Event-centric app-maker Zerista on verge of adding six staff

Now staffed by 13 full-time employees, LoDo-based Zerista is adding six people to fill marketing and Ruby on Rails, mobile and front-end development positions.

 

“We're behind in our hiring,” says CEO Peter Hoskins. “I wish we had more people now.”

 

Founded by Charlie Savage, venture-funded Zerista was born from a custom job making an app for the 2008 Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Denver. 

 

“It was serendipitous," Hoskins says. “There wasn't a solution on the market like a Zerista that could handle something like the DNC, with lots of venues, lots of people and lots of events.”

 

The location-based solution has “evolved,” Hoskins adds, and now has more than 100,000 users annually.

“We have a lot of cool technology matching attendees to the content that's most relevant to them,” he says. “It's expanded to include a marketing suite for exhibitors. We help generate leads before, during and after an event.”

 

Customers include numerous industry groups, trade associations and event producers, as well as companies like Sonic Drive-In, Kaiser Permanente and Dow Jones, which use it for internal events. Pricing starts in the thousands for smaller events with a few hundred attendees, Hoskins says. Exhibitors can upgrade to the premium marketing suite for a fee.

 

“The market's matured at a really good clip,” Hoskins says. “The proliferation of mobile devices has really helped us. It's no longer a shiny thing to carry around. It's almost a requirement.”