Artist Marketplace MVP

Overview

Everynite was a live-event marketplace connecting artists with venues and event organisers. I co-founded it as a side project while working full-time — which meant every design, prototype, and build decision had to be ruthlessly scoped. The platform was accepted into the Allia incubator and ran until COVID shut down live events entirely.

The problem

Booking artists for events was fragmented and high-friction. Venues and promoters relied on personal networks or expensive agencies. Artists had no consistent way to market their availability or handle bookings professionally. The market had a classic supply-demand coordination problem: neither side showed up until the other side did.

What I built

I started with clickable prototypes and tested them directly with artists and promoters before building anything in production. This validated the core booking loop and surfaced friction points early.

The MVP shipped:

• Artist profiles with shareable links so artists could self-promote and direct enquiries straight to the platform
• Guest checkout booking flow powered by Stripe Connect, handling payouts, revenue splits, and artist onboarding to connected accounts
• Creator onboarding funnel designed to reduce friction from first contact to live profile

I iterated through multiple versions — starting B2C (artists booking directly with the public) before pivoting toward B2B (venues and professional promoters), which is where real retention and booking volume emerged.

Impact

• Onboarded 250+ artists globally through direct outreach and the onboarding funnel
• Facilitated 500+ bookings through the platform
• Completed the Allia incubator programme while working full-time
• Learned the chicken-and-egg dynamics of a two-sided marketplace at first hand — including why retention breaks when one side of the market is consistently dissatisfied
• COVID ended the project before the B2B pivot could be fully tested