Canadian-based live event platform Side Door was set to make its big launch in the U.S. at this year's South by Southwest, when the annual Austin festival was canceled in early March.
Side Door, which matches artists with unconventional venues for live shows, saw its entire slate of concerts upended before co-founder and artist Dan Mangan decided to host an online show via Zoom."After a week of feeling completely hopeless, I was in the virtual audience of [Dan's] show and it felt for the first time like we could create community online, which was extraordinary," says Side Door co-founder and CEO Laura Simpson. "It was a completely different experience than what I had had watching Instagram lives or Facebook lives.