LifeLive: Taking Serendipity to a Hybrid World

Meet Daniel and Felix. Together, they create virtual venues where users can see and meet each other, bringing the unexpected excitement of events from anywhere around the world to any number of users.

For many of us, serendipity is the key to creativity. A happy coincidence, an unexpected encounter or a casual conversation spark new thoughts, fill us with happiness and become the seeds for new ideas. When the big venues, concert halls and clubs had to close because of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was — apart from the music — the casual encounter at the bar or the small talk with unknown people that many people missed.

LifeLive is an interactive online event platform that brings the multi-dimensional streaming experience to life. It provides event organizers with a virtual venue where users can see, interact with, and speak to each other while tuned into a live stream, thus bringing serendipity into your digital experience. LifeLive’s mission is to bring people together from all over the world, to make culture accessible to them — and to compensate those who create art fairly.

Put your chair aside and dance!

Daniel Breyer and Felix Reiter have created a platform on which thousands of people come together in one evening to party and with some of the major artists within the electronic music scene. Users on one of several possible floors meet in small groups that are constantly shuffled and animated with gamification incentives to interact. If people like each other, users can start an audio chat — provided that both consent.

“Before the first events, we were a little worried that many would have the camera off, but the opposite was true,” Daniel says. “The special thing with us, you can just move your chair to the side and dance around the room. A lot of people can’t really imagine the feeling until they experience it for themselves.” The success of their concept is measured in no small part by the fact that people are willing to pay a solidarity admission for their streams, with more people opting to contribute more than the minimum amount.

How a happy coincidence brought a quantum physicist and an architect together

Daniel and Felix now created a digital platform to facilitate what brought them together themselves; Serendipity. Seven years ago, theoretical quantum physicist Daniel and architect Felix struck up a conversation at a rave at Kottbusser Tor in Berlin — and subsequently founded the joint electronic music project Acado.

During this time, they built up a large network in Berlin’s music and event scene and got experience working in the startup scene which was conducive in getting LifeLive off the ground when all clubs suddenly had to close in 2020.

An event solution for the hybrid future after the pandemic

While now hopefully the end of the pandemic has already begun, Daniel and Felix are thinking ahead. They are convinced: even after the pandemic, event streaming has come to stay, not least because with LifeLive it’s more than just staring at a screen. “Clubs now have the equipment and artists benefit from the wider reach,” Felix says. “However, corporate events hosted by global corporations with satellite offices on multiple continents can also use LifeLive to enable all employees to celebrate together.”

Their collaboration with APX has helped them build their creative ideas on a solid foundation. “The two of us are not financial or legal experts, so in that area, APX is super supportive,” says Daniel. “But beyond that, APX has connected us with many exciting people from their network, from whose assessments and help we have benefited greatly.” Meeting people, exchanging ideas, encountering new perspectives: The basic idea of their product is perfectly reflected in their own collaboration.

Follow Lifelive’s journey on LinkedIn.