The hardest part of planning a corporate offsite isn't the creative brief. It's the 50-page hotel proposal, the back-and-forth over room blocks, and the phone calls to a convention center in Berlin at 2 a.m. local time. Nowadays, a seed-stage startup from Y Combinator's Winter 2023 batch, is betting that an AI agent can handle that grunt work, from sourcing venues to negotiating contracts, in nearly two dozen languages [Y Combinator, retrieved 2024].
Founded by sisters Anna Sun and Amy Yan, the company has raised $2 million to build what it calls an enterprise-grade event management platform [TechCrunch, Dec 2024]. The core proposition is pragmatic: replace weeks of manual email chains and spreadsheet comparisons with software that can parse proposals, contact venues, and secure rates autonomously.
The wedge is the RFP, not the RSVP
Nowadays's entry point is the request-for-proposal process, a traditionally manual slog for corporate event planners. The company claims its AI can source venues from a database of over 400,000 vetted properties within minutes [nowadays.ai, retrieved 2024]. Once proposals come in, the system analyzes them, comparing terms and costs across hundreds of data points in seconds [nowadays.ai, retrieved 2024].
The more ambitious claim is the AI's ability to negotiate. The platform says it can contact venues by email and phone to gather availability and discuss terms, handling outreach and follow-ups in 22 languages [Y Combinator, retrieved 2024].
A sister act with a procurement mindset
The founding team brings a blend of technical rigor and operational experience. CEO Anna Sun is a MIT graduate who worked in product and software engineering roles at Datadog, DoorDash, and Amazon [nowadays.ai, retrieved 2024]. COO Amy Yan partnered with her sister to plan events for over 3,300 students during their time as university class presidents [nowadays.ai, retrieved 2024].
Early traction and the path to enterprise
The company reports it has facilitated over $4 million in client bookings since launch [Instagram, Dec 2024]. The business model appears flexible, with options for a 5% fee on managed events or an annual subscription, plus a free basic tier for smaller searches [Instagram, Dec 2024] [nowadays.ai, retrieved 2024].
| Role | Name | Background |
|---|---|---|
| Co-Founder & CEO | Anna Sun | MIT; PM & SWE at Datadog, DoorDash, Amazon |
| Co-Founder & COO | Amy Yan | Planned events for 3,300+ students as class president |
| Chief of Staff | Christina Chen | Not specified |
| Founding Engineer | Vin Bui | Not specified |
| Founding Product Engineer | Emily Zhang | Not specified |
Where the model meets friction
The risks for Nowadays are familiar for any SaaS play automating a high-touch service. First, the competitive set is not asleep. Cvent owns a massive footprint in enterprise event management, and specialists like BoomPop cater to the corporate retreat niche. Second, the renewal motion is unproven. Third, the AI itself is a black box in a high-stakes process. The company's IATA certification and WBENC certification as a Women's Business Enterprise are early credibility signals for larger procurement departments [nowadays.ai, retrieved 2024].
The next twelve months
The immediate roadmap likely involves converting early booking volume into recurring enterprise contracts. Key milestones to watch will be a named enterprise customer announcement, a shift toward clearer SaaS pricing metrics, and potentially a Series A round to scale the sales and engineering teams.