Redefining the events industry, with Jacqueline & Melissa from Delegate
“I’ve always wanted to start a business but I knew I couldn’t do this on my own and when I met Melissa, I knew she would be the ‘one’,” said Jacqueline with a smile on her face.
Melissa laughed and added, “we complemented each other’s skills set. I’m someone who likes to go through processes and make sure things are seamless and I had to complement it with somebody who was very business savvy,” she said, as she glanced over at Jacqueline.
Meet Jacqueline and Melissa, the dynamic duo and the founders of Delegate. Once former colleagues with experience in the events industry, the pair saw the many inefficiencies in the industry. They then identified a gap where they took the opportunity to establish their one-of-a-kind product.
“Even though we had different ideas, it seemed as though tackling this particular industry was our calling,” said Jacqueline.
Launched in August 2015, Delegate is an online marketplace where people can connect, discover, and hire the best event vendors in Singapore and Hong Kong in the quickest and most efficient way possible.
“We wanted to enable transparency and provide a ‘one stop destination’ for all of these event services and the best way to do this was via Tech,” said Melissa, looking straight at me.
Thrilled and enthusiastic, Jacqueline and Melissa go on to share that they've just launched a new visual search engine where users are able to envision their events by pinning inspirations of how they want their event to unfold. Through this, Delegate is able to recommend the right vendors to fulfill criteria of their customers. With over 32 thousand users and more than 750 vendors, Delegate has successfully planned over 1,000 events.
Whilst reminiscing on their proudest moments, they go on to reveal the challenges they faced in their business journey. With all seriousness in their voices, they say that “there’s no blueprint for what we do. Delegate is a very unique product so thinking about the product itself and how to grow the business is incredibly challenging.” However, Melissa, who strongly believes that it is “1% idea and 99% execution,” thinks that it’s all about communication and working with the right people to bring ideas to life.
“We‘re very blessed to have a team that has been with us from the very beginning, and advisors that are always there to support us. Our friends and colleagues are always there to tell us the harsh truth or even to compliment us when we deserve it.”
Not only have these two provided the public a brilliant resource to organize their events but they are also setting an example to all female founders. Their focus and determination is profound and it is clear that with their passion, drive, and motivation, Delegate will continue to expand and flourish.
“We want people to know that they can celebrate a lot of things at any time, and that you don’t have to wait for a special occasion. An event can be any occasion and life is made of many great moments so just remember to Delegate as you celebrate!”
