Saint Louis, MO – August 11, 2026 – Curate, the event operations platform built for caterers, florists, venues, and special-event professionals, today announced that the one millionth proposal was created in the Curate platform on Sunday, August 9.
The one million proposals collectively represent more than $5 billion in proposed event value across businesses using Curate to sell, plan, produce, and deliver events.
“A million proposals means a million human moments,” said Ryan O’Neil, founder and CEO of Curate. “A wedding, a company anniversary, a backyard celebration, a major catered event. Behind every proposal is someone trying to create a moment that matters for someone else. Our job has always been to get event professionals out of the busywork so they can spend more time doing that.”
From one kitchen table to one million proposals
Curate began with a problem O’Neil saw firsthand in his family’s event business.
One evening, his wife was sitting at their kitchen table building a custom wedding proposal while moving between spreadsheets, invoicing software, outdated cost sheets, a paper contract, and information collected from the client.
The challenge was bigger than creating another proposal. It was connecting all of the information required to price the event accurately, protect the profitability of the business, and still give the client the experience they expected.
That experience became the foundation for Curate.
“The goal was never to add another piece of software for the sake of software,” O’Neil said. “It was to automate the administrative work that pulls people away from their customers. We believed a growing, profitable event business should not have to compromise the customer experience to operate efficiently. A million proposals later, that is still the job.”
Today, Curate has grown into a connected event operations platform supporting caterers, florists, venues, hospitality groups, and other special-event businesses.
What one million proposals have revealed
A proposal is often where an event begins to take shape. Pricing, menus, quantities, timelines, staffing, payments, client selections, and other critical details come together there, creating the foundation for the planning, production, and execution work that follows.
Across one million proposals, combined with years of customer conversations, Curate has seen recurring patterns in how event businesses operate and where complexity grows.
Among them:
Faster proposal creation gives teams more time for client service and customization.
Information captured during the sales process becomes more valuable when it continues into planning and production.
Reusable menus, templates, pricing structures, and event details can reduce repetitive administrative work.
Shared information helps sales, operations, finance, and production teams stay aligned as an event changes.
Connected event data creates a stronger foundation for automation and practical uses of artificial intelligence.
Those lessons have become increasingly important as event businesses manage higher client expectations, frequent revisions, staffing pressures, tighter margins, and information that must move accurately across multiple teams.
“The future of event operations is connected,” O’Neil said. “When the right information moves with the work, teams can respond faster, reduce repetitive tasks, and spend more time serving their clients. And as AI becomes capable of handling more administrative work, we see an opportunity to help event professionals be more human, not less.”
The next million
Curate’s growth is continuing to accelerate. At the company’s current pace, its customers are expected to reach 10 million proposals faster than it took to reach the first million.
For Curate, the milestone represents both a celebration of what customers have built and a foundation for what comes next.
Curate will mark the occasion during The Millionth Proposal, a live webinar on August 25 at 2 PM ET / 1 PM CT. O’Neil will share what Curate has learned from one million proposals, how special-event businesses are changing, and where the company believes event operations are headed next.
To register for the webinar, visit: https://curate.co/webinars/million-proposals/
About Curate
Curate is catering management and event operations software built for caterers and special-event businesses. The platform connects proposals, client communication, event planning, recipes and production, payments, and reporting in one connected event record. Curate helps catering companies, venues, florists, and event teams reduce repetitive administrative work while keeping sales and operations aligned.
For more information, visit curate.co.
Media ContactCompany Name: CurateContact Person: Eugene FarberEmail: Send EmailCountry: United StatesWebsite: https://curate.co
