Looking for scalability

Hans Nissens’ company, Oxynade, is on track to build Europe’s largest events database but needs a scalable business model to make it work

Looking for something to do this weekend? VC-funded Oxynade has more than 200,000 events registered in its database for Flanders alone. For Europe we’re looking at millions of events. CEO Hans Nissens obviously didn’t collect all that data himself. Instead, he and his team developed patented search technology to “scrape” the web for event information. Oxynade’s approach, in other words, is a great example of content aggregation, i.e., looking for relevance and meaning in the vast expanse of unstructured information out there on the web. Now to turn it into a business.

Ambition

Oxynade is housed in a little building overlooking a tree lined canal in central Ghent. Subtle and graceful—one might expect a doctor’s cabinet or a small law firm. Hans too seems a thoughtful chap, not your typical extraverted entrepreneur. But listen carefully to what he has to say. First impressions can deceive.

Hans and his team have a mission to build the world’s largest events database. That’s ambitious thinking. What’s remarkable is that they’re almost there, and that they managed to get this far in little over two years. Granted, Hans had a solid grounding. Before co-founding Oxynade, Hans spent five years developing the Flemish government’s culture database (CultuurDatabank, now called UiTdatabank). There he learned firsthand how difficult it is to collect information about events. The problem with events is that they have a short shelf-life—if you’re a bit late the event is history (only upcoming events are interesting, obviously). Also, there’s tremendous diversity in the type of events and their sources. The big events organised by professional organisations are easy to find; less easy are the thousands of ‘grassroots’ events organised by voluntary groups or individuals, typically with a very local reach. A journalist at a local community paper may feel comfortable being in the loop but as coordinator of a database covering the whole of Flanders a manual approach is near impossible. Being an IT architect, Hans got to work looking for an easier way. He found a way, putting CultuurDatabank on the map (today it collects about 75,000 events a year), and simultaneously, came up with the idea for Oxynade.

Making money

A huge database is all good and well, but how do you make money with it? That’s the entrepreneur’s question and is never an easy one to answer. It is in solving that puzzle that Hans learned his key entrepreneurial lessons. One way of making money on the database is to sell the content to local media companies (newspapers, magazines, tourism agencies, etc.) who are looking to publish a ‘what’s on guide’ for their region. That works and is a core part of Oxynade’s revenues today. The problem is that there are not that many media partners around, with the result that the scalability of the business model is limited. Another route is to talk direct to consumers via a central events portal and make money via advertising and ticketing. The Flemish UiTdatabank is such a portal. Although Oxynade went ahead and launched Happenr, it is not core to the company’s strategy. Hans has learned that a B2B business is a fundamentally different beast to manage than a B2C business. The one is about product development, sales and service; the other is about marketing, branding and traffic generation. Furthermore, the two can conflict with each other. B2B clients don’t take kindly to their suppliers setting up direct sales channels (you’re either Dell or HP, don’t mix the two).

Today, Oxynade is focused on its B2B clients, but is developing additional services that piggy-back on the content, i.e. a ticketing and advertising platform. This opens up their market to the event organisers. Event organisers can promote their events and sell tickets online using the Oxynade platform, which in turn is plugged into the major media portals. A win-win situation for all.

Focus

Looking back at his two years of entrepreneurship, Hans has five key tips for starters. Firstly, don’t be stubborn. Listen to other people’s opinion; be open to people’s criticism. Related to this, keep focused. Don’t try to do everything at once; be careful about drifting off on a tangent. Think clearly about the value you bring to the market; all the rest you can in principle accomplish via partnerships. Thirdly, start in a field that you know, where you have some expertise, some understanding of the market and a network you can draw upon. Four, start with the right people; you can’t do it alone. Finally, try to get government support—it’s there, it’s free. Obviously you can’t build a company on it but it does help, especially in the early years.