Gen Zers Avante Price and Eli Taylor-Lemire, then NYU students, created POSH to improve the event experience for both organizers and attendees after noticing gaps on existing platforms. What began as a “Shopify for all events” quickly evolved into a TikTok-style, algorithm-driven feed that curates events based on users’ interests.
“In the beginning, the analogy we always used was we wanted to build Shopify for events. The analogy has really expanded from Shopify to TikTok,” Price told Forbes. “You open the POSH app, and you see this one-by-one feed similar to TikTok of personally curated recommendations based on your past event attendance, where people in your contacts are going, and all these other social and demographic-based profile creators.”
When they launched POSH in 2019, Price and Taylor-Lemire, who met working at events, aimed to provide a “posh, upscale experience” for NYU and Columbia students looking for where to hang out. Frustrated by the limited options and restrictive user experience of platforms like Eventbrite, they set out to create something more tailored and engaging.
“There was not a lot of tools to create our own brand and messaging
through these products, right? It was very branded to the platform,” Price explained. “There were not a lot of marketing tools. There were not a lot of ways to access new audiences or re-engage our current audience. And so Eli actually originally just built a software product for our own event brand, and we were just using this tool as an internal product for our own events.”During the COVID-19 pandemic, Price and Taylor-Lemire used the downtime to study the market and gather feedback from consumers and organizers, ultimately reimagining POSH to make events more accessible for both attendees and hosts.
“POSH was born to democratize the ability for any fan with a passion for live events to get involved in the space with as little friction as possible,” Price told AfroTech in 2023. “Simply put, our mission is to democratize the ability for anyone to earn capital through live experiences.”
Now boasting nearly 6 million users and close to 50,000 organizers, POSH has driven over $300 million in ticket sales, with 10% retained by the platform. The founders raised $40 million in funding, generated $10 million in 2024 revenue, and capped 2025 by earning spots on Forbes
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