VenueFox helps users find the perfect caterer, venue or entertainer for any event they may be planning. 
Friends were constantly asking Des Moines resident Andrea Hansen, the director of development and grants at Iowa Health Foundation, for venue recommendations when planning events.

Eventually Hansen began to wonder why there wasn’t a one-stop shop for individuals to find not only venues but also caterers, entertainment and other services needed for events. After more than a year of work, VenueFox was born. Along with co-founder Jerod Mollenhauer, the bootstrapped company offers listings for everything from event spaces to florists and musicians. 

“We want to make it user friendly for anyone planning any type of event,” Hansen (right) said of the product’s audience, which ranges from brides-to-be to professionals planning meetings and parents planning birthday parties.

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While websites like The Knot offer similar party planning services, Hansen says oftentimes the site’s listings are for very specialized events like weddings rather than catering to a wider range of needs. 

VenueFox is free for party-planning users and less than $1 a day for businesses or individuals looking to list their services on the site. Mollenhaur says the low price is just one of the features that makes VenueFox competitive in its market. 

“We took Andrea’s original idea and grew it into something more,” Mollenhaur (left) said. “It’s not just listings for the event space, it’s every aspect of event planning.”

Currently VenueFox is in the process of bringing on more than 75 vendors using its platform and plans to continue to search for companies and individuals before actively marketing to users. 

“We’re focused on vendors right now,” Hansen said. “We’re very aware of the need to court users but the site has to be well-populated first.” 

Recently the founders announced the site’s soft launch in Des Moines. Mollenhaur says the company will first test its markets in central Iowa before continuing to grow the company. He and Hansen say they hope to scale their product quickly and continue to add features since as tip sheets or vendor reviews. 

Credits: Product photo, Andrea Hansen and Jerod Mollenhauer photos courtesy of VenueFox.