Dan Berger was at a destination wedding five years ago in South Beach when he initially had the idea for
Social Tables, cloud-based event planning software that has slowly infiltrated the hospitality industry to a point that he can now count 117 Hilton Hotels, numerous Hyatts and countless caterers among the 3,000 current Social Tables clients.
"I can't stand not knowing critical information about someone," Berger, who pronounces his first name "Dahn," explains. The initial idea for Social Tables, then, was a site that would combine seating charts with social networking information to help attendees at assigned-seating events figure out who they were sitting next to and chat with them before the event began.
Things, as they say in the startup world, have changed. "Now, Social Tables does event planning for the hospitality [industry]. We lead with product, data and customer service."
Berger officially launched Social Tables in February 2011. The journey from single entrepreneur to leading a team of 60 appears to be an upward trajectory. After making a few local
headlines shortly after launch, Social Tables was accepted into the
Fort's incubator in 2012 and raised a $500,000 seed round later than year. The company moved to 1776 for incubation in 2013, and in June
announced a $1.6 million equity round.
The upward trajectory has just continued into 2014. The influx of funds has meant hiring, hiring and more hiring, which has necessitated more space. Berger moved the company out of 1776 and into its own offices in Chinatown at the beginning of the year. Another raise—to the tune of $8 million (August 2014)--has allowed Berger to continue to build out sales and engineering/operations teams and to take over additional space in the office. Social Tables now has more than 10,000 square feet dedicated to corporate clients all over the map.
Helming a mid-sized business—even one with a typical startup atmosphere—isn't all fun and games. Berger acknowledges he's made sacrifices. "I was dating a girl for three years," he says. "We're no longer together." He also cops to "still putting in 100-hour weeks," and says he's had to "let go" of parts of the business that just don't fit with where Social Tables is today.
"I didn't expect this," Berger says, of Social Tables's success. "I build on success and learn from failure." He has picked up a few ideas along the way that help him steer the company.
- "It takes a ridiculous amount of chutzpah, grit and hustle to be able to get up when you're down—to be able to push for meeting."
- "I'm good at a lot of things, but I'm not great at all of them. I can wear multiple hats. Wearing the right hat at the right time [gives me] the ability to get through multiple challenges."
- "You have to be really good at hiring. We've been lucky at that and we take it really seriously."
- "Being intellectually curious—being able to take all the noise and filter it, and picking and choosing the right advice to take [is important]. You have to listen to your gut."
Despite the somewhat alarming trend of tech startups leaving the District once they hit a certain level of success, Berger says Social Tables isn't going anywhere. "I'm in a bubble," he says. "We're not going anywhere. We believe in D.C., with its potential for hospitality."
Due to an editing error, a previous version of this article stated that Veenome had left D.C. for greener pastures; this is untrue. Veenome remains headquarterted in Virginia. Elevation DC regrets the error.