CertTrack
As described:StopNarrowed:NarrowNo as described. Go small, only as per-event COI checks for venues, if a day-45 paid test passes.
event venues · ~$115 a month per venue · last reviewed (next review by 29 Dec 2026) · 21 cited sources
Start this week
- Write down your venue access honestly: who do you know who runs or has worked at a wedding or event venue, as a planner, or as an event caterer? Also write down your hours per week available.
- List 60 US venues in 2 states that allow outside vendors (from their own websites, which usually publish a vendor policy). Book 15 calls with coordinators.
- Ask each coordinator three questions: how many outside vendors come to a typical event, how they collect and check COIs today, and what happened the last time one was missing. Record the answers word for word.
- Set up the hands-on kit: a shared inbox, a spreadsheet of events and vendors, and a requirement-letter template. Offer it to the first 5 venues at $49 a month.
Checkpoints and kill gates
Decide in advance what counts as on track. Missing a checkpoint means changing the buyer or the offer, not adding features.
Day 45 (kill test)
~15 hrs/week
3 venues paying ≥$49/month
Full-time
5 venues paying ≥$49/month for the hands-on service
If you miss it
Stop. Don't fall back to property managers; the evidence already rules them out.
Day 90
~15 hrs/week
6 venues, same rule
Full-time
12 venues on the self-serve product, each running every event's vendors through it for a month
If you miss it
Cut to the core: event list, requirement letter, chase schedule, ready/missing view. Drop the audit pack and host-policy check until usage returns.
Month 6
~15 hrs/week
$1k MRR (~9 venues)
Full-time
$2k MRR (~17 venues), logo churn ≤2%/month, ≥30% of trials from search or the vendor loop
If you miss it
Pivot A: fair, market and festival organisers collecting COIs from exhibitors and food trucks (same per-event engine). Pivot B: event rental companies that must supply COIs to many venues (the vendor side).
Month 12
~15 hrs/week
$2.5k MRR (~22 venues)
Full-time
$5k MRR (~44 venues), ≥50% on annual
If you miss it
Stop feature work. Fix onboarding time and the single best channel.
Month 18
~15 hrs/week
$4k MRR (~35 venues)
Full-time
$8k MRR (~70 venues)
If you miss it
Add the second buyer type from the pivots above as an extra, if venues are still growing.
Month 24
~15 hrs/week
$4–5k MRR, profitable
Full-time
$10–12k MRR, profitable
If you miss it
Above $5k: keep running it profitably. Below $2k: stop, or sell the code and customer list.
Do
1.Sell to one buyer: US venues that allow outside vendors (barns, estates, wineries, halls, historic houses), 50–300 events a year. Start in 2 states.
Target: Every user can say it in one line: "Every vendor's insurance is sorted before the event, without me chasing."
Why: Per-vendor pricing (BCS, TrustLayer) punishes buyers with hundreds of one-off vendors a year. Free tiers stop at 25–50 vendors (research/10).
2.Model the event, not the vendor. Each event has a date, a list of vendors and a requirement set. Checks: coverage active on the event date, venue named correctly as certificate holder, limits met, additional-insured endorsement attached, liquor liability for bar vendors.
Target: A coordinator sees "ready / missing" for every event, 14 days out
Why: Enterprise tools track ongoing vendor relationships. Venues think in events. This is the workflow gap.
3.Price flat per venue. Charge from day one. Venue $79, Venue Pro $149, Group $349. 14-day trial, no free plan, 2 months free on annual, $19 off-season pause.
Target: ≥50% of venues on annual by month 12
Why: It's the only pricing that beats BCS and TrustLayer for high vendor volume. No free plan, because the free market already exists and you can't win it.
4.Let vendors upload once and reuse it across venues. A free vendor profile via magic link. When venue #2 asks, the vendor's certificate is already there to re-check.
Target: ≥30% of vendor uploads reuse an existing profile by month 12
Why: Caterers and DJs work many venues. It saves them time, and every vendor is a lead for other venues.
5.Chase on the event clock. Automatic requests at T-30, T-14, T-7 and T-3 days, with the venue's requirement letter attached. Escalate to the host, since they hired the vendor.
Target: ≥90% of vendors cleared by T-3 without the coordinator writing an email
Why: Chasing is the job coordinators hate. It's what they'll pay to stop doing.
6.Keep an audit trail per event: what was requested, received, flagged and overridden, when, and by whom. Export a PDF pack for the venue's insurer or lawyer.
Target: Pack generated in under 1 minute
Why: If something goes wrong at an event, the venue needs proof of what it checked.
7.Build the liability rails into v1. Say "document check", never "compliant", "covered" or "insured". Human confirmation on every flag. A "we read the certificate, the policy governs" notice. A liability cap in the terms. Buy E&O before the first paying customer.
Target: Zero marketing or product copy that promises coverage
Why: A COI "confers no rights" (ACORD 25). A missed lapse is the main legal risk of this category.
8.Sell before building. Run the hands-on service from a shared inbox, a spreadsheet and a requirement-letter template.
Target: 5 venues at ≥$49 by day 45 (3 at ~15 hrs/week)
Why: It's the only way to test an unverified buyer cheaply.
9.Build channels that run without you: a free "vendor insurance requirements letter" generator for venues; SEO pages ("certificate of insurance for wedding vendors", "what insurance does a wedding caterer need", state liquor-liability pages); outreach lists from venues' public websites and state wedding associations.
Target: ≥50% of trials from search or the vendor loop by month 12
Why: At ~15 hrs/week you can't sell every venue by phone.
10.Sync with booking software only after proof. Start with CSV import and email forwarding of event sheets. Build an integration only with the booking tool that ≥30% of paying venues use, and only if it has a public API.
Target: Not before 30 paying venues
Why: Integration fees and approvals ate the AppFolio version. Don't repeat it.
11.Use off-the-shelf AI extraction with a human confirm step, and cap it. Read ACORD 25 fields, flag low-confidence reads, cap pages per certificate.
Target: AI cost ≤2% of revenue
Why: Reading is a commodity (free in BCS and TrustLayer). Spend as little as possible on it.
12.Automate onboarding and support: a requirement-set wizard, templated vendor emails, a help center, one weekly office-hours call.
Target: ≤1 hour of founder time per new venue after venue #20
Why: This is what makes the ~15 hrs/week plan possible at all.
Avoid
1.The as-described wedge: small property managers "inside" AppFolio or Buildium
Why: No API on AppFolio Core or Buildium Essential/Growth, vendor insurance expiry is already native in AppFolio, and free tiers cover a small manager's 25–50 vendors.
2.Paying for an AppFolio Stack listing
Why: $25–50k a year plus revenue share (secondary source). More than the product would earn from it for years.
3.Competing on AI reading of certificates
Why: BCS and TrustLayer include it free. Nobody pays for it alone.
4.Per-vendor pricing
Why: It's the incumbents' model, and your whole price advantage for venues depends on not using it.
5.Construction GCs and commercial real estate owners
Why: Jones ($15M Series B, 25,039 properties and projects), myCOI/illumend, Billy and Procore integrations own that end.
6.Promising compliance, or auto-approving without a human
Why: One missed lapse followed by an injury claim is the category's worst outcome. The certificate isn't the policy.
7.Selling or referring one-day event insurance for commission without licensing advice
Why: Taking commission on insurance can require a producer licence, depending on the state. Referral links with no fee are fine; commission waits for a lawyer's sign-off.
8.A free plan, lifetime deals or AppSumo
Why: The free market is already taken by funded players. Lifetime deals cap revenue and fill support.
9.Starting with the insurance-broker channel
Why: illumend launched a broker referral programme in March 2026, and Certificial claims 25,000+ agencies.
10.Residential tenant renters-insurance tracking
Why: Handled by renters-insurance programmes inside the property systems. Reportedly excluded from AppFolio's partner API.
11.Native iOS and Android apps before $10k MRR
Why: Coordinators work at a desk. Vendors upload from a magic link in a mobile browser.
12.Paid ads before month 6
Why: Venues are listed and findable. Ads to "event businesses" buy the wrong clicks.
13.Adding features when a checkpoint fails
Why: A miss means wrong buyer, wrong price or wrong region. Change that first.
14.Raising money
Why: This is a small, profitable-business wedge. Outside money pushes you up-market into Jones's and myCOI's territory.