, farmers markets, concert venues, and community centers into a searchable directory filterable by keyword, date, category, location, cost, and age group. Local organizations can submit and manage event listings for free, and consumers access the directory without charge.

Product overview

Hoopla is a local events discovery platform for Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, and Eastern Iowa communities. The core product is an events listing and search platform that aggregates local activities and events. The platform includes a search and filtering system for browsing hundreds of events by category, date, location, and cost. Associated products include weekly newsletters (Hoopla and Chew on This) that deliver event updates to subscribers. Organizations can add events through the platform's event management feature. The platform is operated by The Gazette newspaper.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Hoopla Local Event Discovery Platform
• Hoopla Weekly Newsletter Suite (Hoopla and Chew on This)

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

13 partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• The Gazette (Lee Enterprises)coreGTM or Marketing PartnerHoopla is a product of The Gazette, Cedar Rapids' primary newspaper and local media outlet. The Gazette operates the Hoopla platform and cross-promotes it via its newsletter infrastructure (rewards.thegazette.com/newsletters), indicating a parent-subsidiary GTM relationship where editorial audience is leveraged for event platform growth.
• Cedar Rapids Museum of ArtcoreGTM or Marketing PartnerThe Cedar Rapids Museum of Art is a primary venue partner on Hoopla, with multiple exhibitions listed (Grant Wood, Marvin Cone, Mauricio Lasansky, Art in Roman Life, Beyond the Prairie, Visions of America, Out of the Box). The museum also sponsors its own free summer admission events promoted on the platform, indicating a deep venue-platform marketing partnership.
• Muscatine Art CentercoreGTM or Marketing PartnerThe Muscatine Art Center is a recurring venue partner, regularly listing the 'Muscatine and the Civil War' exhibition and other programs on Hoopla, extending the platform's geographic reach to Muscatine County.
• Kalona Historical VillageminorGTM or Marketing PartnerKalona Historical Village lists its 'Celebrating our Country's 250th Anniversary' exhibit on Hoopla, providing the platform with rural heritage/cultural event inventory and extending reach beyond major metro areas.
• Marion Public LibraryminorGTM or Marketing PartnerMarion Public Library is a recurring event host on Hoopla, with regular programs including MakerSpace Open Hours, Encore Café, Tween & Teen programs, and GeriFit, demonstrating the platform's reach into public library programming across Eastern Iowa.
• Hiawatha Public LibraryminorGTM or Marketing PartnerHiawatha Public Library runs multiple recurring programs on Hoopla including Scrabble Club, Mahjong, Community Writers Circle, Senior Create Hour, and caregiver support groups, indicating an active library-programming partnership.
• Trivia MafiaminorGTM or Marketing PartnerTrivia Mafia is described as 'a bar and brewery trivia operation based in Minneapolis, Minnesota' that produces weekly trivia nights at NewBo City Market in Cedar Rapids, listed on Hoopla. This represents a regional entertainment vendor with an ongoing presence on the platform.
• Genealogical Society of Linn CountyminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerThe Genealogical Society of Linn County partners with Marion and Hiawatha public libraries to host the Genealogy Junkies program, which is listed on Hoopla. The Cedar Rapids Area Genealogy Library is co-listed as a recurring Hoopla event location, suggesting a community organization partnership for programming.
• Cedar Rapids Bank & TrustminorGTM or Marketing PartnerCedar Rapids Bank & Trust is listed as a sponsor of the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art's 17th annual Free Summer Admission Program, promoted on Hoopla. This is a financial sponsorship for museum access, cross-promoted on the event platform.
• Transamerica FoundationminorGTM or Marketing PartnerThe Transamerica Foundation is listed as a sponsor of the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art's Free Summer Admission Program on Hoopla, indicating a corporate philanthropy partnership benefiting museum access.
• TrueNorthminorGTM or Marketing PartnerTrueNorth is listed as a sponsor of the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art's Free Summer Admission Program on Hoopla, representing a corporate sponsor for community cultural programming.
• UFG InsuranceminorGTM or Marketing PartnerUFG Insurance is listed as a sponsor of the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art's Free Summer Admission Program on Hoopla, indicating a corporate sponsorship for community arts access.
• David Maier and Matthew McGraneminorGTM or Marketing PartnerDavid Maier and Matthew McGrane are listed as individual sponsors of the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art's Free Summer Admission Program on Hoopla.

Scale indicators1 record

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Meetup: Meetup helps people find and organize local events and community groups. It directly competes for the 'find things to do locally' consumer job Hoopla targets, with a mobile-first product experience Hoopla lacks.
• Goldstar: Goldstar is a local-events and discounted-ticket marketplace focused on things to do in metropolitan areas. It overlaps with Hoopla's mission of connecting consumers to nearby live events and activities, though Goldstar operates nationally and is monetized via ticket sales.
• DoStuff Media: DoStuff Media operates a network of local 'things to do' media brands (e.g., 'Do303' for Denver, 'Do312' for Chicago) that curate local events, arts, and culture — the same local-event-discovery editorial model Hoopla runs for Eastern Iowa, just across multiple U.S. cities.
• The Discoverer: The Discoverer curates things to do, events, and travel experiences for travelers and locals across cities. Its content-driven 'discover what to do' format is a peer to Hoopla's editorial local-events positioning.
• Patch.com: Patch.com combines hyperlocal news with a community events calendar for thousands of U.S. towns. It mirrors Hoopla's positioning — a media-affiliated local information and event-discovery surface — making it one of the closest direct comparables.
• 6AM City: 6AM City publishes daily local newsletters featuring local news, events, and things to do across dozens of U.S. cities. Its newsletter-driven local-discovery format closely mirrors Hoopla's Thursday/Friday newsletter cadence and Cedar Rapids-style mid-market playbook.

Broad incumbents

• Time Out: Time Out is a global media brand curating 'things to do' editorial coverage for major cities (Time Out New York, Time Out Chicago, etc.). It sits in the same local-event-discovery category as Hoopla but at a much larger, multi-city editorial scale.
• Eventbrite: Eventbrite is the dominant global event-listing and ticketing platform. It competes with Hoopla for consumer attention in the 'discover local things to do' use case, even though Hoopla is editorial/aggregator and Eventbrite is ticketing-first.

Emerging players

• AllEvents.in: AllEvents.in aggregates local events, concerts, and things to do across many cities globally. It overlaps with Hoopla's event-discovery category but at a much broader, less editorially curated scale.
• Axios Local: Axios Local runs local newsletters covering news, events, and things to do in select U.S. metros. It competes with Hoopla's local-newsletter-driven event discovery model in cities where both operate.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/hooplanow

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

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 Hoopla