Virtual Events Startup Hopin Struggles as Real Gatherings Return

British group gained $7.8bn valuation in pandemic, but lay-offs and slump in secondary market trades have followed. From a report: In November 2020, with the pandemic in full force, British virtual events start-up Hopin declared that a new era of digital gatherings had begun. Virtual events were "here to stay," said founder Johnny Boufarhat, as he bragged that there were "more than 15,000 monthly events" available on Hopin's "Explore" platform. Today, there are fewer than 500 listed. Boufarhat's vision made Hopin a pandemic sensation and Europe's fastest growing start-up ever. Launched in 2019, his company rocketed to fame after Covid hit with a conferencing product that seemed tailor-made for lockdowns. The 27-year-old raised more than a billion dollars for Hopin in little over a year, reaching a $7.8bn private market valuation that made him Britain's youngest self-made billionaire on paper.

As top-tier venture capital firms like IVP, Andreessen Horowitz and Tiger Global clamoured to invest, Boufarhat sold $195mn worth of his own shares, according to a Financial Times analysis. With Covid beginning to recede and publicly traded technology stocks being dumped by investors, Boufarhat now faces a moment of truth as he tries to build a sustainable business that lives up to the lofty expectations it set during the pandemic. "The landscape will look very different going forward. People can now meet," noted one events industry executive. They dismissed the pandemic-driven online events boom as "a bit of an artificial bubble."

Virtual gatherings just not as good

[SuperKendall]

I'm sure it can work for some people, but I find real in-person gatherings help me to focus more on learning at whatever event I am at. Even for conventions in my own city in the past, I've got a hotel room just so I could be closer to the event 24x7.

Virtual events can work OK for smaller meetings, but for larger scope events it's just a bit too much separation from other people trying to learn or enjoy an event.

Virtual events were "here to stay"

[Pascoea]

No. They aren't "here to stay", certainly not in the magnitude this delusional twit thinks. We suffered through enough virtual happy hours, virtual game nights, virtual sales meetings, and virtual everything else for the last 2 years. They all sucked at the beginning of the pandemic and they all sucked at the "end" of the pandemic. They filled a need, but to pretend they were better is asinine. Dude should have sold out a year ago, taken his $50M, and ran.

Re:Virtual events were "here to stay"

[93 Escort Wagon]

In my experience most of those types of work get-togethers suck, regardless of the venue. It's not as if going virtual ruined some previously great experiences.

Re:

[Pascoea]

I've had good and bad. But I'd argue that the "bad" in-person stuff was made far worse by being virtual, and the "good" stuff was made much worse by being virtual.

Re:

[youngone]

That delusional twit sold $195 million worth of shares to a bunch of vulture capitalists. He's going to be fine.

Re:

[Pascoea]

Good on him. He's still delusional.

Re:

[youngone]

If you accept that he believed the stuff he said last year, then I agree with you.

It is entirely possible he said all that nonsense to get those VC's to give him money. Either way, I hope he ends his days living under a bridge with the guys from Andreessen Horowitz.

A man can dream can't he?

Re:

[Pascoea]

A man can dream can't he?

Cheers to that.

Re:

[SlashDotCanSuckMy777]

He made a cool 195 million.

He's not that delusional.

Re:

[njen]

He made a cool 195 million.

He's not that delusional.

I was thinking the same thing. Even if this business fails and he can not convince people to start another business with him, he needn't have to work another day for the rest of his life. Just be an angel investor and live off the profits and interest.

I wish I could be that delusional.

Re:

[Pascoea]

You notice I didn't say his idea was delusional, it was a stellar idea. (Obviously it was, for him. He'll never have to work another day in his life.) The "delusional" part was his thinking that people actually enjoyed virtual events enough that his artificially created target market would stick around once they weren't forced to.

Re: Virtual events were "here to stay"

[tigersha]

At least he can afford the best psychiatric treatment in the Solar System

Re:

[Pascoea]

I should have been clearer with my "delusional" comment. Whether or not his idea was good, or merely extremely well timed, isn't the subject of my post. The fact that he thinks he's got the next unicorn makes him delusional. He had a captive target market that was artificially created by the world's governments, he made bank selling a product to a captive audience that had little other choice. Now that the target market is no longer captive, it's pretty obtuse to think that the growth opportunities for

Going forward ...

[fahrbot-bot]

Maybe they need to rebrand themselves as "Hopout" or "Hopabout" -- focusing on IRL and/or mixed IRL/virtual gatherings...

I did okay

[cirby]

I made a good amount of money off of working on virtual events over the last couple of years, but the real-life events industry is definitely coming back.

However... a lot of events are keeping a virtual aspect, such as recording their sessions and putting them online, or even just putting up Zoom for the bigger sessions.

I think that sort of thing is going to stay as an option for a lot of shows. Some people can't afford to attend, and others can't go because of business or personal reasons. An added virtual aspect certainly helps those people out, and can be added for a reasonable cost.