Overview
Run The World built a platform for online conferences and social events. It combined ticketing and streaming with features designed to help attendees meet, including short one-to-one video conversations called cocktail parties. Xiaoyin Qu and Xuan Jiang founded the company in 2019, shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic made virtual events a necessity for many organizations. EventMobi acquired it in 2023 as in-person events returned. The original platform was scheduled to close and customers were offered a transition to EventMobi. [1][2][3]
Founding Story
Qu's mother, a doctor in China, had traveled through several flights and a visa process to attend a medical conference in Chicago. The connections she made there suggested the value of meeting people across borders, but the journey also showed the cost of getting to an event. Qu, a former Facebook product leader, and Jiang, a former colleague, started Run The World to bring professional gatherings online. [1][4]
Before the product was fully built, Qu said the founders used a combination of existing tools, including Zoom and Slack, to run events and test demand. They later built their own experience while using a third-party video streaming service. That early work supplied examples when they approached investors. [5]
Timeline
- 2019: Qu and Jiang founded Run The World. [1][4]
- 2020: The platform launched just before widespread pandemic closures. By the end of the year, Forbes reported 10,000 events hosted and a team that had grown from five to 45. [4]
- 2023: EventMobi acquired Run The World for undisclosed terms. The companies offered customers a transition to EventMobi as the original platform was scheduled to shut down. [1][3]
What They Built
Organizers could create events, sell tickets, stream sessions and follow up with attendees. Run The World also tried to reproduce the informal encounters around a physical conference. Its cocktail party feature matched people for short video conversations; video profiles helped attendees introduce themselves. [1]
In an early interview, Qu described starting with an event agenda and adding features that helped attendees meet during and after sessions. The company maintained a mobile app alongside its web experience. It used third-party video infrastructure while building the surrounding event experience itself. [5]
Market Position
Run The World launched into a rapidly expanding virtual events market. It competed with specialized event platforms such as Hopin and Bevy, as well as general meeting tools including Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet. Its distinction was a focus on networking and event organization around the video stream, not only the stream itself. [1]
The pandemic accelerated adoption across the category. As physical gatherings returned, the market changed again. TechCrunch cited Financial Times reporting that Run The World's public event discovery tab listed fewer than 500 events in April 2022, compared with more than 15,000 in November 2020. Those figures describe visible listings, not total usage or revenue. [1]
Business Model
The platform served organizations hosting virtual events and handled registration, ticket payments and event delivery. Its AppSumo listing promoted an offering to event organizers. Public reporting places total venture funding around $15 million, although different databases report different totals. The acquisition price and company profitability were not disclosed. [1][6]
Traction
Qu said the platform had supported more than 50,000 events and millions of people by the acquisition. TechCrunch identified organizations including Harvard, Meta and Amazon among its customers. Earlier, Forbes reported 10,000 events by the end of 2020. These figures show the scale described by the company and press; they do not establish how many organizers paid or returned. [1][2][4]
Outcome and evolution
In 2023, a dispute between the co-founders also reached court. Run The World sued Jiang, and Jiang filed counterclaims against the company, Qu, Andreessen Horowitz and a partner at the firm. In August 2024, a federal judge dismissed Jiang's federal counterclaim and declined jurisdiction over her state claims, which could be filed in state court. In August 2026, the court granted the company's motion for partial summary judgment on its federal computer-access claim and awarded $17,703.25 in damages; it declined jurisdiction over the company's remaining state claims. The court noted that related state litigation remained active. 2024 federal order 2026 federal order
In August 2023, EventMobi acquired Run The World. Its founder described the deal as a way to serve hybrid events after the return to in-person gatherings. EventMobi invited customers to transition to its platform. Northstar Meetings Group reported that Run The World would shut down and existing accounts and contracts would be canceled under the acquisition FAQ. [1][3]
Qu later said the sale was not the large outcome she had expected and described the sharp loss of momentum after the pandemic. That is her account of the experience; the undisclosed deal terms do not support a precise investor return. [7]
Key Lessons
Run The World addressed a specific weakness of online conferences: attendees needed ways to meet, not just watch. It also faced a difficult shift when the exceptional demand for virtual-only events receded. Its public event listings fell, but the available evidence does not measure the full business decline or isolate every reason for the sale. [1][7]