We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Elaine Cordova a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Elaine , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to start by getting your thoughts on what you are seeing as some the biggest trends emerging in your industry.

I am in the event industry. The world was locked up for quite some time and now, we are starting to see in-person interaction boom post-restriction. My company, The Quick Space, aims to bring the celebration of life and the warmth of togetherness back through an app that allows people to post their space or service for rent by the hour.

Currently, there is insufficient visibility into price & reservation availability for non-traditional venues & vendors. With an average 84-day lead time, event venues have limited availability, customization, and selection. Booking a location and finding vendors can be a difficult, stressful, and a time-consuming process.

For event space owners, there is an estimated 1.5 million vacant lots in the U.S that could be used to generate passive income. The consolidation of customers, vendors, and venues to streamline event reservation, market services, and provide payment protection does not yet exist- until now.

My team and I are excited to bring something new to the event industry world that will help people plan everyday events in a special, easy way.

Elaine , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Elaine Cordova and I was born in Havana, Cuba. I was raised in Miami where I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Public Relations, and MBA in Marketing, while working full-time in marketing at a multinational insurance company. While at Florida International University, I served as an event planner for international students studying at the English Language Institute. My job was to plan an event every week for the students to socialize and learn about Miami culture. I discovered that it was a tedious process to find the right venues, and impossible to coordinate the reservation of locations and vendors on one platform. Naturally, the idea for The Quick Space was born: a seamless way to book venues and event services on one app. I am now the CEO of a startup app fully funded and created by me.
Now that COVID-19 is under control, the world has begun to see an increase in social gatherings. Whether it’s a wedding, birthday party, summer bar-b-que, or any other imaginable occasion, events are on the rise. Up until now, the task of reserving a venue and hiring vendors has been a disjointed process, with limited visibility into pricing and availability. The Quick Space aims to improve the event planning process by uniting the customer, venue host, and vendors in one stress-free, on-demand app.
With a product launch scheduled for later this month, The Quick Space is poised to grow its inventory of venues and vendors. Sign-up is free, with full control over accepting/declining bookings given to hosts and service providers. Users will also be able to set forth clear guidelines for the types of events allowed and scope of services offered. The app is a marketplace where users can search for venues and vendors by location, availability dates, type, price, and reviews. Hosts and vendors will be able to compare their pricing to others to ensure that their asking rate is appropriate, while marketing themselves to customers. For event planners, the app will be a one-stop-shop for creating an awesome gathering.
Stay tuned for the product launch, follow us on social @thequickspace and on the app store at The Quick Space.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

My family and I immigrated to the United States when I were 3 years old. We faced many obstacles as a family and our approach was always innovative and relentless. My father strived to be his own boss, which inspired the desire for financial freedom I have today.

I started working at the age of 15 as a secretary for a real-estate mobile, at 16 I started waitressing at Johnny Rockets, I then wore the hats of a secretary, an event planner, and a marketing coordinator- until I finally landed a financially stable job, in marketing. Similar to my past jobs, I was quickly uninspired by the work I had to do. That’s when I started looking at law schools. Law wasn’t my passion but, it was a way to help people and it would cover my bills. I studied for months and before signing the papers to commit to a school, I pivoted.

I didn’t love law; it was just a safe decision. For one of the first times, I asked myself, “if the possibilities were endless, what would your amazing life consist of?”

I decided I wanted to work on something that promoted enjoying life and bringing the people you love together- so I decided to start conceptualizing The Quick Space.

Once I had the concept together, I searched for developers and hired then with my savings. Since then, I have been living through the ups and downs in enjoyment, because that is what life is all about.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill is a book that has impacted my life. It has influenced my leadership style, my business model and the faith in myself as a creator.

The Divine Art of Compensation is also an influential book that shifts your mindset to encourage you to act in love and trust yourself.

These books combined have helped me be confident in my life or business choices.

We all have access to a lot of information, how-to’s, personal success stories; and although the accessibility of it all is a blessing to have- it can convolute your personal life vision.

No one has the same exact life story and you have to believe that you are capable of executing a “unique to you” plan for your ultimate life story, in order to achieve it.

Contact Info:

• Website: linkin.bio/thequickspace
• Instagram: @thequickspace & @elainecordova_
• Linkedin: linkedin.com/thequickspace
• Twitter: @thequickspace & @itselainebro
• Other:

Image Credits
Skyler Crews, Elaine Cordova & Rahul Diwate