Venyooz, a new L.A. start-up, helps people find rentable space

Venyooz, a Silicon Beach start-up that helps people find spaces they can rent, launched Thursday.

The new Internet service, which sounds like the word “venue,” is based out of Santa Monica. It connects people looking for space with businesses and organizations that have extra room to rent out.

Venyooz was co-founded by Lauren Shapiro, whose background with nonprofits, politics and community building showed her how difficult it can be for groups to find space to use, whether it’s for meetings, events, classes or other forms of gatherings.

“People put a lot of time and energy into organizing hobby groups, meet-ups, rummage sales, and other activities, but many give up mid-way through the planning process or don’t even try because they just don’t know where to meet,” she said in a statement. “It’s a real hassle.”

Shapiro and her co-founder, Alex Perelman, also noticed how much quality space businesses and organizations have that goes unused during off hours.

“They could be making a lot of money in their off hours by renting them to the community,” Shapiro told the Los Angeles Times. “We thought ‘Why not build something that will connect them?’”

Thus came Venyooz.

To use the service, people can search for locations based on their activities. Among the options are arts and crafts, religious occasions, press and media events, and sports and athletic events. You can also fill out how many people your event will include and give a ZIP code.

The results return various venues and include prices for how much they cost per hour and per day.

If you want to choose a venue, you have to request a quote. The process is a little slow now because many of these businesses don’t normally rent out space, but Shapiro said that should improve in the future.

“We’re easing some of these businesses and organizations into the process because they don’t regularly do that,” she said.

For now, the service is limited to Los Angeles. About 50 businesses are currently signed up, and most of them are based on the Westside.

Shapiro and the rest of Venyooz had to encourage most of them to sign up, but they hope businesses begin to sign up on their own in the future, which would help Venyooz expand throughout Los Angeles. Shapiro said the service also plans to expand to other cities in the coming months.

Venyooz makes money by taking a 10% commission every time a space is rented.

You can head to the site now and start using it. Venyooz has a promotion that will give users a 10% discount on their first reservation or off of any optional venue services such as photography. Just enter “LATIMES10” during your registration.

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