Moira Johnston & Nicky Rosin

Moira Johnston is the co-founder and CEO of EventRoom – a Cape Town based tech start-up that lists event spaces of every type from around the country. Moira started her career as a lawyer working in the corporate world in Cape Town. After completing her articles at Fairbridges, she completed a summer school programme at Havard University and then returned and joined a 2 man law start-up, Havemann Inc, where she worked for 2 years while simultaneously completing her LLM. Havemann Inc was subsequently acquired by ENSafrica, where Moira worked briefly in the marketing department before she left to co-found her first start-up: LawyerUp in 2014. Later that year Moira was at a friend’s baby shower at her spectacular home in Somerset West when she started thinking about similar events that she had attended and wondered whether she could hire out a similar space to throw a magnificent birthday bash herself. After doing some research she found out how hard it is in South Africa to find a venue for any sort of event, let alone anything unique or exciting like the venues on US and UK websites. And that’s how the idea for EventRoom was born.

Nicky Rosin is the co-founder and CFO of EventRoom. Nicky started her working career as a scientist, volunteering for the University of Washington in the forests of Northern California after having completed a BSc at Rhodes and a BSc (Med) Hons at UCT. She returned home at the end of 2005 to start her career as a scientist, but after a very unfulfilling year she found herself at a crossroads in her career. Having to decide whether to continue on the science pathway and do a PHd or to start from scratch, Nicky made the tough decision to switch careers and started studying accounting at UCT in 2007 with the ultimate aim of someday going into business for herself. So when Moira approached her with the idea to start EventRoom in 2014, at the point where Nicky was at the end of her articles contract at EY, she jumped at the opportunity.