Media Kit — Side Door

Fact Sheet

Founded
April 2017

Platform
Web-based platform supporting in-person shows.

Official Platform Launch
February 2019

Head Office
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Users

Audience
More than 91,862 users who purchase tickets.

Artists
More than 9,307 individuals or groups offering any kind of performance.

Hosts
More than 3,195 individuals or groups with a space that can hold 20 people or more.

Stats

As of September 2023, Side Door has facilitated 2271 shows and artists have earned more than $1.5 million.

Awards

2023 CIMA Make it Music winner - Fearless Award
2022 SOCAN Award winner - Licensed to Play
2022 East Coast Music Awards winner - Company of the Year
2022 Canadian Live Music Association nominee - Company/Organization
2022 Halifax Business Awards nominee - Innovative Business of the Year

Founders & Executive Team

Laura Simpson is a music industry professional, living with her family in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She founded The Syrup Factory, which began hosting house concerts in 2011 and offering strategy and services to artists in 2015. She has been an organizer in the arts scene since she was 14, going to all-ages shows and then eventually taking live music photography and freelance writing about shows and artists. That led her to be a journalist for seven years, working for CBC and Rogers Radio. Eventually, she found her way back into the music world and worked as Export Development Officer and Communications Manager for Music Nova Scotia. She has also managed and produced for the Halifax Jazz Festival, CAPACOA, and the East Coast Music Association. In 2015, Laura mentored with the top-tier music marketing team at Black Box in Los Angeles. She has juried for Music Nova Scotia, Halifax Pop Explosion, CBC Music Searchlight competition, and the JUNOs.

Dan Mangan is a two-time JUNO award-winning & two-time Polaris Music Prize-listed musician and songwriter. He lives in Vancouver, British Columbia with his wife and two sons. He has scored TV shows for Netflix, CBC, and AMC, as well as Hector And The Search For Happiness, a feature film starring Simon Pegg. Mangan has released 5 studio LPs, and a handful of EPs and has spent more than a decade touring extensively in North America, Europe, the UK, and Australia. Dan got his start as a DIY artist playing house concerts and underground arts spaces. He learned early on the value that this ecosystem can bring to artists and audiences alike. To help acts on his small record label tour, Dan created a spreadsheet-based network of house concert hosts in 2015. The Madic Records House Concert Series caught the imaginations of many and was the blueprint for what has now become Side Door.

Alex Plumb came to Side Door in early 2018 as the company’s sole technical hire. Over time, he’s helped build the product and team that Side Door has today. Starting with a technical MVP in Fall 2018, a 1.0 release in early 2019, a 2.0 in the early days of the pandemic, and, in August 2022, a 3.0 release to mark the start of new things to come. Alex originally came to Halifax from Boston, Massachusetts for his bachelor’s degree and has worked in technical architecture and leadership roles in government and other startups ever since.