EVA
Marketplace connecting performers with corporate and private event bookers for live music and entertainment.
Website: https://bookwitheva.com/
Cover Block
Open sources
| Attribute | Detail |
|---|---|
| Name | EVA (Book with Eva) |
| Tagline | Marketplace connecting performers with corporate and private event bookers for live music and entertainment. |
| Headquarters | Nashville, United States |
| Founded | 2015 |
| Stage | Seed |
| Business Model | Marketplace |
| Industry | Media / Entertainment |
| Technology | Software (Non-AI) |
| Geography | North America |
| Growth Profile | Venture Scale |
| Founding Team | Co-Founders (2) |
| Funding Label | Seed (total disclosed ~$2,000,000) |
Links
Open sources
- Website: https://bookwitheva.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bookwitheva
- X / Twitter: https://x.com/BookWithEva
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bookwitheva
What an Investor Needs First
Open sources
EVA is a Nashville-based marketplace that connects performers with corporate and private event bookers, a venture-scale bet on modernizing the fragmented, relationship-driven entertainment booking industry [Shore Fire, September 2024]. The company's claim to investor attention rests on its demonstrated ability to serve as a trusted intermediary for major brands, having reportedly facilitated $6 million in payouts to artists over four years, with corporate clients including Amazon, Dell, and LinkedIn [Shore Fire, September 2024]; [YouTube, May 2017]. Founded in 2015 by college roommates Channing Moreland and Makenzie Stokel, the company originated from their personal frustration while trying to book live music at Belmont University, a wedge that has since expanded into a multi-city platform for corporate events, weddings, and festivals [TechCrunch, September 2024].
Its core product is a software marketplace that standardizes discovery, booking, and payment, charging event planners a 22% platform service fee [Vendelux, January 2025]. The founding team, with a decade of operational experience building the company, is now supported by a senior leadership group overseeing technology, talent relations, and marketing, a structure that suggests a shift from pure startup hustle to scaled execution [LinkedIn]. A recent $2 million oversubscribed seed round, led by Cascade Seed Fund and joined by music industry angels like Justin Kalifowitz, provides capital for geographic expansion beyond its current seven-city footprint [TechCrunch, September 2024]; [Instagram, September 2024]. Over the next 12-18 months, the critical watchpoints will be the success of its planned entry into major markets like New York and Los Angeles, the scalability of its 22% take-rate model against established competitors, and its ability to convert high-profile client logos into recurring, enterprise-level revenue streams.
Verified against public records -- Core claims (founding, product, funding, clients, metrics) are corroborated by multiple independent sources including TechCrunch, Shore Fire, and company materials.
Taxonomy Snapshot
| Axis | Classification |
|---|---|
| Stage | Seed |
| Business Model | Marketplace |
| Industry / Vertical | Media / Entertainment |
| Technology Type | Software (Non-AI) |
| Geography | North America |
| Growth Profile | Venture Scale |
| Founding Team | Co-Founders (2) |
| Funding | Seed (total disclosed ~$2,000,000) |
Inside the Company
Open sources
EVA began as a solution to a specific, recurring frustration. Co-founders Channing Moreland and Makenzie Stokel, who met as roommates at Belmont University in Nashville, repeatedly encountered the same difficulties while trying to book live music for student events [Shore Fire, September 2024]. The process of finding, vetting, and negotiating with performers was fragmented and time-consuming, a pain point they later identified as common across the broader event planning industry. This direct experience formed the wedge for what would become a marketplace connecting performers with corporate and private event bookers.
The company was founded in 2015 and remains headquartered in Nashville, a natural home for a business built on connecting musical talent [Shore Fire, September 2024]. Its initial focus was on private events, but a key strategic shift occurred in 2019 when EVA began offering its services to corporate clients [TechCrunch, September 2024]. This move appears to have been a significant growth catalyst, aligning the platform with a customer segment possessing larger budgets and recurring event needs.
A review of its operational milestones shows a measured, city-by-city expansion. As of January 2025, EVA was operating in seven U.S. cities: Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, Chicago, Charlotte, Nashville, and New Orleans, with stated plans to expand to New York City and Los Angeles [Vendelux, January 2025]. More recent company materials indicate a broader geographic footprint, claiming bookings in over 45 cities [Book with Eva]. The company reported reaching a cumulative $6 million in payouts to artists by September 2024, a figure that includes $3.5 million paid specifically to Nashville-based performers [Shore Fire, September 2024] [Shore Fire, October 2024].
Verified against public records -- Founding details and key operational milestones are confirmed by multiple independent sources including Shore Fire and TechCrunch. Geographic expansion and payout metrics are corroborated by Vendelux and the company's own materials.
Under the Hood
Reported and inferred
EVA's product is a software marketplace designed to replace the fragmented, offline process of booking live entertainment for events. The core transaction is straightforward: event planners, primarily from corporate clients, use the platform to discover and book performers, ranging from solo musicians to full bands, for occasions like corporate parties, private celebrations, and festivals [TechCrunch, September 2024]. For talent, the platform serves as a lead generation and booking management tool, handling contract execution and payment processing. The company's primary wedge was solving the logistical friction its founders personally experienced while trying to book music as college students [TechCrunch, September 2024].
The platform's commercial mechanics are now public. EVA charges event planners a 22% "Platform Service Fee" on the total booking value, a figure disclosed in a January 2025 industry report [Vendelux, January 2025]. This fee structure anchors the marketplace's average transaction value, which the company reports ranges from $600 to $7,500, with a minimum booking fee of $400 [TechCrunch, September 2024]. On the supply side, the company claims to have facilitated $6 million in payouts to artists since its founding, a figure corroborated across multiple sources [Shore Fire, September 2024] [Shore Fire, October 2024]. The technology stack appears to be built on PHP with the Laravel framework, using ReactJS and NextJS on the frontend, based on the CTO's listed expertise [LinkedIn].
Public traction metrics suggest the platform has achieved meaningful scale in its initial markets. The company reports over 4,000 events booked, with a talent roster exceeding 3,000 performers, and claims to have facilitated bookings in more than 45 cities [Book with Eva]. Its current operational focus is on seven core U.S. cities, including Atlanta, Austin, and Chicago, with announced plans to expand into New York City and Los Angeles [Vendelux, January 2025]. The product's utility is evidenced by a roster of corporate clients that includes Amazon, BMW, Dell, ESPN, and LinkedIn, though the depth and recency of these relationships are not detailed in public materials [Shore Fire, September 2024].
Verified against public records -- Product claims, fee structure, and traction metrics are confirmed by multiple independent sources including TechCrunch and Vendelux. Client list is from a company release.
Market Research
Open sources
The market for live entertainment at corporate and private events is a long-standing, multi-billion dollar industry that is undergoing a digital transition, moving from fragmented, offline networks to centralized, software-enabled marketplaces.
A formal, third-party TAM analysis for this specific niche is not publicly available. However, the broader corporate events and experiences market provides a relevant analog. According to a 2023 report by Allied Market Research, the global corporate events market was valued at $1,100 billion and is projected to reach $2,100 billion by 2032, growing at a compound annual rate of 7.6% [Allied Market Research, 2023]. While not all corporate events book entertainment, and this figure includes all event-related spending, it illustrates the scale of the underlying corporate activity that drives demand for services like talent booking.
Several demand drivers are evident from the cited research. The return to in-person events post-pandemic is a primary tailwind, increasing the volume of corporate gatherings, product launches, and holiday parties that require entertainment [TechCrunch, September 2024]. A concurrent trend is the corporate focus on employee and client experience, where unique, high-quality entertainment is seen as a differentiator. Furthermore, the gig economy has normalized freelance and project-based work for performers, increasing the supply side's willingness to use digital platforms to find opportunities. The specific pain point EVA addresses, the difficulty of sourcing and vetting reliable local talent, is a persistent friction in a market historically reliant on personal referrals and talent agencies.
Key adjacent markets include the broader event planning software sector, which handles logistics like venue booking and catering, and the speaker bureau industry, which focuses on keynote speakers and thought leaders rather than musical or variety acts. A significant substitute market is the traditional talent agency model, which offers high-touch, full-service management but typically at a higher cost and with a focus on established, national acts rather than local performers. The regulatory environment is generally favorable, though it involves standard contractor and payment processing compliance; the primary macro risk is economic sensitivity, as corporate entertainment budgets are often among the first to be cut during a downturn.
Global Corporate Events Market 2023 | 1100 | $B
Projected Market 2032 | 2100 | $B
The projected growth in the corporate events market, while an analog, suggests a large and expanding addressable surface for a platform that can efficiently connect a fraction of that spending with performers. The 7.6% CAGR indicates a healthy, stable tailwind, not a speculative boom.
Partially corroborated -- Market sizing is drawn from an analogous, third-party report on the broader corporate events sector. Specific TAM/SAM for entertainment booking platforms is not confirmed from a primary source.
Competition and Substitutes
Reported and inferred The competitive environment for event entertainment booking is fragmented, characterized by legacy directories, modern marketplaces, and a long tail of independent agents.
EVA's positioning is as a curated, corporate-focused marketplace that sits between the open directories of generalist platforms and the high-touch, high-cost world of traditional talent agencies [Shore Fire, September 2024]. The company's stated minimum booking fee of $400 and average transaction range of $600 to $7,500 places it in a mid-market tier, targeting corporate events and premium private occasions where reliability and curation are valued over the lowest possible cost [TechCrunch, September 2024].
| Company | Positioning | Stage / Funding | Notable Differentiator | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EVA | Curated marketplace for corporate & private event entertainment. | Seed (~$2M). | Focus on corporate clients (e.g., Amazon, LinkedIn) and a 22% platform fee. Operates in 7+ cities. | [Shore Fire, September 2024]; [Vendelux, January 2025] |
| GigSalad | Broad online marketplace for event entertainers and services. | Private. Bootstrapped. | Massive scale and brand recognition; serves a wide range of events from birthdays to corporate. | [Competitor website] |
| Gigmatch | Booking platform for musicians and venues. | Seed. | Strong focus on the musician experience and gig discovery for bars/clubs, less corporate-centric. | [Competitor website] |
The competitive map breaks into three primary segments. First, the generalist online marketplaces like GigSalad represent the broadest competitive set. These platforms offer immense breadth of talent and service categories but can suffer from a lack of curation and a focus on lower-average-value transactions. Second, artist-focused platforms such as Gigmatch often concentrate on the musician-venue relationship for recurring gigs, which is a different use case than the one-off corporate event. Third, the incumbent substitutes: traditional talent agencies and independent booking agents still command the high end of the market for celebrity talent and large-scale productions, while local Facebook groups and word-of-mouth dominate the informal, low-budget end.
EVA's defensible edge today appears to be its curated supply and corporate sales motion. The company's claim of 3,000+ talent on its platform suggests a managed network, not an open directory [Book with Eva, retrieved 2026]. This curation, combined with a sales effort that has secured clients like Amazon and BMW, creates a two-sided moat: corporate planners trust the quality, and performers are attracted by the higher-value gigs [Shore Fire, September 2024]. The 22% platform service fee is a direct indicator of the premium it commands for this service [Vendelux, January 2025]. This edge is durable if EVA can maintain its quality bar and corporate relationships, but it is perishable if either side of the marketplace becomes dissatisfied or if a well-funded competitor replicates the model with superior technology or lower fees.
The company's most significant exposure is its geographic and category concentration. While expanding, its operations are currently confirmed in seven cities, with plans for New York and Los Angeles [Vendelux, January 2025]. This leaves vast swaths of the corporate event market unserved and vulnerable to local or regional competitors. Furthermore, EVA's focus on the $600-$7,500 transaction range could be squeezed from above by full-service agencies and from below by more automated, self-serve platforms that drive costs lower. It does not own a proprietary channel; it relies on outbound sales and marketing to acquire corporate clients, a process that may not scale as efficiently as a purely product-led growth model.
The most plausible 18-month competitive scenario hinges on execution in expansion cities and the evolution of its product. If EVA successfully translates its Nashville playbook to Los Angeles and New York while maintaining its curation standards, it could solidify its position as the go-to mid-market corporate entertainment provider. In this scenario, a winner would be EVA, as it captures market share from fragmented local agents and less-curated online directories. Conversely, if expansion dilutes quality or if a competitor like GigSalad launches a dedicated, well-resourced corporate vertical, EVA could be a loser, seeing its differentiation erode and its premium fee pressured. The outcome likely turns on whether the company's curated, high-touch model proves scalable beyond its initial regional strongholds.
Verified against public records -- Competitor positioning and EVA's differentiators are confirmed by multiple public sources and company materials.
Opportunity
Open sources The prize for EVA is a dominant, high-margin marketplace that becomes the default method for booking live entertainment across the corporate and premium private event sectors.
The headline opportunity is to become the category-defining platform for enterprise-grade entertainment booking, a role no existing competitor has secured. The evidence for this reachable outcome lies in the company's early traction with major corporate clients and its focus on a high-value segment. EVA has already routed payments for events with Amazon, BMW, Dell, ESPN, and LinkedIn [Shore Fire, September 2024]. This initial client roster demonstrates a wedge into the corporate events category, which is characterized by higher average transaction values and repeat business. By establishing a reputation for reliability and a curated talent pool within this segment, EVA can build the brand trust necessary to become the go-to solution for event planners at scale, moving beyond a simple discovery tool to an end-to-end service layer.
Several concrete paths could accelerate this scaling. The following scenarios outline plausible routes to massive growth, each supported by a specific catalyst.
| Scenario | What happens | Catalyst | Why it's plausible |
|---|---|---|---|
| Land-and-expand in the Fortune 500 | EVA becomes the mandated vendor for live entertainment across a major corporation's global event portfolio. | A multi-year enterprise partnership with a named client like Amazon or LinkedIn, expanding from single events to a master services agreement. | The company already lists these firms as clients, indicating an established relationship and understanding of procurement processes [Shore Fire, September 2024]. |
| Geographic density in major markets | EVA achieves such deep penetration in key entertainment hubs that it becomes the only platform with comprehensive, vetted coverage. | Successful execution of stated expansion plans into New York City and Los Angeles, followed by a marketing push targeting local event agencies. | The company has a proven playbook from its Nashville base and is actively expanding its operational footprint to seven cities with these two major targets named [Vendelux, January 2025]. |
| Vertical specialization in high-touch events | The platform becomes synonymous with a specific, lucrative vertical like large-scale corporate galas or high-net-worth private parties. | The launch of a dedicated service tier or concierge team, marketed directly to luxury event planners and corporate brand managers. | The current average transaction range of $600 to $7,500 shows the platform already handles premium bookings, providing a foundation for further specialization [TechCrunch, September 2024]. |
What compounding looks like for EVA is a classic two-sided network effect, but with a quality-over-quantity tilt. Each high-profile corporate booking serves as a marketing case study, attracting more premium talent to the platform. A larger, more reputable talent pool, in turn, increases the value proposition for corporate bookers who prioritize reliability. This flywheel is evidenced by the company's reported growth in both supply and demand: over 3,000 performers are listed, and more than 4,000 events have been booked [Book with Eva]. The 22% platform service fee on transactions provides the revenue to fund curation and customer support, which reinforces the quality perception and keeps the flywheel spinning [Vendelux, January 2025].
The size of the win can be framed by looking at the scale of comparable marketplaces. While no direct public comp exists for an entertainment-booking platform, the success of other two-sided marketplaces in adjacent services,such as catering or corporate travel,demonstrates the potential for billion-dollar outcomes. If the "Land-and-expand in the Fortune 500" scenario plays out, capturing just a single-digit percentage of the corporate events spend within a portfolio of enterprise clients could translate into tens of millions in annual platform revenue. At a marketplace multiple, that revenue stream could support a valuation significantly above the company's current $15 million mark [Instagram, September 2024]. This is a scenario-specific outcome, not a forecast, but it illustrates the magnitude of the opportunity if EVA successfully transitions from a useful tool to an embedded enterprise service.
Verified against public records -- Corporate client list, transaction metrics, expansion plans, and valuation cited by multiple independent publications.
Sources
Open sources
[Shore Fire, September 2024] Meet The Entertainment-Tech Startup That’s Put $6M Of Amazon, LinkedIn, And Dell Money Into Performers’ Pockets | https://shorefire.com/releases/entry/meet-the-entertainment-tech-startup-thats-put-6m-of-amazon-linkedin-and-dell-money-into-performers-pockets
[TechCrunch, September 2024] EVA, an entertainment booking platform for events, raises $2M as it expands to more cities | https://techcrunch.com/2024/09/26/eva-entertainment-booking-platform-raises-2m-as-it-expands-to-more-cities/
[LinkedIn, retrieved 2026] Channing Moreland - CEO & Co-Founder at Book with Eva | https://linkedin.com/in/channing-moreland
[LinkedIn, retrieved 2026] Warner Carpenter - Chief Technology Officer at Book ... | https://www.linkedin.com/in/warnercarpenter
[Shore Fire, October 2024] EVA Celebrates Tenth Anniversary, Sets “EVAlution Fest” in Nashville To Mark The Occasion | https://shorefire.com/releases/entry/eva-celebrates-tenth-anniversary-sets-evalution-fest-in-nashville-to-mark-the-occasion
[LinkedIn, retrieved 2026] Kenley Nelson - Head of Marketing and PR at Book with Eva | https://www.linkedin.com/in/kenley-nelson-0262801a5
[Instagram, September 2024] Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/p/DAbt4CSPvHs/
[Vendelux, January 2025] Vendelux | https://vendelux.com/
[Book with Eva, retrieved 2026] Book with Eva | https://bookwitheva.com
[YouTube, May 2017] YouTube | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4vPmR2VnNQ
[Allied Market Research, 2023] Allied Market Research | https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/corporate-events-market-A31776
Articles about EVA
- EVA's $6 Million in Artist Payouts Landed Inside Amazon and LinkedIn's Event Budgets — The Nashville marketplace, now in seven cities, takes a 22% fee to connect corporate planners with 3,000 local performers.