Part-time work to pay off student debt led Michelle Carazas to the opportunity she’s pursuing in her startup, Host Events. Her tech-enabled service provides insured and vetted bartenders to liven up corporate events at companies that seek to create a welcoming culture for Millennial employees. Fast and profitable growth, together with funding from Launchpad Venture Group are validating Michelle’s idea. Great interview with a compelling founder who expresses beautifully what draws her to startup life.
Highlights include:
Sal Daher Intro – The Opportunities that Abound in Boston’s Unique Startup Ecosystem
What Host Events Does and Why It’s Important
“…Host is a way to create culture in the workplace and that's what we really strive for.”
“We're living in a world where we're so connected, but we're also so disconnected because we easily use Slack or email or text as a way to communicate.”
“Our mission is really to create community through every experience that we service.”
The Founding Story of Host Events
The Competitive Landscape for Host Events
“So, people book us because of the insurance and they come back, I really say because of the people.”
How Michelle Carazas Connected with Her Co-Founder, Brian McGill
Michelle and Brian Ran Host Events as a Side Gig for a Year – It Eventually Became Their Full-Time Job
The Virtues of Bootstrapping
On Raising Capital: “Could we have done it without raising capital? Absolutely.”
Michelle Carazas: “One of the beauties of Hosts is that we make money.”
Sal Daher: “…My resolution not to invest is dissolving.”
Sacrifice: “I sold my car. I bought a $78 bike to ride to work. Brian sold his car; he left his apartment. He moved into our apartment. My boyfriend allowed him to live in our spare bedroom. I mean really-“
The Upside of Being a Founder – “There's no playbook. You're in control of your own destiny.”
Sal talks About Portfolio Company FineTune Learning Whose Platform is Being Used by the College Board to Correct Essays on the AP Exam
How Host Events Is Going to Market
“Now, we're rolling out multiple cities at a time.” “We've actually brought on someone that's done this quite a few times elsewhere…”
“Since last year at this time, we grew 256%. And our LTV is about... It's pretty high and really I think it's because we've built personal relationships with a lot of these companies as well.”
‘So ezCater is a great compliment to Host.”
Michelle’s Thoughts on an Exit for Investors in Host Events
Where Host Events Will Be at in Five Years?
How Michelle Came to be an Entrepreneur
“And so, growing up I just always had that ability to think bigger and that there was no cap, and that it was never stopping anywhere.”
Sal’s Experience with a Peace Corps Volunteer in Brazil
Sports & Leadership
Michelle Carazas’ Parting Words of Wisdom
“…I think the best place to start a business is in Boston, no doubt.”
Transcript of “Host Events”
GUEST: CO-FOUNDER & CEO MICHELLE CARAZAS
Sal Daher Intro – The Opportunities that Abound in Boston’s Unique Startup Ecosystem
Sal Daher: Welcome to Angel Invest Boston. I'm your host, Sal Daher, an angel investor who delights in the fascinating tech companies being built in Boston's singular startup ecosystem. Because of the unique concentration of great universities here, Boston is a massive exporter of great start-up ideas and a huge importer of capital. This idea-rich and capital-poor environment gives me the opportunity to invest early in the companies that will be changing our world. Companies such as FineTune Learning. I'll tell you a bit more about FineTune Learning later. Have you run across FineTune Learning?
Michelle Carazas: No.
Sal Daher: I'm talking to our guest today. I'm very honored to introduce Michelle Carazas, co-founder and CEO of Host Events. Michelle, welcome to our studios.
Michelle Carazas: Thanks so much for having. Pleasure to be here.
Michelle Carazas Bio: Founder and CEO of Host Events
Sal Daher: Michelle Carazas studied business at Syracuse University and also worked in communications at the university's athletic department. She was very involved in sports. She didn't play varsity sports because it was very demanding but she had a much saner connection with sports because she's a very athletic soccer player. So she played club sports at Syracuse so that she could finish in four years which she did and then she went on to work full-time, to her parents delight.
She then got into the people side of the technology industry. After some years in the industry, she saw an opportunity to solve a problem for companies which led to the founding of her startup, Host Events. By the way, I must again express my gratitude to the invaluable Erik Bullen, advisor and angel for introducing me to a great guest. Erik, thanks for connecting to Michelle. One of these days, I'll manage to get Erik on the podcast to tell the story of how he came to be such a prized member of Boston's startup ecosystem. Your company has been invested in by Erik and you appreciate having him around. Isn't he great?
Michelle Carazas: That's correct. He's involved in every aspect and everywhere I go.
Sal Daher: He doesn't do anything halfway. I’d love to have him. I think he's so busy, I can't get him on.
Michelle Carazas: I know.
Sal Daher: Michelle, please tell us what Host Event does and why it's so important. The reason I get to this right away is that there are listeners who would get very upset if we take more than 13 minutes.
Michelle Carazas: Got you.
Sal Daher: That's what the company does to you. They leave comments. So please.
What Host Events Does and Why It’s Important
“…Host is a way to create culture in the workplace and that's what we really strive for.”
Michelle Carazas: Yeah. So Host Events is a tech enabled service that connects corporations to certified insured bartenders. So the demographic of our companies, our tech companies and biotech companies that are looking to create culture in the workplace and attract and retain talent. So if you look at the demographic that actually makes up these companies, about 61% are Millennials. And Millennials nowadays, they're looking for companies that provide an experience, what makes them different. It's no longer about a good pay or they're looking for flexible work schedules. And so Host is a way to create culture in the workplace and that's what we really strive for.
Sal Daher: Excellent. So please explain to us what is a typical service that Host Events provides to a company that wants to create an appealing culture to attract young employees?
Michelle Carazas: Yes. So we provide certified insured bartenders. So these office managers and facility managers and head of people in culture, they're looking for experiences to provide their employees. And so what a better way to easily book a certified insured bartender where you have the insurance so you're not worrying about it. You have the quality talent to help create the experience. So what we do is we actually provide real bartenders behind bars and we vet and select them. We're really looking not just for the ability to pour but a great personality with a very outgoing, someone that can interact with individuals.
“We're living in a world where we're so connected, but we're also so disconnected because we easily use Slack or email or text as a way to communicate.”
And so, when you bring this to the workplace, the marketing department starts to get to know the engineering department. And so like I mentioned, a lot of these Millennials, they want the opportunity to get to know the person that's three desks down or four desks down. We're living in a world where we're so connected, but we're also so disconnected because we easily use Slack or email or text as a way to communicate. And why do we go to bars? We go to bars to get to know people, to mingle. And so our whole tagline in our whole mantra is you mingle, we mix.
“Our mission is really to create community through every experience that we service.”
Our mission is really to create community through every experience that we service. And so we create an environment for organizations to have an affordable way to easily book certified insured bartenders and have an in-office experience where the CEO may have the opportunity to talk to the new sales guy, and the engineering department may get to know the sales team. That's the experience that we're providing all through kind of this text service that makes it easy for our office managers to kind of create this experience.
Sal Daher: What's a typical budget for one of these events?
Michelle Carazas: That's a great question. So we're not the bucket of beer and we're not the full catering service. So we're really in between both. And so it can be as big as you want it to be or as small as you want it to be. Our services is $100 an hour and that includes the bartender, bartender pay, bartender transportation and all the insurance at the management company that these corporations are in are actually requiring in order to pour in the office setting. So then all of the alcohol and that it really depends on if they're doing just beer and wine, if they're bringing in a signature cocktail. That can really vary, but I always say for every 50 guests, beer and wine with our services and insurance, it's about $500. So not really breaking the bank, but creating an experience in the workplace.
Sal Daher: Well, on May 28th, I'm doing an event at Venture Lane where I'm going to interview the founder of Clover, Ayr Muir. And it's going to be catered by Clover. It sounds to me like it would be great to have one of the hosts from Hosts Events here.
Michelle Carazas: Yeah. We actually work with Venture Lane very closely. They use us for events pretty consistently in their space and co-working spaces love us as well. It gives them peace of mind and ease of use and what a better way to have someone that actually enjoys being there and that can put on a smile for your guests.
Sal Daher: How often can you make a sale during a podcast?
Michelle Carazas: I think that's my first there.
Sal Daher: So please tell us the founding story of Host Events.
The Founding Story of Host Events
Michelle Carazas: Yes. So very exciting. I went to Syracuse as you mentioned. I graduated and I had some pretty hefty student loans that I was looking to pay off. So I had a pretty aggressive timeline in my mind and I wanted to pay them off in two years upon graduation. So I had a full-time job in sales Monday through Friday and I was looking to supplement my income on the weekends because what a better way to not spend money and make money.
So, bartending gave me the opportunity to still be out and have a good time and interact with people, but make some additional income. So I was bartending for two years, paid off my student loans and one of my regulars was an office manager. She said, "You know Michelle, I'm really going to miss you. I think that you would create a really great experience for some people at my office. You just have a welcoming personality." I was like, "I really don't do like in office bartending and I don't really know the first thing about it."
She said, "You know what, just come. We'll figure it out. I think it'll be really fun. I need someone to really manage it. I can't be behind the bar and making sure everyone has a drink. I'm really not TIPS certified." I just went with no expectations, I had a wonderful time, and sure enough there were five other office managers at that event looking for a similar experience. Over the course of about seven months, people were sharing my contact information as this corporate bartender. I really couldn't fill that demand. So I started to build an Excel spreadsheet with the people that I had met at the bar that I said could provide a similar experience. First of all, professional, welcoming and sure enough a couple years later, the idea of Host really came to life.
Sal Daher: It's a great story. By the way, I should mention, it's a fact I just discovered when Michelle came here. Michelle is an immigrant founder. She was born in Bolivia and also lived in...
Michelle Carazas: Ghana.
Sal Daher: In Ghana. And so she has that immigrant energy and verve, even though you can't tell from the way she speaks. She's a fluent speaker in Spanish. We were speaking in Spanish just now. But anyway that aspect I thought it'd be interesting to bring that out that she was already worrying about paying off her student debt, doesn't want to be having that hanging over her head and managed to finish in four years at Syracuse which is a serious university with a sports problem.
Michelle Carazas: Absolutely.
Sal Daher: So, who does Host Event compete with?
The Competitive Landscape for Host Events
Michelle Carazas: Yeah. So there are definitely alternatives. You could do the full catering service that is pretty costly and they don't really primarily focus on obviously the beverage side of it. They really focus on the food. They're not really bringing real bartenders from bars to elevate the experience. There's companies like Thumbtack that are a digital platform. Now, they don't vet the candidates for you, they provide several different services and they don't provide insurance. We're very specialized. There are alternatives. You can find other ways to find in booked bartenders. You could go on Craigslist. I mean you can walk into a bar, but we've created an experience where... I mean, we get about 176 applications a week and we onboard 1%.
“So, people book us because of the insurance and they come back, I really say because of the people.”
So, we're really looking for the city's best bartenders, and like I mentioned, it's not just a pour test, that's not a verification just of the TIPS, that's really, are you going to elevate the occasion? And so that's kind of the secret sauce is everyone wants to be around the people that we bring to the table. So people book us because of the insurance and they come back, I really say because of the people. I mean, it's really I think what makes Host very unique.
Sal Daher: That's great to hear. Tell us about your co-founder, how you connected and what each brings to the table.
How Michelle Carazas Connected with Her Co-Founder, Brian McGill
Michelle Carazas: Yeah. So I'm very fortunate. My co-founder, his name is Brian McGill, he also went to Syracuse University and he played lacrosse for four years. God bless him. He studied marketing and entrepreneurship at the Whitman School of Management. He had graduated a couple of years before me and we both took this class called Capstone where during the course of the year, you are developing a company from start to finish, everything that you need to know and how to start it. It's really actually a great course.
So, he had taken it a couple years before I did and so he was giving me some insight post-graduation on, "Hey, this is what they look for. This is what your graded upon. These are the things that we did since they did very well." We had just connected through the idea of sports and the idea of entrepreneurship and became really fast friends. And post Syracuse, it's like, "Hey, listen. I haven't heard from you a lot. What are you up to?" I'm like, "You're never going to believe this, but I'm at my full-time job in sales. It's going really well, but I'm bartending these corporate events on the side." And he was like, "Well, tell me more. What do you mean?"
So, long story short, that became a three-hour conversation that he was like, "I couldn't sleep last night. I really like what you're doing. I think we can do something bigger here." And so we decided why not do what Rover did for dog walkers for bartenders. And so that's where the real idea kind of spurred from, I would say. And so we started to do some market research. I was taking the customers that were already using us and learning a little bit more about what are the challenges and cities like Massachusetts to pour alcohol in the office setting? Why are you looking to bring alcohol in the office setting? What is it about some of the people that you're looking for, what's the personality like, what's the look like, the whole nine yards?
Michelle and Brian Ran Host Events as a Side Gig for a Year – It Eventually Became Their Full-Time Job
And so, through that research, we found quite an opportunity and interest. We were doing this on the side for about a year both Brian and myself. He was doing his full-time job, I was doing my full-time job. He lived in DC, I lived in Boston. He started the business in Boston and we started to slowly just through word of mouth take on customer after customer. The customer started to dictate that this was going to be our full-time job. And so Brian's wonderful. We really work well together. We complement each other.
Sal Daher: Is he full-time now?
Michelle Carazas: Yeah, we both are.
Sal Daher: Is he in Boston?
Michelle Carazas: He moved to Boston. He left his dog, his girlfriend, his job.
Sal Daher: Oh my god.
Michelle Carazas: He really was like this-
Sal Daher: He was living with the girlfriend. The dog stayed with the girlfriend. I start worrying the dog is alone there watching them...
Michelle Carazas: It was really like I said the customers were dictating its time and we were waiting for the right time. He's moved here, he loves it. We have a great office, we have a great team. Business is doing well. Like he says, it's the best decision I've made. So I'm learning every day and we complement each other's strengths and weaknesses which I think is really, really important as well.
Sal Daher: You've kind of bootstrapped the company doing what the company would do eventually and your co-founder said, "Hey, Michele. Let's do this 10x, 100x." And that was sort of his contribution was to think about scaling it. So you discovered the opportunity and his idea was to take it big. So tell me how bootstrapping kind of helped you've developed the idea and so on?
The Virtues of Bootstrapping
Michelle Carazas: I really recommend the idea of bootstrapping to any business if they ever asked me for advice. And the biggest reason is because you become really scrappy and you learn a lot. It's really hard to manage people if you've never been in their shoes, right?
Sal Daher: Yes.
Michelle Carazas: You don't know what you're really looking for until you've been there. They have such an appreciation for you as a leader as a founder and you can't be great at everything, but you have to wear multiple hats. Brian and myself were of the mindset why not make our weaknesses more of our strengths? You just don't get that opportunity when you're given a lot of capital upfront now because you take for granted. It's like, "Oh, let's just pay an agency to take care of that. Let's just pay someone to write this article. Let's just pay someone to figure out our tech stack. Let's just pay someone because when it's readily available, it makes more sense.
Sal Daher: Oh, this brings tears to an angel investor's eyes. A founder who's so conscious with our money. I'm not an investor. That's a reason I think it's a great company. This is a company that's been invested in by Erik, by Launchpad.
Michelle Carazas: Yeah.
Sal Daher: It's a great company. I'm sort of trying to focus my investing in the biotech area because I want to develop a little mass there. But oh, this is so moving, so touchy. They're so serious about spending other people's money, which a lot of founders are not.
Michelle Carazas: I think the way I grew up it was all about really knowing the value of a dollar. I grew up in third world countries. You have an appreciation for every dollar.
Sal Daher: This is an underappreciated reality that people think America has a lot of very rich people and they say, "Wow, poor countries have rich people too." But the thing is rich people in poor countries are poor compared to people who are rich in rich countries.
Michelle Carazas: 100%.
Sal Daher: You can be well off in a place like Bolivia or like Brazil where I’m from and you come to America and you realize everybody here is that well off. I'm just like an average American.
Michelle Carazas: An average Joe.
Sal Daher: An average Joe here and my family is thought to be privileged back there because everybody else is poor. And this is a little appreciative fact that becoming a country like Bolivia or like Brazil and so forth, what it means is that the middle class is just a totally, totally submersed in struggle and the poor, I pity them. It's a disaster.
Michelle Carazas: You're exactly right. You're exactly right.
Sal Daher: America is such a benign environment.
Michelle Carazas: Yep. So anyway, I really do believe in bootstrapping because you learn. You have an appreciation and you get your hands dirty and you figure it out. How are we going to get off a space? How are we going to make this happen? How are we going to pay for legal? How are we going to onboard people? How are we going to hire? I mean all of those things become core decisions and every decision is an important decision. And so, to lead with that, I mean we honestly raised a round because of the future of where we were going, and it was truly a business decision, right?
Sal Daher: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
On Raising Capital: “Could we have done it without raising capital? Absolutely.”
Michelle Carazas: Could we have done it without raising capital? Absolutely. Would it have taken us much longer to hit our goals and our metrics? Absolutely. One of the beauties of Hosts is that we make money.
Michelle Carazas: “One of the beauties of Hosts is that we make money.”
Sal Daher: “…My resolution not to invest is dissolving.”
Sal Daher: Wow. Oh my gosh. My resolution not to invest is dissolving.
Michelle Carazas: So, I think that was one of the attractive things.
Sal Daher: And you make money too? Oh my gosh.
Michelle Carazas: Yeah. We're fortunate. We're a tech-enabled service. Very different than some of the typical companies that you're seeing nowadays. And so we have a different path and we have different challenges and they're all opportunities.
Sal Daher: Excellent. Tell me a little bit about the decision between bootstrapping and then going full-time and raising money?
Michelle Carazas: Yeah. So I think the decision what it really came down to was making sacrifices in your life. You're so accustomed to a lifestyle making a comfortable paycheck and having a car and not worrying about, "Hey, can I go out this weekend?" And not thinking like, "Oh, should I really be saving this money or spending it with a full-time job?" And so I think the sacrifices was the hardest part. My lifestyle had to change just the way that I am in order for me to kind of go full-time. I went from a really great sales job doing really well financially, 2018 BMW, had anything I wanted. No debt. Life was good, could get whatever I wanted.
Sacrifice: “I sold my car. I bought a $78 bike to ride to work. Brian sold his car; he left his apartment. He moved into our apartment. My boyfriend allowed him to live in our spare bedroom. I mean really-“
It was a comfortable lifestyle. I was great at what I did and it was do I continue to be comfortable being comfortable? I sold my car. I bought a $78 bike to ride to work. Brian sold his car, he left his apartment. He moved into our apartment. My boyfriend allowed him to live in our spare bedroom. I mean really-
Sal Daher: That sounds like Wistia.
Michelle Carazas: Yeah.
Sal Daher: Are you familiar with the story of the Wistia guys?
Michelle Carazas: I am, yeah. Those are the sacrifices that you make it. My co-founder probably didn't want to be living in our-
Sal Daher: Do you have employees in the apartment working in your property like the Wistia guys did?
Michelle Carazas: We don't have employees working in an apartment.
Sal Daher: They got to the point sometimes, they're working late at night and they would raid the refrigerator, eat some of the employees' food.
Michelle Carazas: I mean, that's smart. That's smart.
Sal Daher: I mean, it wasn't planned to do that. It was kind of like-
Michelle Carazas: It happened.
Sal Daher: They were desperate. Okay. So this is so, so informative. You're talking about the sacrifices you have to make to become a founder. What's the upside?
The Upside of Being a Founder – “There's no playbook. You're in control of your own destiny.”
Michelle Carazas: So, the upside is you really got to believe in what you're doing and you got to like who you're working with. And that's what it came down to. It came down to, I was in a comfortable job and life was good and I was going to continue living a great lifestyle, but was I really challenged to my max potential of what I have to offer? I'm learning things in the business that I would never have access to anywhere else. And so it's a level of appreciation of just really understanding does this really complete my DNA of what I have to offer. I'm managing the P&L now. Legal. Financials. Those are things at a large corporation. You just never have access to.
So, I think the ability to learn and grow and be uncomfortable and really not know the next step. A big corporate company, you know what to expect tomorrow. It's kind of going to be the same as the day before. So I kind of like this uncertainty. I moved every three years of my life. It was uncertain. Am I going to fit in? Are people going to like me? Am I going to be able to go to school and have the right friend group? Am I going to make the soccer team? And so my life really thrived off of uncertainty and so I think that you really rise to the occasion when you just don't know. I think one of the hardest things is figuring out what's the next step.
There's no playbook. You're in control of your own destiny. I think that's what really makes it exciting for Brian, myself and the rest of the team is that we're figuring it out as we go and we've been fortunate to be in a great ecosystem of people that are willing to support us every step of the way but we were willing to take that risk because at the end of the day, it's all about the experience.
Sal Daher: This is a really, really eloquent explanation of what drives people to start companies. Beautifully done. It's very touching and very true, and very eloquent, Michelle. That's one of the reasons I do podcasts is I learn and I enjoy the experience of seeing energetic people, doing stuff that's really hard and to hear it expressed this way is just such a joy. This is a good, great moment.
Michelle Carazas: Good. Awesome. I'm happy. That's the truth.
Sal talks About Portfolio Company FineTune Learning Whose Platform is Being Used by the College Board to Correct Essays on the AP Exam – Invites You to Consider His Syndicate
Sal Daher: Well, I'm going to take advantage of this high point in the podcast to say that coming up next, I'm going to ask how your company is going to get found in the market. How are you going to go to market? But before this, just a little bit of an ad for what we do here. But before I get to that, a very interesting question, I'd like to tell you a bit about an interesting company which I'm an early investor at FineTune Learning. You said you haven't run across them?
Michelle Carazas: No.
Sal Daher: When I invested in FineTune, it was called Academic Merit.
Michelle Carazas: Okay.
Sal Daher: This professor [high school teacher] up in Maine, his name is Ogden Morse, had this software that helps students engage more deeply in reading literature. They got to someplace and they can click on something and they got more perspective and so forth and draw people into literature, make it more accessible, more interesting. The company had lots of ups and downs, but it was very lucky to get a CEO who was just really outstanding, Steve Shapiro. He came in and help restart the company with funding from the investors and with Ogden’s help in creating the product. And now, 3.6 million high schoolers are going to be using their platform when they take the AP exam in June this year.
Michelle Carazas: Amazing.
Sal Daher: It's a platform for grading the essays on the AP exam.
Michelle Carazas: Gotcha.
Sal Daher: So, it's easy to grade the multiple-choice with the unstructured fields they have human graders. This is a platform that uses rubrics but it also deploys certain types of algorithms to basically double the efficiency of the person who's grading. And this is tremendous important because they're going to take this to high schools. So what if a teacher could assign twice as many essays because it takes her or him half the time to review the essays. That means people are going to learn much better aside from the fact that we're going to make money from this company because they're doing really well already and they're going to expand from there.
Michelle Carazas: There's probably also no biases because I mean if you think about it, you're graded upon this same type of level and upon this-
Sal Daher: They have a very good system for figuring out where people go off the rubric.
Michelle Carazas: Gotcha.
Sal Daher: That's all very well done. I mean, they already had a system in place for grading without the software, which they did. I think they employ something like 200,000 graders and they had a system for keeping things consistent-
Michelle Carazas: Consistent. That's awesome.
Sal Daher: ... across all the graders. What this will do is it allows you to sample these things. Well, he did this to certify it with the College Board. And so this company was a little company up in Maine that I invested in. The reason for talking about it, is just to highlight the kind of companies that I come into contact with here in Boston for my investment syndicates. Companies such as FineTune Learning and companies such as Host Events and some of the other companies that are featured here. And just to tell people just what a great environment Boston is for companies. We can get into that a little bit more later. I'm just going to urge listeners who are Accredited Investors and are interested in investing, go to my website angelinvestboston.com, fill out the Accredited Investor Questionnaire, get on the syndicate list and we can then talk about interesting opportunities that I have at the moment. So anyway, so how do you intend to go to market?
How Host Events Is Going to Market
Michelle Carazas: Yeah. So Host basically like I mentioned started here in Boston. We were wanting to learn very slowly but quickly from our customers so all through word-of-mouth in the first year. We had over 600 customers and that was really just us networking, me going to events. Naturally I'm in sales and I'm the CEO so it kind of helped a little bit in that sense and Brian really kept the lights on for me in the back and right in the beginning and now we have a wonderful team supporting him in the office pretty consistently. But we learned from our customers. So why build a tech platform around something that we want?
So, we really took every single opportunity to follow up with each customer after every event. We would discount things to learn prior to and post the events just so that they were telling us why they were coming to us and what we were missing and what they would like to see more of so that when we do build out this full tech platform that really kind of everything all the bells and whistles happen on its own, we were building it for them. As we grow and scale to different markets, that is part of the strategy.
We wanted to learn not only who is our customer and who our persona is and how do they buy and what seasons are they inclined to buy on, is it consistent, what demographic of companies buy more consistently versus others. I mean, we did a lot of research for the first year and a half to really learn from them what they wanted. And so we've now started to put together what is called the playbook and as we we've been beta testing other cities for the last couple of months, of that organically came to us, New York, DC, Chicago, where events were kind of just really popping up. And so we said why not learn from these experiences. Do the bartenders want to get paid the same? Is it as easy to get bartenders in this area of the city versus this area? And so we took those as learning opportunities. Now, we're rolling out multiple cities at a time.
“Now, we're rolling out multiple cities at a time.” “We've actually brought on someone that's done this quite a few times elsewhere…”
Sal Daher: Oh, wow.
Michelle Carazas: We've actually brought on someone that's done this quite a few times elsewhere and scaled pretty quickly in the past couple of years.
Sal Daher: With the raise from Launchpad, how much did you raise?
Michelle Carazas: We raised 450 which was the appropriate amount that we wanted and-
Sal Daher: You're a profitable business so you must have some cash flow coming in.
Michelle Carazas: That's right. We're very, very fortunate in that sense. We're now rolling out multiple cities and we're fine tuning a little bit of the tech and it's never going to be perfect. It's one of those things that every city will teach you something different, but we're pretty confident in the level of service we provide and what we look for. There's a method to our madness on the recruiting front. And so that is really the experience and we're providing the experience. So as we grow, we're really looking to be in every major city. We hope to be there within the next three years or so.
Sal Daher: What is the growth metric that you can talk about?
“Since last year at this time, we grew 256%. And our LTV is about... It's pretty high and really I think it's because we've built personal relationships with a lot of these companies as well.”
Michelle Carazas: Just to give you an idea. Since last year at this time, we grew 256%. And our LTV is about... It's pretty high and really I think it's because we've built personal relationships with a lot of these companies as well. When you talk to them and like what else would you use if you're not going to use us and it's like, "Well, I don't really have another alternative for this price point with this experience, and insurance."
So, we have consistency across the board where we're seeing the same companies coming back to us without even contracts in place. Really, it's use us when you need us. I think the vision and the mission that we're driving, it really resonates with our buyer. They see it translating. And so when that's working, I stop.
Sal Daher: What's the cost of acquiring a customer to LTV ratio?
Michelle Carazas: Yeah. So because we had spent no marketing dollars for in all of 2019, it was really hard for us to say, what is our CAC? We spread our first marketing dollar really on SEM and one of our investors has been really instrumental in that because that's really what he builds his business on.
Sal Daher: Who is that investor?
Michelle Carazas: Todd Bairstow. He's part of Launchpad as well.
Sal Daher: Oh, Launchpad. Okay.
Michelle Carazas: So, he's been helping us on that front. We spent $300 and we made $7,000. And the reason being is because we're not competing for these words on Google. And so there's a lot of white space in this area. The traditional competitors is a catering company that they just used marketing dollars in a different sense. They've probably been around for a little longer where they have their relationships. They're also doing the gala. They're not doing the meetup or the pitch night.
Sal Daher: It's too small for them like ezCater. Well, ezCater is in that space, right?
‘So ezCater is a great compliment to Host.”
Michelle Carazas: So ezCater is a great compliment to Host. So typically our customers are ordering ezCater for the food, affordable, easy quick and then they're complementing with Host services. And so that's really the experience. So we complement ezCater in that sense very well because we're not the full-blown catering. ezCater is not the full-blown catering. It's affordable, it's quick, it's easy and we can do a small meet-up of 100 guests, 50 guests. 200 guests in our office space if we're doing customer appreciation day. We're doing an HR initiative where we're looking to bring in talent. I know Drizzly did this the other day and a couple of other companies in the city, and they used Host because it totally makes sense for them. It's affordable, it's reasonable and it's an experience.
Sal Daher: I'm going to use Host.
Michelle Carazas: There you go.
Sal Daher: Everybody should know, it's 6:00 to 8:30 at Venture Lane. We're going to be having an event catered. There will be an entrance fee, but we will be doing a very nice event and I'm going to see if we can get a bartender to do... Maybe we'll do cocktails along with a beer and wine.
Michelle Carazas: There you go. Shake it up a little bit.
Sal Daher: Yeah. It helps create closer connection with the listeners for me so that's why I'm doing the event. Ayr Muir is just... He- it’s just a really fascinating story. I don't know if you know the story of Clover.
Michelle Carazas: I don't.
Sal Daher: He was a management consultant and he had this itch to create this restaurant and it is just a fantastic thing.
Michelle Carazas: That's amazing.
Sal Daher: I see a lot of parallels between what you're doing in Host Events and what I see going on at Clover. They're constantly experimenting with things. You're talking about your trials and you're talking to people experimenting. They'll talk to death. "Did you enjoy this? Do you like that?" They are very, very concerned about feedback and it's impressive that he's instilled that kind of culture in the company.
Michelle Carazas: I think it's the most important thing for us because we've never wanted to build a business for us. We're not the ones using it on a day-to-day basis. And so we learn from our customers every day. Is there more that we can be doing for you? When you think of Host what else would you like to see? That opportunity to interact gives you a lot of validation, it gives you a lot of appreciation. It also helps you wake up every morning.
Sal Daher: Michelle, you're giving me portfolio envy. Aaaah! Oh gosh. Where are you headed? I mean, do you think of an acquisition? You just think of growing, becoming a very large profitable business and you just throw off money to your investors?
Michelle’s Thoughts on an Exit for Investors in Host Events
Michelle Carazas: Yeah. So a couple of things. I've always been of the mindset, always build a healthy company and opportunities will come. So we've always been of that mindset. This raise was really to fuel us to the next level and in the individuals that we've brought in, have really been key decisions that we've made to get us to the next level. Like I mentioned, I think we're going to be in every major city and its really an acquisition play. I mean, we're not looking to IPO. That's not the business that we're in and I really think that there are a lot of companies that could really use a bolt-on service like Host. They may be able to get them an extra X million in revenue to get them to the IPO.
It might make more sense in that way. So we love what we're learning. We love who were working with. That's why we exist. It's really for the customers. That's why I left my full-time job. I mean, I could not stop reading the reviews that we were getting and I was like... It's crazy. It's not us. It's really there like this was the best experience I've had, it was so easy and the bartender was phenomenal. They were personable, they were professional. We have a couple customers and one in particular that uses us every Friday and has given our bartender a key card, invites them to their outings, invites them to their kickoff meetings.
I mean, they really think of our bartenders as part of the team and our bartenders love being part of something that they've never had an opportunity to be a part of. And so it's really creating cultures on both sides. On the bartender side, we've created a community for them where bartenders are getting to know other bartenders that they've never known and they're visiting them at bars because they're part of the same team. We're giving them free teeth-cleaning on the hundredth event that they do because they've never had benefits before. And while that might sound crazy, we learned from our bartenders, okay, if you could have anything as part of this experience, what would it be? Well, I've never had-
Sal Daher: [inaudible 00:35:49]
Michelle Carazas: One, they've never had benefits, right?
Sal Daher: I know.
Michelle Carazas: We take for granted at corporate companies where we have benefits and teeth cleaning and 401k, and all these things. So I get really passionate about the communities that we're building on both sides. And the teams that we're building on both sides, and I think that's kind of the recipe to why we exist and why we're continuing to grow and people are hearing about us kind of everywhere.
Where Host Events Will Be at in Five Years?
Sal Daher: Awesome, awesome. Last question about the company is where do you see Host Events in 2025? Five years. Where do you expect to be?
Michelle Carazas: Yeah. So I think we'll be roughly about 25, 30 million. We'll be in 35 major cities and we probably hopefully at that point, we'll have someone haven't already knocked on the door and having some certain conversations. And in complimenting another service that's striving for the same mission and the same vision and creating more opportunities for both of our customers and our bartenders and our corporate clients. So I think that's where we'll be.
Sal Daher: I see that coming very soon for you. So let's talk a little bit about finding your calling. How did you come to be an entrepreneur? I mean, your upbringing, your experience.
How Michelle Came to be an Entrepreneur
Michelle Carazas: I think that there are so many elements that kind of really brought me to where I am and I think a lot of its also where I'm heading. So absolutely my upbringing. It was every three years move, get uncomfortable being uncomfortable. Don't get too close to something because it's going to-
Sal Daher: What did your family do?
Michelle Carazas: My mom's the director of the Peace Corps and so she's now in Botswana. And my father is an HIV/AIDS specialist. So he actually stops a transmission of AIDS from a mother to the newborn so the child isn't born with AIDS. So Third-World countries just absolutely made sense for us and being in the States kind of really didn't for them. They just didn't feel as needed. And so I was able to also be in environments where I was one of the fortunate individuals where you were considered wealthy because we had a nice house, we had nannies, and that was what growing up overseas was like.
But my mom was very cognizant of the fact to always make me embrace every culture that I was a part of. We were never superior to... When I was in Ghana, I ate with my hands because that was part of the culture. And so I think embracing that culture and always adapting to new environments was really important. It also gave me the ability to think differently. I always just brought a different perspective to the classroom. I brought a different perspective to the soccer field. My dynamic, my work ethic was just different.
So, I think my upbringing absolutely, but I think one of the things my mom did really well and I'm not saying that this is the best way to parent, but she's never said that there was a limit to anything. There's no sky. I didn't have a curfew. There were no rules. Life was all about the sky really is the limit. She never said you're never going to make that soccer team. It was always like you can do whatever you put your
“And so, growing up I just always had that ability to think bigger and that there was no cap, and that it was never stopping anywhere.”
mind to. And so growing up I just always had that ability to think bigger and that there was no cap, and that it was never stopping anywhere.
She always empowered me to learn and to grow from every experience and she was never dictating of how I should handle things or where I should go and how I should do it. She just really allowed me to embrace the cultures, embrace the change, and learn from each experience. And so I think that was really important. Today, I'm very appreciative because I do see something different in the way that I am and the way that I operate and the way that I connect with people. I mean, I can go into a room and get to know anybody because I genuinely want to learn from them.
I think that there are all different aspects that have kind of brought me to where I am and I think Syracuse also has a really great network of individuals that want to give back to the community. And then to really tie it all off, Boston is... I really have nothing but amazing things to say about starting a company here because the ecosystem. They want you to win. They want you to win because they want to say that you came from Boston.
Sal Daher: There's a very strong culture in Boston of being civic minded of helping out. This is an old tradition here and these are all these little groups that get together, groups like Launchpad and Techstars and like The Capital Network. I was at an event the other day, something that's started in the West Coast. Startup Grind. Some of them are not from here, but when they come in, they work particularly well like Techstars Boston is incredibly fantastic. There's also a massive presence of highly educated people that want to stay in the Boston area.
This is a funny thing. I used to work for the Bank of Boston. Finances, it's a stultifying business. Let me tell you, that was the bank, this is the old days. The bank with the highest IQ of lending officers I've ever seen because they're all these brilliant people who went to Harvard and all this stuff and they wanted to stay here because lending officers of banks were not the smart... They were affable people of normal intelligence. Very affable but of normal intelligence. The Bank of Boston, they had these people who were like every area they were in, communications, transportation, they were just brilliant people because of this environment that they wanted to be in Boston and they sort of like that's the thing to do.
Michelle Carazas: It just really draws you. I mean, my co-founder coming from DC to Boston, he even said, he's like, "I just feel in the right place and surrounded by the right people." Being surrounded by the right people is really important because there's going to be some really hard days and you've got to know who can I reach out to and mentors in this ecosystem have been instrumental for us. I mean, we have mentors at different levels of the business. You sent them an email and they have a million things going on and they will respond.
I mean, whether it's like, "Hey, I don't have time for another four weeks." I mean, they are so willing to support you. So I just think it's a wonderful thing and it really makes it for kind of an exciting opportunity feeling like I have a cheerleader that's willing to support me in this.
Sal’s Experience with a Peace Corps Volunteer in Brazil
Sal Daher: That's great your mention of your mom being the head of the Peace Corps brings to mind. I remember my family hosted a Peace Corps volunteer in our house when they just arrived in Brazil and this was a time when... Nobody knows about the Peace Corps now.
Michelle Carazas: Yeah, I know. They still don't know.
Sal Daher: This was the '60s. John F. Kennedy had just been assassinated. I remember the day when my mom telling me President Kennedy was shot, I mean the whole world was shocked by that.
Michelle Carazas: Was in awe.
Sal Daher: Having this American come to our house was just like I've never met an American before. And this guy, his name was Jim Logerquest. He was from Buffalo, New York I think. He was a very American guy. This is a very enriching thing for the person or the American who goes overseas, but it also is very important for people in other countries to just understand what there is here and the attitude of country and all that stuff. So I think it's an underappreciated thing. The Peace Corps is really underappreciated.
Michelle Carazas: Oh, yeah. I think it's a very selfless act and I think that we're very fortunate. We take a lot of things for granted especially education of the things that come very naturally to us in some of those countries. They just don't. My mom was a Peace Corps volunteer definitely, 35 years ago and that's how she got very passionate about it. Sometimes growing up I would go overseas to where my dad was working and in the Dominican while I was in high school here in the States.
I was translating from English to Spanish because all the med students that were down there from Columbia University doing what are their project thesis and I would translate for them. What really shocked me it was the women that I was translating for, the basics, the things that I took for granted that I was like, "Well, I just don't understand how you don't know that," it kind of gave me this the sense of like, "Wow. I'm so privileged." Something that would be common sense to us. And not to get into details of HIV/AIDS and pregnancy, but things that I was like, "Wow. She actually doesn't understand why she has HIV." She doesn't understand.
Sal Daher: One of the things that set Americans apart is that they have taken training very seriously. The Armed Forces, the superb Armed Forces of the United States because of training. It's not that they have better human material, it's just that they are better trained and they have better equipment.
Michelle Carazas: Yeah, absolutely.
Sal Daher: And also, the whole thing for example like people who have learning disabilities and so forth, America is the place for basically utilizing human capital. If anything, it's a historical thing if you're looking for historical perspective. When I say that Boston is an idea-rich, capital-poor environment, America has always been a resource-rich and person-poor environment. It's a place which a lot of resources but people were always scarce, because there's so much to do, because the American system allows people to do a lot.
I mean, it is often said that somebody crosses the border and their lifetime earning power goes up by so many hundreds of thousands of dollars. Swedes are very rich in Sweden. They come to America and they're 50% richer, because it's a system that really builds value in people. Americans I think have the keenest appreciation of the value of human capital. Let me put it this way. In an agrarian society, you have a structure of government and so forth which is the kind of like to redistribute scarcity. These are to keep people from starving, but at the same time from taking everything that the landed gentry have. America never had a landed gentry.
It's a country where you work and you do something. If people came as indentured servants, after seven years, here in New England they only ate lobsters. They had laws. They can only have lobster so many days a week, because lobster was the food of the indentured servant because it was so abundant; no more. So they got out of that because labor was so scarce and people could go off and create their own ventures. And so there's an appreciation of the value of the human capital in America, which more traditional societies it's not there. And this is what you're encountering here.
Michelle Carazas: That's exactly right.
Sal Daher: It's the fact that it doesn't even enter into people's heads that you have to explain something like that. It's not just how somebody gets AIDS which is a highly consequential thing. It's also like how to use a drill, how to use a tool, how to use… In Brazil. I mean traditionally you have sort of the educated class. And then there's a big step down that Brazil was always weak with technicians and so forth and it's struggling.
Michelle Carazas: Of course.
Sal Daher: They have world-class doctors, world-class engineers but nursing, the assisting professions are not built up. America is exactly the opposite. They understand the importance of training down to the CNA. The nursing assistants.
Michelle Carazas: I think we just really take it for granted and...
Sal Daher: Sorry, I ranted too long.
Michelle Carazas: No, no. I mean, it's a real fact and I think you it's an unfortunate one. I think we just take a different-
Sal Daher: That's part of the thing that makes America so rich because everywhere you go-
Michelle Carazas: Yes, I totally agree.
Sal Daher: Everywhere you go people are trained. They know what to do. They know how to deal with situations that have people who can help you, all this stuff. Very professional.
Michelle Carazas: Yeah, and the Peace Corps, I mean the individuals that are volunteering their time, I mean I think that the experience that they come out with is kind of that gratitude as well. They're given an opportunity to see, "Wow. How fortunate really am I?" It's a very gratifying one and I've been fortunate not to have to be a Peace Corps volunteer but get the experience itself. I don't know if I could have done it, but I have a high level of respect for those that have.
Sal Daher: Well, being a Peace Corps volunteer is a little bit of an imitation of being an immigrant. Immigrant is much more disruptive because the volunteer is going to be there and is going to come back. The immigrant is cutting ties with the home country going to a new place. That's why people say, "If we had open borders, the whole world would come here." No. 1/9 of the world maybe.
Sports & Leadership
Michelle Carazas: Maybe, yeah.
Sal Daher: That's it because the other people will stay. Even the worst misery, they will not move. And then you end up with all the energetic people with the go-getters and the rest of the world is deprived with them. Do you want to talk a little bit about the role of sports has played in your entrepreneurship? Has it played at all?
Michelle Carazas: Yeah. I think sports is so instrumental because it really makes up the DNA of the team as well. So sports teaches you a lot of things. It teaches you how to be a teammate. It teaches you how to be someone on the field and off the field. I tore my ACL and I unfortunately couldn't play for some time and I had to learn what it was like to still be a player off the field and support my teammates even though I couldn't physically be there. But just how important it was to be on the side.
It teaches you to be driven by a similar mission and have a similar goal and communicate and work hard for one another and work hard for each other. Individually and as a team. I think the way that we are, our core values, what drives us every day, what doesn't let us, "fail" from a no is really because we've been fortunate enough to all be part of sports teams growing up or they're in college and failing and being part of a team and striving for something in ups and downs and learning from a bad game and a good game is all part of entrepreneurship.
When competitors come into this space, it's wonderful for us. One, it's validating, "Hey, there's more opportunity here, one. But two, how do you know if you're really good if you're not competing against anybody." It's like, if no one else played soccer and we were the only soccer team, how would we know we're good? I think that sports play such an important role because it teaches you to think bigger than yourself and it teaches you to think part of a team and it teaches you to be a part of something that means something.
That's really what I feel. When we go to Host, I feel like this is my soccer team. When my defender is down, I'm going to just drop back and be defense. If my goalie is hurt, you better believe no one's shooting on goal. It's something I can't really explain, but it's a feeling that I get when I'm in the room with everyone. It's like we just really feel that and we feel like we're all wearing the same jersey with the same name. We're not a number. We're really just a team.
Sal Daher: It creates meaning. Human beings are innately programed to do things in groups. On our own, we suffer. I think psychologists look at the ability of a child apparently, if a child doesn't learn how to play playground games by four, they'll never learn and they'll be not integrated into society. When you think about it, everything we do, all the activities they do are games. We are being invited into games and the rules. Do not play to win this game at any cost because if you do, you will never be invited to play again.
So, you want to win, but the point is not to win at any cost, the point is to win according to the rules so that you're invited to play again. And so just teaching this because the selfish drive is, "No, I'm going to break all the rules. I'm going to do it my way and so forth." You're going to go not very far. And so this is why the Duke of Wellington said that the victory at Waterloo was the playing fields of Eton. That's where it started.
Michelle Carazas: As a leader too though, I think it's very important because really for me it's learning from my team and empowering my team. There's no "I" really in team.
Sal Daher: Absolutely.
Michelle Carazas: And that's one of the things that's so important is because we're only going to succeed together. When we're only going to succeed as hard as you want to work or as I want to work, or as we want to work. And so from a leadership perspective, I always want to be around people that wanted to be part of the greater mission and they want the drive for the same reasons. I truly feel that everyone wakes up every day just as motivated as I am. There's no greater feeling than really striving at the same pace on the same field wearing the same Jersey headed for the same goal. I mean nothing compares to that.
Sal Daher: So well said, beautifully said. We're wrapping up the interview now. So feel free to address anything that you'd like to say to our audience of founders and people who work at startups and investors.
Michelle Carazas: I guess, one, thank you for listening. If I can be helpful in any way, I don't have all the answers. I definitely don't and I'm learning every day and I think that's the wonderful thing about being-
Sal Daher: Beware of people who have all the answers.
Michelle Carazas’ Parting Words of Wisdom
Michelle Carazas: I definitely don't have all the answers. But I am learning every single day and I'm enjoying the journey, the ups and downs. I would say one of the most important things is I think you really have to embrace it. Whether, it's an up or down, embrace it and really learn from every experience. For us, no drives us. Find what drives you. Decide to work alongside people you really want to work with because even if all else fails, the journey and the people around you make everything worth it.
“…I think the best place to start a business is in Boston, no doubt.”
I mean, I couldn't imagine not working with my team today. I mean, they make my day. I mean one of our teammates texted us yesterday and was just like, "I just can't wait to see you guys tomorrow." I mean I just never had that anywhere else. So it's exciting to create a culture where people want to come and they want to be part of the bigger picture and they're selfless. They do whatever it takes to get things done. So I think that would be probably some advice and I think the best place to start a business is in Boston, no doubt. I think it's the best community with the best people that are not all "yes sirs" and they're not all no-ers. So you get a good balance.
Sal Daher: Yes. I second that. I just had a great time being here. I could have been anywhere else I wanted to be. I had a choice, but I just loved being in Boston doing exactly what I'm doing.
Michelle Carazas: Same.
Sal Daher: So, Michele Carazas, co-founder and CEO of Host Events. I'm really grateful that you made time to be here and to be with us today. I look forward to using your service on the event on May 28th with Ayr Muir. Thanks again, Michelle.
Michelle Carazas: Yes. Thank you so much and thanks for having me.
Sal Daher: This is tremendous. I'd like to invite our listeners who enjoyed this podcast to review it on iTunes. This is Angel Invest Boston, conversations with Boston's most interesting angels and founders, founders such as Michelle Carazas who's really outstanding. I'm Sal Daher.
I'm glad you were able to join us. Our engineer is Raul Rosa. Our theme was composed by John McCusick. Our graphic design is by Katharine Woodman-Maynard. Our host is coached by Grace Daher.