If you have ever tried to organize a large corporate conference or a big Indian wedding, you know the struggle. Finding the right hotel is just the beginning. You have to figure out the exact room capacity, whether the banquet halls can be combined, if you are allowed to host a poolside party, and even how close the nearest hospital or police station is.
Back in 2013, our founder, Mr. Mukesh Jagga, realized just how exhausting this process was. Running his New Delhi-based travel agency, Viva Holidays, since 1993, he constantly faced these exact hurdles. Getting detailed information out of hotels was incredibly difficult. That frustration sparked a simple but powerful idea: what if there was an online platform that brought all this scattered venue data into one easy-to-use place?
That idea eventually became venue.events.
The Hard Early Days
Building the platform was not a quick overnight project. It required years of heavy research and development. From 2013 to 2017, Mr. Jagga and his team manually reached out to hotels to gather data.
At first, property owners were confused. They would ask why the team needed such deep, specific information about their spaces. It took a few months just to convince the hotels to share their detailed specifications.
To pay for all this IT development, Mr. Jagga used a straightforward approach: earn and spend. He took the profits generated from his successful travel business and poured them directly into building the new platform. There was no outside funding, just a strong belief that the market desperately needed this tool.
The 2020 Crisis
By early 2020, the project was finally taking shape. Then, the pandemic struck.
The travel and tourism industry collapsed almost overnight. As early as February 2020, the travel agency saw a massive 50 percent drop in business as international flights grounded to a halt. When the official lockdowns were announced, every single customer booking was either canceled or indefinitely postponed.
Revenues dropped to zero, but the expenses did not. Mr. Jagga had a dedicated team of 22 employees depending on him for their monthly salaries, plus an ongoing IT project that needed continuous funding. Without income, paying everyone out of pocket became an impossible burden. Despite their best efforts to hold the team together, staff numbers naturally dwindled until only six people remained by August.
A Bold Pivot
Facing the potential end of a three-decade-old business and the collapse of the venue.events dream, Mr. Jagga had to make a drastic move.
At 61 years old, he decided to step into the Indian stock market. He saw it as the only viable way to generate enough cash to protect his remaining employees and keep the company afloat.
Here is how he managed the turnaround:
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Starting Small: He began with an initial capital of Rs 15 lakh, focusing on short-term trading.
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Smart Choices: He invested in strong, reliable companies like HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Wipro, HCL, and Bajaj Finance.
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Catching New Waves: He also put money into emerging IPOs like Zomato and Devyani International.
The bold strategy worked perfectly. Over the next year, he invested over Rs 50 lakh and saw total returns of around 40 percent. Every rupee earned from these trades went straight back into the business—ensuring salaries were paid on time and the development of venue.events continued without a single pause.
Where We Are Today
Today, venue.events is fully operational and changing how people book event spaces.
What used to take weeks of phone calls and site visits can now be done online. The platform makes life incredibly easy for corporate planners and wedding families by providing instant access to deep, verified venue details. For the company, this automation has dramatically lowered operating costs.
While there is still manual work involved in verifying details with hotels, the ultimate goal is full automation in the coming years. More competitors might enter the space, but our team welcomes the challenge. A growing market means more people will learn to rely on digital platforms to book their venues, just like they do for airline tickets today.
