About 18 minutes into our conversation, Elise Mol mentions a fun stat: “ninety-seven percent of people go to an event because someone else is going.” It captures the heart of what she is passionate about: making sure the other 3% start being ambassadors. Spoiler: that is not about the ad spend either.
Elise is co-founder of BASH, a company that helps event organizers sell out their event by helping them create and activate a community of visitors.
In episode 167, she takes us on her journey as a co-founder of an event marketing business that started as a replacement for Facebook Events. We talk about
- What it meant to gear up only to go back to zero as COVID lockdowns were lifted and then reinstated,
- Why BASH sells to the organizers who get their concept, not the ones having problems selling out.
- How BASH founders use investors who have been builders to ensure they get the advice they need to make the right decisions.
In the end, the conversation with Elise Mol is about how community is central to building a loyal following base and selling out an event. But I think the main takeaway extends beyond the event space: startups need to create markets too. So community building is a core component of building a company. medicine, and, towards the end, a full set of takeaways for founders who are fundraising.
Start listening by pressing play below.
Or keep reading for practical takeaways, highlights, and trends from the episode.
Practical Takeaways for Founders
In order to be successful, founders, like event organizers, have to find early fans who can turn into ambassadors. So even though a big part of our conversation is about events, there are a few learnings from this episode that apply to founders too. Here are three.
Sell to your early fans
Elise is very clear on the target audience for BASH: we sell to the ones who already get it. For events, that is the 3% discoverers and super fans who follow a specific artist anywhere. For founders, it’s usually the 2,5% of innovators. It’s a way to avoid having to convince the skeptics, and you’re more likely to activate the early buyers as ambassadors for your product and your growth.
Partner with “Founder-Investors”
So far, BASH raised €2 million. It did so from angel investors who had built startups themselves. That wasn’t by accident. It was a way to work with people who shared their entrepreneurial mindset so the pitches land more naturally. These investors also bring invaluable lessons that help BASH founders avoid costly operational mistakes. Both are characteristics that all founders can benefit from.
Schedule time for thinking
If there is one thing founders are short on, it is time to think. Elise shares that she actively blocks out time in her calendar to think. She also recommends writing down the specific problem or question to contemplate, as this allows the brain to process it subconsciously during routine, daily tasks like cycling or doing the dishes.
What connects these takeaways is that they’re all about consciously putting your attention and effort on one specific thing, rather than doing everything at the same time.
Know a founder who could benefit from some focused energy? Use the share buttons below to share the episode with them.
Or scroll down for magic moments.
Highlights and timestamps
| Time | Highlight |
|---|---|
| 00:00 | Introduction |
| 04:50 | BASH and Its Origins |
| 07:04 | The Impact of COVID-19 on Event Planning |
| 10:05 | Transitioning from User to Organizer Focus |
| 12:53 | Challenges Faced by Event Organizers Post-COVID |
| 16:08 | The Importance of Early Ticket Sales |
| 18:51 | Building Community and FOMO in Event Marketing |
| 21:46 | BASH’s Role in Supporting Event Organizers |
| 26:43 | The Art of Event Organization |
| 32:46 | Building Community Through Events |
| 38:39 | Scaling and Cultural Considerations |
| 42:38 | Goal Setting and Company Growth |
| 46:09 | Design Principles for Trust and Belonging |
The Episode In an Infographic
3 Magic Moments In The Episode
Startups face constant pressure to take the easier path, the quicker pivot, the shortcut that gets results faster. Across this conversation, Elise shares examples of how BASH founders kept choosing not to. Here are three magic moments that show what that looked like in practice.
Staying True to Real-Life Connection
When lockdowns hit in 2020, BASH had an easy way out: go fully digital, as plenty of community platforms did at the time. Elise and her co-founders didn’t take it. As the team really flows on the belief that real-life connection is what they should be building toward, they decided not to pivot to “a Discord setting”.
The magic of an amazing event
Elise co-founded a company that helps event organizers sell more tickets through marketing and community. Yet when asked what actually makes an event succeed, she puts the credit elsewhere: “the most valuable thing you can do as an organizer is just create an amazing event… that is ninety percent of the work.” BASH, in her own accounting, is the other ten.
The “Pay-It-Forward” Female Founder Design Principle
When asked what would make a trust-and-belonging tool actually work, Elise didn’t hesitate: turn your biggest fans into advocates. It’s the same loop BASH runs on, and she sees the female founder ecosystem as built for exactly this, people who’ve made it, pulling others up behind them.
In an industry that rewards speed and constant pivoting, Elise’s magic is holding her ground: on real-life connection, on what actually sells out an event, and on who gets to benefit when something works.
🗣 What was your magic moment from the episode? Was it one of the moments above, or maybe a totally different moment? Drop your magic moment below or slide into the DMs on LinkedIn or Instagram!
Or scroll down for my favorite quote from the episode.
The Quote from the Episode
Selling tickets is becoming more difficult as event visitors have less to spend and more options competing for it. Elise's advice: sell some tickets early, then let those buyers help you fill the room. In her own words:
“Getting those first people on board is really like its own marketing channel.”
— Elise Mol, co-founder of BASH
Want to try what being an ambassador feels like? Use the share button to let your crowd know about the episode.
3 Trends I’m Seeing Across Conversations
Elise and the other founders skipped the shortcuts when building BASH, choosing instead to focus on what stayed close to their own core beliefs. In our conversation, three trends surfaced that have touchpoints with other episodes.
Preferring Real-Life Connection Over Digital Isolation
BASH founders decided not to go digital when almost everyone else did. They knew that humans are social creatures who would prefer real-life connections over digital ones. We saw this before in episode 149, where Marsha Goei built a dating app that sent matches off on their first date rather than keeping them chatting in the app. Earlier on, in episode 118, Anouk Vlietman talked about the “epidemic of disconnection” and the absolute necessity of prioritizing human connection, empathy, and curiosity as technologies like AI advance.
Preferring investors with startup experience
Elise and her co-founders specifically focused on attracting investors who have built startups themselves. This preference is not new if you’ve been listening to the podcast for a while. Back in episode 124, Anieke Lamers mentioned how having experience as both founder and investor helps her do her work as partner at the Borski Fund. And in episode 146, Faviola Dadis emphasized the importance of shared operational wisdom when looking for investors.
Preferring to focus on the thing you do best
BASH is not a one-size-fits-all solution for event organizers. They rely on ticketing platforms like Paylogic and Weeztix to do the ticketing part so BASH can focus on the community activation. In episode 152, interestingly also about events, Izzy Sayers described the importance for founders to focus on what they’re good at and getting external input from experts on other topics. Along those same lines, Eliza Moore shared in episode 148 how operators can play a key role in bringing the vision of founders to life.
The pattern that holds across all three: founders who resist the shortcut, in connection, in capital, in what they build themselves, tend to end up with something that lasts longer than the easier version would have.
🗣️ What was the value you got from listening to this episode? I’d love to hear from you in the comments.
Leave a Reply
Coming Up On Women Disrupting Tech
For female endurance athletes, the real challenge isn’t only the hormonal transition they go through during menopause; it’s how to keep performing through it, without the support of a training plan that is tailored to their situation.
That’s the subject of episode 168, where Karianne Kraaijestein, founder of Adaptive, joins me to talk about coaching female endurance athletes through this transition using the data their bodies actually need, instead of training plans built for someone else’s.
In the clip below, she explains why this shift can feel like falling off a cliff, start as early as the mid-thirties for some women and the mid-forties for others, and why so many women notice something changing in their bodies and their performance without being able to name what it is.
Curious why women are more suited for endurance sports, also at a later stage and how Adaptive helps them sustain their athletic performance while going through hormonal changes? Simply leave your email below to find the episode in your inbox on 3 September 2026 at 8:00 hours CEST.
Until then, as always, keep being awesome,
Dirkjan
What I Want to Leave You With
This episode started when I connected with Elise through Marsha Goei at an AtVenture Event. And a few weeks later, at the Culture Code organized by House of Inclusion, I heard about how community and early ticket sales play into the success of an event. Call it serendipity, but it helped me prepare.
At its core, this episode highlights that in an increasingly crowded event space, having a community of ambassadors can be the difference between being able to grow and scrambling to sell enough tickets to break even.
What I specifically remember is that discount codes and early bird discounts could soon be replaced by exclusive offers and ambassadors. That is in line with a broader societal longing for real human connection.
Another thing that I keep from this episode is Elise’s advice to treat the early supporters of FundingCoach as ambassadors who can help me build a thriving community.
Finally, by the time you listen to this episode, Elise has decided to leave BASH to pursue other opportunities. She continues to support the remaining founders in making BASH a success.
Listen to the full conversation with Elise Mol on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube. And if you are a female founder navigating a funding conversation, take a look at FundingCoach.ai.
About Elise Mol
Elise Mol is co-founder of BASH, a platform that helps event organizers turn ticket buyers into a community-driven marketing engine. She has been building BASH from the ground up since 2020, when she and her co-founders started the company at the height of the pandemic.
Her role has shifted with what the company needed most, from designing the data architecture and building the financial models that helped BASH raise €2 million in its early days, to leading sales and customer success as the team works toward product-market fit.
You can connect with her on LinkedIn.
About BASH
BASH helps event organizers sell tickets earlier by turning their existing community into a presale engine. Organizers give their community exclusive, personal access to tickets through WhatsApp and email, before a wider public sale opens, rather than relying on public early-bird discounts that don't distinguish loyal fans from anyone else. BASH works alongside existing ticket providers like Paylogic and Weeztix rather than replacing them, adding a community and presale layer on top of the ticketing systems organizers already use.
BASH was founded in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, and has worked with organizers including Audio Obscura, Lofi, and Korsakov.
You can learn more on the website, or connect with BASH on LinkedIn or Instagram.
Listen to Episode 167 on Spotify, Apple or YouTube
Featured Event: TEDx Coolhaven Women
The TEDx Coolhaven Women event takes place on 9 October from 6:30 to 11:30 in the evening at HAL4 aan de Maas in Rotterdam. This year’s theme is The New Builders, a theme that seamlessly aligns with the content on this podcast.
Throughout the evening, you’ll hear powerful TEDx talks from women who are redesigning the systems that shape our lives—from leadership and parenting to women’s health, mental healthcare, and access to investment capital. Together, they’ll explore what it really takes to build a better future.
As a proud media sponsor, I am happy to offer you a chance to be there in person, to listen to groundbreaking talks and meet and network with like-minded people. As a listener to the podcast, you’ll get a 25% discount when you use the code WDT25 at checkout. And even though this is a TEDx Women event, men are very welcome to join.
- 🗓️ 9 October 2026, from 18:30 - 23:30
- 📍 HAL4 aan de Maas in Rotterdam
- 🎟️ You can buy your ticket here.
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