Interview with Brian Atzori, CEO of Discovery Entertainment

Interview with Brian Atzori, CEO of Discovery Entertainment, the startup that helps people in finding discos and events near you.

The club sector has been one of the hardest hit by the pandemic but what has never been missed, especially in young people, has been the desire to dance. Finally, since February, the slopes have been reopened and what awaits us will be a summer of fun and carefree. But how many times have you felt the necessity to have fun with your friends without knowing exactly where to go? The solution to this problem is called Discovery!

Cos’è Discovery

Discovery is the new, simple, intuitive and convenient app that allows you to find clubs or events closest to you. The platform also offers digital services to companies and users in the nightclub, festival and event industry. It allows the purchase of tickets and products for the events, promoted through the platform that also provides a section dedicated to the involvement of artists by the activities.

It is, therefore, a good business card both for companies, who want to advertise their local and expand their clientele, and for artists who want to join the coolest events around them.

To learn more, we interviewed Brian Atzori, CEO of Discovery Entertainment.

Hi Brian, thank you so much for this opportunity. It is really a pleasure to meet you. Tell us more about Discovery. How and when was the idea born?

Discovery is an idea born almost as a joke in the shadow of the pandemic period in 2020. In a world that was changing, we wondered what it meant to return to social life after months of lockdown and above all how the situation would be managed in a context where people were no longer accustomed to human contact and indeed, every contact brought risks inside.

During the quarantine everyone read and heard articles and stories about the closure of business activities after being hit by months of inactivity and, as a result, our main question was: 

“If in a normal world finding something to do with friends was not easy, in a world devastated by the pandemic, how will it be?” A world made of access control, traceability and where perhaps our favorite pastimes  would not exceed the economic crisis.

After a net of research and analysis done on the situation in Italy in the night entertainment sector, we realized that basically it was a large sector that had never been touched by digitalization if not partially. A world where the processes and modes were the same for decades and where users often struggle to satisfy them need to have fun.

In the meantime we realized that even the entrepreneurial realities operating in this sector did not have a reference tool that allowed them to manage the evening, the organization and advertising in an intelligent, fast and automatic way.

After this analysis, we came to the conclusion that there was and there is space for innovation and that it was necessary to assemble a multi-potential team to package an ad-hoc product for the sector.

How did you launch your startup? Did you use crowdfunding campaigns?

Before arriving at the official foundation of our company, we did a long process of analysis, testing and, especially, product development that to date, is close to the market launch. 

In this first phase we dealt not only with the managerial or development aspects but also with the training, identifying which skills we needed to reach our goal.

Once we defined the initial aspects, we started to develop the product and, in the course of work, we also increased the team members involving acquaintances who had the desire to participate in this initiative. However, our corporate path began when we started to participate in calls and competitions for startups, some found online and others promoted by universities. In the meantime we tried to prepare a prototype and validate the idea by collecting feedback. Finally, after a selection process of a few months, we won an incubation call at the Como next SPA, Northern Italy incubator with which we collaborate also currently. The requirements for incubation provided for the foundation of the company that we set up at the beginning of the year 2022 after the bureaucratic procedures of the case, funding Discovery and investing in our idea.

Today we are open to collaborations and investments as well as partnerships with clubs and event managers and we hope in the coming months to look for further investments to finance the company and especially its growth.

How does Discovery propose itself to enhance the professionalism of the artists and the quality of the locations?

By interviewing the “actors” of the night entertainment market and discotheques, it is clear that, to propose themselves for any collaborations, an artist, a nightclub or a performer in the sector tend to use only social media. This is a type of marketing powered through personal branding and word of mouth but also thanks to connections and knowledge, without having a tool that helps to expand your network.

The idea of Discovery is also to create a platform that acts as an intermediary between clubs and artists so that both parties can find new collaborations. For artists in particular it will be possible to assemble their own portfolio to promote and make the most of their business, also receiving ratings.

For discotheques, events and locations, the only participation increases the online presence and the contact with its customers who through mechanisms of suggestion and notification will be attracted to the platform and then to new evenings. There will also be the opportunity to create your own event, upload data and graphic material such as posters, promotional videos and there will be features such as rankings, reviews and comments.

We hope to create a professional tool that also provides statistics on the audience, having insights that allow professionists to improve your business.

How does the ticketing service work?

The user will have access through the application to a search engine to identify parties and events in its vicinity and can find new ones through the platform and once selected the event can make the purchase of the ticket for himself and for friends so rapid, safe and fully digital.

During the purchase you will be recognized for any promotions of the club, such as the drink included in the entrance. You could also create your own table of friends by reserving your place in the private area.

The ticket will be a simple QR present in-app or in PDF that will then be scanned at the entrance by the employees of the club or by the staff of the event with the app for business, checking if it actually has a valid entry, possible exclusive user access or table reservations and services.

Inside Discovery, before and during the course of the evening, you could buy products such as drinks and bottles, always through QR that also allows you to redeem your product.

The ticket sales system therefore streamlines the processes from the user’s point of view, avoiding the search for a PR that is available to sell him a ticket, the organization of the tables and the purchase of additional services and also facilitates the operations of the discotheques by reducing the queues, the crowds at the entrance and the provision of services of the evening.

Objectives for the future?

For the short period we definitely set out to finish the product with the first version and not only, we would like to intensify marketing to increase the online presence and start being players in the industry also actively participating in the evenings as a brand, also formulating partnerships with clubs and event organizers, to be carried out at the launch of the platform, collaborating with those who actually place themselves in this market.

Once the product is launched the idea is definitely to expand in other Italian regions starting from the North, working intensively on product adoption and standardizing the process of expanding into new territories, not only by working on the platform but also by expanding the set of services we offer to both users and clubs, operating as a brand that brings digitalization in this sector and maybe for example creating our formats or our parties.

The idea is to become a reference point for this field, focusing on the value given to those who use the platform, the satisfaction of need and growth.

Curiosity: after a bad period due to the pandemic, your sector is finally ready to start again?

This question is often asked, especially in view of the effectiveness of the product in this historical context. The opinion that we made analyzing the market and trends is that after the tragedy of Covid-19 people need to “connect” again on a social level with the rest of the world, partly forgetting the online world and favoring physical presence. Above all we think that now people want to have fun: thus favoring the restart of the industry. 

However, we recognize that there is a need to change this market that for decades follows the same principles, perhaps with new formats, tools and new ways and in fact we believe that it is the right opportunity for the sector to bring innovation since it was the latter, together with the digitization of processes, to allow other sectors to reap the repercussions of the pandemic crisis.

We also realized that the restart not only in our sector but of society will perhaps no longer favor the old systems and old habits and some teachings that the pandemic has given us such as in our case the control and counting of access in Nightclubs are an improvement to the way we use the services.

Credits: 

https://discovery-entertainment.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/discovery__entertainment/

LinkedIN: https://www.linkedin.com/company/discoveryentertainment?original_referer=