BrightStar

What BrightStar does

BrightStar is a private, bootstrapped ticketing and marketing platform purpose-built for the conscious-community events segment — yoga classes, kirtan concerts, meditation retreats, sound healing, breathwork, and transformational festivals. Founded in 2021 in Los Angeles by father-and-son team GuruGanesha Singh and Akal Sahai Khalsa, the company operates as a curated hub where 24,000+ artists, teachers, and venues are organized by lineage and tradition rather than generic event categories. The platform combines event discovery, ticketing, and built-in marketing tools for organizers, with a 350K+ verified buyer email list, a 10,000+ quote Wisdom Library, and automatic syndication to Bandsintown, Songkick, Facebook Events, and Google Events.

The product surface includes a freemium core (Seva, zero platform fees), a growth tier (Elevate, $0.89 + 1.85% per ticket) with abandoned-cart recovery, affiliate engine, and smart dynamic pricing, and a premium AI marketing tier (Amplify, $1.79 + 3.7%) that adds Meta retargeting, AI-generated ad creative, email campaigns, and access to the Verified Buyer Network. Supporting modules cover recurring series, retreat registration with BNPL and waivers, embedded checkout widgets for third-party websites, a REST API with SDKs, and a zero-fee nonprofit fundraising flow for registered 501(c)(3)s. Stripe handles payments, Brevo handles email, and Mapbox handles location services.

The business model is transaction-fee based with a free tier anchoring adoption and two paid tiers monetizing growth-stage and marketing-active organizers. Marquee partnerships with Krishna Das, Snatam Kaur, Eckhart Tolle, Deepak Chopra, Deva Premal & Miten, and retreat centers including Kripalu, Esalen, Omega, and Spirit Rock provide credibility anchors. To date, BrightStar reports facilitating over $100M in cumulative ticket sales, 2M+ tickets sold, 25,000+ events powered, and 1M+ attendees reached across 50+ countries. With 1–10 employees and no disclosed outside funding, the company appears to operate as a lean, remote-first organization.

Name

BrightStar

Legal name

BrightStar Events

Website

https://brightstarevents.net

Company type

Private

Founded year

2021

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

BrightStar is a curated ticketing, discovery, and marketing platform for wellness and spiritual events — serving yoga studios, kirtan artists, retreat centers, meditation teachers, and nonprofits with freemium and tiered transaction-fee plans and a 350K+ verified buyer network.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Event Ticketing Software

NAICS

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

SIC

Services-Amusement & Recreation Services (7900)

akta.pro primary industry

Event Discovery, Listings & Calendar Platforms (MPAGAJAL)

akta.pro secondary industry

Music Discovery & Curation Platforms (Recommendations, Playlists) (MPAIACAH)

Keywords

• Event ticketing platform
• Wellness event management
• Spiritual events marketplace
• Conscious community events
• Event discovery software

Headquarters

HQ city

Los Angeles

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Ticketing Transaction Fees: Platform takes a percentage of each ticket sold plus a flat fee per ticket. Three tiers with different rates: Seva (free with 0%), Elevate ($0.89 + 1.85%), Amplify ($1.79 + 3.7%). Stripe processing fees (~3.05% + $0.40) added on top. Core revenue stream powering over $100M in ticket sales.
2. Amplify Marketing Services: Paid marketing service within Amplify tier including Meta ads, email campaigns to 350K+ list, and custom creative production. Organizers pay tier pricing plus email costs they control.
3. Nonprofit Fundraising: Registered 501(c)(3) organizations pay zero platform fees, only standard Stripe processing (2.9% + $0.30). Platform foregoes revenue to serve mission-driven community.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels6 records

Marketing channels10 records

Core offering

BrightStar operates a curated event ticketing, discovery, and marketing platform purpose-built for the conscious/spiritual events community — connecting yoga teachers, kirtan artists, meditation guides, retreat centers, and sound healers with seekers worldwide. The platform combines event listing, dynamic ticketing, multi-channel syndication, and AI-powered marketing tools (email, Meta ads, affiliate engine) into a single self-serve SaaS offered through freemium and tiered transaction-fee pricing.

Product overview

BrightStar is a unified platform-plus-modules architecture serving the conscious events community. The core BrightStar Platform combines spiritual event discovery with ticketing and marketing tools. Three paid tiers extend the free Seva foundation: Elevate ($0.89 + 1.85%) adds revenue optimization tools like Smart Dynamic Pricing, Abandoned Cart Recovery, Affiliate Engine, and Recurring Events; Amplify ($1.79 + 3.7%) layers AI marketing via Meta retargeting, email campaigns to 350K+ subscribers, and the Verified Buyer Network; and specialized solutions address specific verticals like Retreat Registration with waivers, room inventory, and BNPL, and Nonprofit Fundraising with zero platform fees. Additional modules include Event Syndication (Bandsintown, Songkick, Facebook, Google), Embed Widget for external websites, Message Center with AI-powered support, and AI Event Blog Posts for SEO optimization. The BrightStar REST API with webhook support and official SDKs enables developer integration.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• BrightStar Platform SaaS event ticketing and marketing platform purpose-built for the conscious events community, enabling organizers to create listings, sell tickets worldwide in 135+ currencies, syndicate to external discovery platforms, run AI-powered marketing campaigns, and access a 350K+ verified buyer network. Used by yoga studios, kirtan artists, meditation teachers, sound healers, and retreat centers to sell tickets for transformational events.
• BrightStar REST API Full REST API access for events, tickets, orders, and attendees with granular API key permissions, HTTPS, HMAC-SHA256 webhook signatures, 1,000 requests per minute rate limiting, and official SDKs for JavaScript/Node.js and Python. Webhooks include order.created, order.refunded, ticket.checked_in, event.published, and event.sold_out. Targeted at enterprise and developer integrations.
• Retreat Registration
• Nonprofit Fundraising

Quantifiable outcome

• 20-40% lift in ticket sales when using Amplify verified buyer network
• +8 more outcomes

Named customers14 records

Segments8 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration33 records

AI capability10 records

Feature11 records

Partnerships

16 partnerships are on record, tiered flagship, core and supporting.

• Krishna DasflagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 August 2024Official ticketing partner for 2024 tour season. Grammy-nominated kirtan artist with 500+ concerts ticketed on the platform. Featured case study on platform website.
• Jai UttalcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 August 2024Ticketing partner for kirtan events including Kirtan Camp Weekend. Leading voice in kirtan and mantra music.
• Major Kirtan Artists (2024 Tour Season)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 August 2024Platform became official ticketing partner for Krishna Das, Jai Uttal, and other leading kirtan artists for 2024 tour season.
• StripecoreTechnology or IntegrationPrimary payment processor for all ticket transactions. Handles credit card processing, billing, and payouts to organizers. Platform fees are charged on top of Stripe processing (~3.05% + $0.40 per order). PCI-compliant payment handling.
• BrevocoreTechnology or IntegrationEmail communications platform used for transactional emails, marketing campaigns, and automated sequences to the 350K+ subscriber list.
• ZapiersupportingTechnology or IntegrationEnables integrations with 6,000+ apps including Mailchimp, HubSpot, Google Sheets. New Buyer, New Attendee, and Refund triggers push data into connected systems with custom answers attached.
• Meta (Facebook/Instagram)coreTechnology or IntegrationMeta Pixel and Conversions API integration for advertising. Browser pixel AND server-side tracking deduplicated by shared event ID. Amplify tier includes AI-powered Meta ad campaigns targeting verified buyers.
• BandsintowncoreTechnology or IntegrationEvent syndication partner reaching 80+ million registered users. Artists can be tracked by fans for notifications of new dates. Auto-sync updates when events change or cancel.
• SongkickcoreTechnology or IntegrationConcert discovery platform that powers listings on Spotify artist pages, YouTube music pages, and Google search. Events automatically appear wherever fans discover music.
• GooglecoreTechnology or IntegrationEvent syndication to Google Events, Google Search, Google Maps, and Google Discover. Structured data markup helps events appear in rich search results with date, location, and ticket info.
• SpotifysupportingTechnology or IntegrationConcert listings appear on artist Spotify pages via Songkick integration. Fans discover events inside apps they already use.
• YouTubesupportingTechnology or IntegrationConcert listings appear on YouTube music artist pages via Songkick integration. Artists can embed videos in event pages.
• Google Analytics 4supportingTechnology or IntegrationAnalytics integration for tracking page views, events, conversions, and user behavior across the platform.
• Google Tag ManagersupportingTechnology or IntegrationTag management for organizing marketing pixels and analytics tools without code modifications.
• TikTok PixelsupportingTechnology or IntegrationAdvertising pixel for TikTok campaigns. Part of 11-pixel integration suite including Snapchat, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Nextdoor.
• Segment CDPsupportingTechnology or IntegrationCustomer Data Platform integration for consolidating customer data across multiple sources.

Scale indicators10 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Eventbrite: The largest general-purpose event ticketing and discovery platform. Directly comparable because it serves the same event-organizer go-to-market (ticketing + discovery + marketing) and is explicitly named as BrightStar's primary competitor for retreat organizers (3.7% fees) and conscious events.
• Meetup: Community-driven event discovery and RSVP platform with a similar PLG, community-led acquisition model. Comparable because BrightStar's community-first go-to-market around yoga/meditation cohorts mirrors Meetup's interest-group model, even though Meetup is RSVP rather than paid-ticket.
• RetreatGuru: Specialized retreat-registration and booking platform serving yoga/meditation retreat centers. Directly comparable because the company is named as BrightStar's primary retreat-specific competitor (14% fees) that BrightStar's retreat registration product (waivers, BNPL, payment plans) is positioned against.
• Ticket Tailor: Self-serve event ticketing platform serving SMBs, community events, and charities globally. Comparable because its flat-fee plus percentage pricing model, free tier, and focus on community/charity events closely parallels BrightStar's Seva/Elevate structure.
• Tixr: Modern event ticketing and commerce platform built for live entertainment. Comparable because of its focus on festivals, live events, organizer marketing tools, and integrated commerce (upsells) that overlap with BrightStar's Amplify tier capabilities.
• ShowClix: Full-service event ticketing and registration platform for live entertainment venues and festivals. Comparable as a feature-equivalent ticketing backbone with seat selection, scanning apps, and analytics used by event organizers competing for the same live-entertainment space.
• Tito: Modern simple-ticketing platform popular with tech, design, and community event organizers. Comparable as a PLG ticketing competitor with embeddable widgets, branded event pages, and Stripe-based payment processing - functionally similar to BrightStar's core offering.

Broad incumbents

• Universe (Ticketmaster): Self-serve ticketing platform acquired by Ticketmaster. Comparable as a scaled ticketing competitor for SMB and community events, with broader institutional resources and parental distribution into Ticketmaster's ecosystem.

Regional players

• TryBooking: Ticketing platform dominant in Australia, UK, and New Zealand for community events, charities, and ticketed gatherings. Comparable as a SMB/community ticketing peer with similar plugin/embed and reporting features, but operating primarily in geographies BrightStar does not currently anchor.

Others

• Bandsintown: Live-music event discovery platform reaching 80M+ registered users and a syndication/integration partner for BrightStar. Comparable as an event discovery and artist-tracking competitor in the live-music vertical, where BrightStar's sacred-music positioning overlaps.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/BrightStarLiveEvents

Compliance3 records

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 BrightStar