The Partytrick Up Your Sleeve

Virginia Frischkorn, founder and CEO of Partytrick, set out to ease the pressure that practically everyone faces at some point in their life—that of hosting an event. The average person has roughly 30 gatherings per year, but whether it be a wedding, a 1-year-old’s birthday party or a first date, Partytrick was created to become a “virtual party planner in your pocket.” 

Frischkorn has been named one of the Top 50 Planners Worldwide by Vogue and Martha Stewart Weddings and was recognized as a Top 10 Innovator in EventTech—as an award-winning event planner with over 15 years of experience creating unforgettable celebrations, her repertoire includes everything from $500,000 to $5 million weddings, corporate and non-profit events and brand activations for Ferrari, Chanel and Loro Piana … just to name a few. 

“I saw what all these other planners were doing and I’m super Type-A. I thought, ‘This is really boring. It’s all cookie-cutter bull**** … I’ll just start my own thing.” –Virginia Frischkorn

“Give me a million dollars, I can go spend it really well,” she says. “But … if I have to plan something for my kids and a 2-year-old birthday party or 1-year-old birthday party, I didn’t know what to do. I’m not a great DIY person. I can bring all the people together and manage 300 people on site and get it done on time and under budget. But if I have to do it myself, I don’t know how to.” 

This feeling likely resonates with anyone who’s tried to throw a meaningful gathering like the ones you might see while scrolling social media everyday. So where do you typically start when it’s your turn to do the hosting? 

“You’re looking on TikTok, Instagram, Pinterest, Partiful—and maybe you’re using some sort of project management [software],” she says. “Then you’re going to some blog to try to find a recipe.” But with Partytrick, users have an “all-in-one solution for seamless event management.” 

Frischkorn described the user experience as being guided through every step of the process to equip you with the tools of creating an elevated event without the hassle. “You’ve got someone telling you where to go buy the cutest things, how to DIY it, what you should be playing for music, what the menu should be. And then it basically gives you a step by step paint-by-numbers solution.” 

Living amid the rise of the “experience economy,” a term coined by Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore in which a memory itself becomes the sellable product, we are witnessing the importance of social gatherings and how exclusive activations are becoming the next wave of ventures for small businesses and brands alike. “COVID hit and I realized that gathering is a necessity, not a luxury,” Frischkorn reflects of beginning the journey from event planner to tech founder: “How can I build, take what I built and bring it to the masses?” 

Originally from Virginia (yes, Virginia is, in fact, from Virginia), she ended up falling in love with Aspen, Colorado, and the event world early in her career. “I saw what all these other planners were doing, and I’m super Type-A. And I was like, ‘This is really boring.’ It’s all cookie-cutter bull**** and such a missed opportunity. And I was like, ‘Oh, I’ll just start my own thing.’” 

This “thing” was not yet Partytrick, but was the start of her first company: Bluebird Productions. “With Bluebird, we started initially with event marketing, event PR, social media management for the event industry, which wasn’t a thing yet.” 

The entrepreneurial apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, as much of her inspiration came from her late father. “My father was an entrepreneur,” she recalls. “We all just kind of grew up in that landscape of ‘If you can dream it and you can chart a path to it—like, no one’s gonna open the door for you. But you can figure it out.’ So it was like, ‘Alright, let me figure out how to take these tools and build something that can impact anyone and everyone for the better and really foster connection.’” 

She finally took the leap to launch a tech product—which would eventually turn into Partytrick—but the very next day after launching this new venture, her father passed away. The timing of this moment rocked their whole family’s world in a way that steered her next steps and the “why” behind building a company whose sole purpose was to help people create intentional gatherings. 

“My dad was my person,” she says. “And it was one of these things that caused my brother, my sister and I to have this moment of, ‘What are we doing? Why are we here?’ 

“I wanted to do something that's going to really impact the world and make it a better place. And that is, how can I teach everyone to do what we’re able to do? So I shut down Bluebird and launched what is now Partytrick, which took that kind of notion of templatizing what to do, when to do it, how to do it, for a farm-to-table dinner down to a kid’s birthday party to a cookie decorating class, whatever it might be.” 

Officially launching in 2022, it has quickly built and scaled a tech business for everyone, while continuing to take feedback and integrate more features soon to be even better able to service businesses and fellow entrepreneurs. That includes Ashley Liddell, founder of Winter Wonderland in Oklahoma City, which is having its first brand experience in Midtown Nov 15-Dec. 30. 

Frischkorn cited this local event as an example of the company’s current capabilities and she plans to expand the app’s current features: “With Winter Wonderland, the software doesn't support what it is right now. We can do some of our event marketing tools for now, but if Ashley wants to do this again next year, we know how to tap into it—and she can rinse and repeat and do the same event without having to search through thousands of emails.

“So we can basically—anytime we’re doing these experiences—really make it easy to bring joy, bring community, foster connection. I love what she’s done in particular and with Averie [Gibbins] on this particular event, because it’s like, how do you create these moments for experience? Experience matters.” 

This is the true motivator for Frischkorn and the Partytrick team. “It’s not about the stuff. It's not even about how beautiful it is all the time. It’s, ‘How do you create these shared experiences together that are meaningful?’ 

“I think, again, my dad really conquered that home.”

Find Frischkorn on LinkedIn and Instagram @virginia_frischkorn and explore her virtual party planning tool online at partytrick.com and on social media @partytrick.