1:1 meetings,
Brella-style without the Brella bill.
Attendees set their interests and their meeting goal. The system ranks the top 20 people they should meet. Slot booking with table numbers, confirmations, and reminders, inside the same pass.
Three taps to a booked coffee slot.
Onboarding takes 40 seconds. The system does the ranking. Attendees pick who they want to meet.
Why the match, in one line.
Every match card shows the reason. No black box. Attendees trust the ranking because they can see the overlap.
The founder who paid Brella and still didn't meet a single investor.
Late 2025, a fintech startup summit in Gurugram. Client paid roughly ₹5.5 lakh for Brella as the networking layer. On event day, attendee install rate hit 34%. Of those, less than half filled out their interests. The result was a networking wall that felt empty for most of the day. One founder we spoke to had zero investor meetings despite paying his own ticket to attend.
The problem wasn't Brella's algorithm. The algorithm was fine. The problem was the second app. Attendees already had the event pass on their phone. Asking them to install another app, sign up again, then fill a profile was one step too many. Most just didn't bother.
We built our networking inside the same pass. No second install. Interests get asked as one screen during registration, so 89% of attendees answer before they arrive. The top-20 ranking generates the night before the event. On the day, opening the pass shows "3 people you should meet" as the first thing.
Not perfect. We still see some attendees skip networking entirely, which is fine. But those who want it, get real matches instead of an empty room.
A 600-person B2B expo in Hyderabad, meeting-by-meeting.
- Registration form. One extra screen: pick 3-5 interests from 24 tags. Pick your goal (raise capital, hire, find customers, find suppliers, learn). 91% completion at this expo.
- 2 days out. Ranking cron runs at 2am IST. Each attendee gets a top-20 list ranked by tag overlap, industry adjacency, and goal fit.
- 1 day out. Push notification: "20 people at Hyderabad Expo want to meet you. Book a slot." Open rate on this notification: 61%.
- Event morning. Networking zone has 40 numbered tables, each visible from the balcony. Meeting slots are 15 minutes. First slot 10am, last slot 5.30pm.
- Booking flow. Attendee taps a suggested match, picks a mutually-free 15-min slot, taps Book. Both parties get "Table 22, 11.15am, with Karthik Iyer" as a push notification 10 minutes before.
- Slot conflicts. Row-level DB lock on the slot. Two people cannot grab the same table at the same time. Second requester gets offered the next open slot.
At this expo, average attendee had 4.2 meetings across the day. Compared to the previous year (Brella): 1.8 average. Cost delta: ₹0 vs ₹5.5L.
Networking platforms priced against a 600-attendee event.
India, 2026. One-day expo. Meeting scheduler + attendee directory.
| Tool | Model / Cost | Notes | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brella | ₹4.5L - ₹9L / event | Separate app. Install rate typically 30-40%. Great UI when used. | Powerful but empty rooms |
| Grip | ₹3L - ₹7L / event | AI matching. Also a second app. Similar adoption issue. | Same second-install tax |
| Whova networking | Bundled ₹3.5L+ | Included in Whova event app. Better adoption when Whova is already the app. | Good if you already pay Whova |
| SignupDesk networking | Included | Same pass, no second install. Interests captured at registration. | More meetings, less spend |
Vendor prices vary by region and negotiated discount. Ours is included in the platform fee.