How Flybridge Capital Partners achieved a 30% savings on venue expenses with Marco

Flybridge Capital Partners is a seed-stage venture capital fund based in Boston and New York. Their vision leverages the power of community, with over $1 billion in AUM across six seed funds and seven pre-seed funds. The Flybridge team seeks out ambitious founders with industry-agnostic, game-changing ideas — with investments ranging from MongoDB to Codecademy to Chief.

Facts:

• Venue Savings of 30%  

• Planned a bespoke retreat in 2 short months 

• Custom sourced (4) different venues to deliver an unforgettable, New York experience

“Experiences supported by Marco just felt deeper. Everything in their marketplace was thoughtful, connected to the cities they were in, and went beyond the cookie cutter. That was important and time-saving for a person like me, who wants to perfect every last detail but can't clone myself.” - Cherae Robinson, Head of Community at Flybridge Capital Partners

The Challenge

Curating meaningful experiences for founders, as a team of one, at scale

Before she became Head of Community at Flybridge, Cherae Robinson founded a travel experiences platform, so she’s intimately aware of the value of well-curated experiences. They significantly impact how people understand and engage with one another, both personally and professionally. Cherae leads these experiences at Flybridge, so, from day one, she aimed to break away from the traditional community structure in venture capital. 

Meaningful, intentional events have changed her life — and she wanted to give that same gift to new Flybridge founders. However, Cherae is ultimately a team of one. Two roadblocks stood between her and her ability to be involved in every small detail of event planning: 

1. Her work is not scalable. The amount of tasks on her plate meant Cherae needed to delegate.

2. The event workload would take away from her level of involvement with Flybridge founders, who are ultimately her focus and passion. 

As a result, Cherae needed event support. She’d heard of Marco during her time as a travel founder and had long been impressed by our team’s ability to disrupt cookie-cutter corporate events and simplify access to curated, unique experiences. 

The Solution

Marco’s industry connections & expertise streamline every step of event planning

Cherae began her role at Flybridge in April 2022. Three months later, she learned their annual Founders Week in October would transition from remote to in-person attendance. That gave Cherae four months to organize a three-day gathering for 100 people, which can take some funds an entire year to plan. 

From there, Cherae spent 45 hours over the course of a month trying to wrangle responses from event vendors. She realized that, on such an extreme timeline, she couldn’t waste one more second. In her words, she was starting at zero and trying to create magic. Introducing Marco to the equation immediately got her 75% of the way there. 

After onboarding, our team got her the vendor quotes she needed within two weeks. Cherae emphasizes that Marco’s existing relationships in the industry — whether with venues, caterers, or entertainers — ensure swift response times that people outside of it just can’t get. Plus, with our depth of expertise, we dramatically accelerate vendor searches as we know what to look for and the best ways to plan and outreach. 

“With Marco, there was a hyper-localization of the experiences that aligned with our values as a fund. For example, when Marco put on a summer boat party to the Statue of Liberty –which is very New York– everything felt first-class.” 

The Results

Marco helps Flybridge host memorable, stand-out events in the VC space

Flybridge received nothing short of rave reviews for their event. In fact, the fund’s community members called it the best Founders Week they’d ever put on. Working with Marco was a no-brainer for Cherae — and the partnership quickly became integral to this roaring success. 

By freeing Cherae of most of the logistics, venue selection, and other time-consuming tasks, she could refocus her resources on questions like which founders should be in the room and how to promote the event. Take a look at the results this drove for Flybridge: 

• Venue Savings of 30%  

• Planned a bespoke retreat in 2 short months 

• Custom sourced (4) different venues to deliver an unforgettable, New York experience

Throwing an event as well-received as this Founders Week is ultimately disruptive for the VC space. Most events are happy hours or networking dinners, which are perfectly enjoyable — but they don’t push people beyond the usual engagement opportunities. In comparison, Marco introduced a hyper-localized experience that aligned with Flybridge’s values. Engaging with Governor’s Island and inviting creative speakers and chefs felt deeper and more thoughtful than any VC events Cherae had attended before. 

Today, Flybridge looks forward to organizing Founders Week 2023 with Marco once again. Our ability to expertly fill in the gaps of large event planning has become essential: enabling Cherae to execute her job to the best of her ability and enabling Flybridge to put on some of the most memorable events in venture capital. 

“Imagine any task or project that requires the creation of an experience, especially a large, memorable function. Marco can expertly execute that in a quarter of the time it would take me to do it on my own.”