Whereabouts

What Whereabouts does

Whereabouts Inc. is a pre-launch, privately held company building a mobile platform for independent cultural hosts to organize, promote, manage, and monetize intimate events. Founded in 2024 by Sarah Sexton (CEO; previously a director at Richard Gray gallery) and Aulia Suhubdy (COO; previously at Bitwyre, Gojek, and JPMorgan), Whereabouts Inc. is incorporated in Delaware and headquartered in Chicago. The product targets a horizontal persona segment — supper club hosts, ceramicists, DJs, poets, gallerists, chefs, musicians, zine makers, booksellers, and salonistes among others — who treat hosting as a creative practice rather than a ticketing business.

The product surface comprises four components: the Whereabouts mobile platform (launching summer 2026 on the iOS App Store) for event planning, RSVPs, and payments; Zena, an optional AI co-host that drafts event content and suggests attendee matches using public social profile information; the Whereabouts Journal, an editorial channel on the website and Substack covering gathering culture and artist interviews; and the Whereabouts Shop, a limited-run merchandise storefront (caps, towels, leather bags, curated gift sets). Underlying technology is a SaaS-style stack on top of Stripe (payments), Twilio (SMS), Resend (email), and Supabase (database), with no disclosed proprietary model or training pipeline for AI.

The business model combines a 3% transaction fee on paid events (deducted from host payouts before Stripe processing fees) with direct-to-consumer merchandise sales. Go-to-market is community-led and event-driven: Whereabouts operates curated gatherings (such as Chicago #424) as both demand-generation and brand-building exercises, with marketing distributed through Instagram (@atwhereabouts), TikTok, and Substack. The company has not disclosed any external funding, institutional investors, or headcount beyond the two founders, and the platform had not recorded transaction revenue as of the data window. The implied total addressable market is the long tail of independent cultural event hosts in major U.S. cities, a niche underserved by generic platforms such as Eventbrite and Partiful.

Name

Whereabouts

Legal name

Whereabouts Inc.

Website

https://whereabouts.us

Company type

Private

Founded year

2024

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Whereabouts is a Chicago-based, pre-launch mobile platform that helps independent cultural hosts — from supper club operators to ceramicists and DJs — plan, promote, manage, and monetize intimate curated events via a 3% commission model and an integrated AI co-host.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Event Management Software

NAICS

Promoters of Performing Arts, Sports, and Similar Events with Facilities (71131)

SIC

Services-Miscellaneous Amusement & Recreation (7990)

akta.pro primary industry

Venue & Facility Reservations (Private Rooms, Event Spaces) (HSACALAJ)

akta.pro secondary industries

Venue Sourcing & Site Coordination (HSACAAAD), Party Venue Sourcing & Booking Services (HSACACAL), Attendee Mobile Apps & Engagement Platforms (THAHAFAE)

Keywords

• Event management platform
• Cultural event hosting
• Community event software
• Ticketing platform
• Intimate gathering tools

Headquarters

HQ city

Chicago

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure, Supply Chain

Revenue model

1. Platform Commission: Whereabouts charges a 3% platform fee on paid events. This fee is deducted from the amount paid out to hosts. In addition, payment processing fees from Stripe are charged separately.
2. Merchandise Sales: The company sells branded merchandise (caps, towels, bags, gift sets) through its online shop. Revenue from limited-run items supporting the community.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Whereabouts is a full-stack mobile platform that enables independent cultural hosts (supper club hosts, ceramicists, DJs, gallerists, chefs, musicians, poets, and similar creative practitioners) to plan, promote, manage, get paid for, and grow intimate community events. The platform consolidates event listings, ticketing, RSVPs, payment processing, attendee communications, and an AI co-host (Zena) for drafting event content and matching attendees. It is free for hosts to join, with a 3% fee applied only on paid events, and is distributed primarily through the iOS App Store with planned launch in summer 2026.

Product overview

Whereabouts is a community-focused platform for cultural hosts (supper club hosts, ceramicists, DJs, chefs, gallerists, musicians, and other creative practitioners) to build community and manage intimate events. The product ecosystem includes the core platform (launching summer 2026) for event management, a Journal featuring editorial content about art and gathering, a Shop for branded merchandise, and an AI co-host named Zena that assists with event planning and attendee recommendations.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Whereabouts Platform A native iOS mobile platform for cultural hosts to plan, promote, manage, get paid for, and grow intimate community events. Includes event listings, ticketing, RSVPs, payment processing, attendee communications, and an AI co-host (Zena) for planning assistance.
• Whereabouts Shop Direct-to-consumer merchandise storefront offering limited-run branded items for hosts and community members, including the Boring Summer Dad Cap ($45), The Sunday Towel ($55), The Apéro Bag ($150), the Boring Summer Essentials Collection ($215 bundle), and the Sugar Baddy Kit ($500).
• Whereabouts Events A curated event discovery and community platform section featuring gatherings organized around specific disciplines (e.g., quantum and art, ceramicist's studio, working lab) with attendees curated person-by-person to bring together operators, makers, and thinkers.

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration2 records

AI capability4 records

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• StripecoreTechnology or IntegrationStripe is the payment processing provider for Whereabouts, handling all payment transactions on the platform. Hosts and guests agree to Stripe's terms of service when making purchases through Whereabouts.
• TwiliocoreTechnology or IntegrationTwilio serves as the SMS provider for transactional text messages, including one-time login codes, event notifications, RSVP confirmations, and event reminders. Phone numbers and SMS consent are shared with Twilio only as needed to deliver requested texts.

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Emerging players

• Headway: Event-discovery and ticketing app focused on local community events. Overlaps on discovery + ticketing mechanics for cultural/community events Whereabouts targets.
• Dice: Ticketing and discovery platform focused on live music and club events. Adjacent in cultural/nightlife event infrastructure and relevant as a take-rate and discovery benchmark for cultural-host events.
• Resident Advisor: Long-running electronic-music event discovery and ticketing platform. Comparable as a niche, community-trusted event brand for a specific cultural subvertical — a useful analog for category-building in cultural hosting.

Regional players

• Fever: International experiences and events marketplace with strong presence in Europe and Latin America. Comparable as a curated-experiences platform; relevant if Whereabouts expands internationally into cultural experiences.

Others

• Substack: Subscription newsletter platform already powering Whereabouts' Journal and audience-building motion. Comparable as an adjacent creator-economy distribution channel rather than a direct competitor.
• Eventcombo: Event management and ticketing SaaS for organizers of conferences, trade shows, and community events. Indirectly comparable as event infrastructure for organizers, though more enterprise- and conference-oriented.

Direct peers

• Luma: Event hosting platform widely used for curated, recurring, and intimate gatherings (salons, dinners, community meetups). Overlaps directly with Whereabouts on cultural-host use cases and includes AI-assisted event creation features.
• Partiful: Mobile-first social event platform popular for intimate parties and friend gatherings. Closest direct peer — same intimate-event use case, similar host-first positioning, and direct overlap with Whereabouts' supper-club / dinner-party hosts.
• Posh: Social event and ticketing platform emphasizing nightlife, bottle service, and guest-list-style RSVPs. Comparable on the ticketing-and-host workflow for paid social events that Whereabouts' hosts run.

Broad incumbents

• Eventbrite: Large incumbent self-service event ticketing platform covering everything from community meetups to large conferences. Broad horizontal competition; Whereabouts differentiates on cultural-host curation rather than head-on scale.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• Instagraminstagram.com/atwhereabouts
• TikToktiktok.com/@atwhereabouts
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/atwhereabouts

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

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 Whereabouts