Vennu activates empty spaces and brings revenue back to community organizations

Although founder Suzanne Campbell has 30 years of experience in the tech industry, Vennu did not come from a technology-first mindset. The idea originated when she saw a disconnect: valuable club spaces, heritage buildings, and school halls sat empty, while people searching for spaces hit dead ends and unanswered calls. A deep commitment to her regional community in New South Wales, Australia motivated her to find a solution. In her own words, “Living and working in a close-knit community sharpens your focus on solving problems. You can see a community hall locked up on a Wednesday afternoon and know that just around the corner, someone is trying to find a place to celebrate, run a workshop, host a meeting, or bring their community together.” 

Suzanne was moved to action when she learned that people in her town were lobbying for the construction of new community spaces. Although this effort indicated a strong demand for spaces, she was not convinced that new construction was the answer. She could see that the supply of empty local space was enormous. If these existing resources could be activated, booking revenue could also provide much-needed funding for ongoing community work. Both the supply and the demand existed. They simply needed to be connected. 

Thanks to her career in technology, Suzanne knew that the first version of her service needed to be launched quickly, not perfectly. She took a deliberate approach to weighing her options for marketplace platform services and chose Sharetribe, as it allowed her to launch quickly and start learning directly from the needs of hosts and guests. According to Suzanne, “Sharetribe gave us the marketplace infrastructure we needed without having to build it from scratch. The core functionality listings, search and filtering, messaging between hosts and guests, payment processing and reviews were already there and working. That meant we could focus our energy on what makes Vennu distinctive: our partners, user journeys, liability insurance integration, host support model, and our mission.”

While Vennu is a digital booking platform, the early work happened in the real world. As the business got off the ground, Suzanne engaged organizations one by one. She met personally with leaders from not-for-profits and others to explain how joining Vennu was not simply a tech solution; it was “a way to lift administration and generate vital revenue that flowed directly back into their community work, supporting everything from heritage hall maintenance to frontline programs.”   Many organizations hesitated until they sensed a genuine mission alignment between their own goals and Vennu's vision.

In some cases, she even took photos and helped hosts prepare listings that best reflected the potential of their space. By putting her own work into building stock, Suzanne worked around the chicken-and-egg problem common to marketplace businesses. With no-code tools, Vennu was able to launch quickly and begin validation, allowing users from both supply and demand to give feedback based on their real experiences. This iteration continues to shape the evolution of the platform: its features, integrations, and user trust. 

After years of steadily building Vennu and growing beyond her own hometown, expanding across multiple sectors and all of Australia, Suzanne still remembers her first transaction with a feeling of awe: “Our first transaction was a business workshop booking at a Surf Life Saving club facility. The small business knew the club, its hall and views. What they did not know was how to book the space, what it would cost and if, as non-members, they would be welcome. That first transaction was a proof of concept; more than that, it was a moment of real connection. Someone found a space they wouldn't have otherwise known about, and a community organisation received their first booking revenue through the platform. That's the Vennu story in miniature, and it is still meaningful when I hear those stories today.”

Suzanne’s advice to new founders? She warns against deploying new technology in search of a problem; instead, she encourages founders to discover their own community’s needs. By paying attention, spotting everyday frustrations, and testing ideas with the right people, founders can stay close to a mission: “That clarity of purpose will carry you through the hard moments.”