Interesting! I actually met with Cullen (one of the cofounders) like 2 years ago over breakfast and he pitched Sponsorfied to me as a way for events to find sponsors. Seems like this summer they rebranded as Partnered to broaden the model.
I have to admit, the landing page made me expect some sort of angel list for BD partnerships or something. A bit different from the model their recent wave of press describes
Partnered is creating a platform that is very much needed... Event sponsorship is growing each year - and there is huge money in there (for example, RedBull will pay $25k to give out free RedBulls at youth soccer tournaments - per day.)
Although every event looks for sponsors; they rely on parents / people who don't know how sponsorship works to go to local businesses or find some contact at a big brand and see if they'll sponsor the event... No analytics, market mechanism for pricing, no transparency.
I would go as far as saying that a lot of the money going into event sponsorship right now is more cause/"charity" related - like helping out your community if you can afford it. But rightfully so, it's turning into an advertising channel, and because of that Partnered makes a lot of sense...
Hear and Now
Lex
VC Puzzle