Tessa Smits is the founder of Yeon, the only Dutch business booking events site.  Launched in 2008, Yeon lists about 450 events a month and makes it easy for interested parties to get an overview of what is out there in terms of business events and make an informed choice on what events to attend. For organisers it is an effective channel to exhibit their events and.. the organiser only pays when there is a lead or a booking.   Tessa shared her experiences on founding the site with TheNextWomen.

What is Yeon?
Yeon is the key starting point for all types of business events in the Netherlands. On the website it's possible to compare en book business events like congresses, seminars and master classes.

How did you come up with the idea of setting it up?
Before I founded Yeon in 2008 I was a freelance marketeer. From time to time I had to organise congresses and seminars. That is when I discovered that it was hard to get visitors to business events. Especially when you are new in the game and don't have a big marketing budget. Surfing on the internet made me realise that there was not one website with a complete overview of business events and so that's how Yeon was born!

How did you fund Yeon and what is your business model?
In the first six months I was busy writing a business plan, networking and having meetings with investors and banks. Eventually I found three investors and a bank that came up with the investment I needed. The business model is: no cure no pay. The event organizers pay me for every lead or booking. It's also possible for them to advertise on the website.

How do you compare to other players in your sector?
The website is the only one of its kind in the Netherlands. Yeon is the only website with a complete overview of business events and the possibility to compare and book at the same time. Besides that we have a lot of partner deals and so a great online business audience.

What was your biggest challenge during the development process and how can other start-ups learn from that?
The biggest challenge was to get the event organizers to cooperate with us because they had to agree with the product without knowing how the website would turn out.  After all we wanted their events on our website before our launch. But we achieved that in the end by making those organizers partners instead of just clients.

The biggest thing I learned during the development process and after the launch is that there is a big difference between a pretty design and a user friendly website. Sometimes not so pretty designs give better conversion than nice-looking ones.

Where do you want your company to be in five years?
In five years Yeon will be the compare- and booking site for business events with the most complete overview and the largest online business audience in the Netherlands.