Plan a Hassle-Free Party With Divvydown

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Divvydown has delivered supplies for small parties like book clubs, as well as 500-person affairs since launching last summer. Photo: DivvyDown

DivvyDown, a new Williamsburg startup, has streamlined the party planning experience, making it possible to handle everything from invites to alcohol from the comfort of your couch. Victoria Runzel and Kendall Bird, the founders, are two college friends who launched their site back in August to help hosts throw hassle-free gatherings.

“The original idea came from the need for an easier way to get people together,” Bird says. “We noticed that it’s really difficult when you’re coordinating who’s bringing what to a party. The core essence of DivvyDown is divvying up the responsibilities, divvying up the cost, getting people together.”

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Kendall Bird (left) and Torie Runzel are the co-founders of DivvyDown, a new Williamsburg startup that helps people host hassle-free parties. Photo: DivvyDown



Bird and Runzel have stocked the site with wine, beer,  liquor, party supplies and even DJ set-ups and speaker rentals, from which you create a shopping list. You can also order cocktails by the glass, pitcher or punch bowl, so if you wanted say, 75 margaritas for Cinco de Mayo, DivvyDown can hook you up with all the pre-measured ingredients–no more liquor store hemming and hawing over how much hooch you need. Not sure what to choose based on your budget? Give Runzel and Bird a ring.

“We’re here to be that party buddy that people need,” Runzel says. “We’re here all the time to help them with their orders, talk them through it, help them figure out what to put on their list.”

Once you’ve finished shopping, you can either buy all your party supplies at once or use DivvyDown’s BYOB option to share the list with your guests. As a guest, you can choose to purchase specific items, say, a bottle of vodka, or just chip in a certain amount, like $20. Then, DivvyDown couriers deliver the entire order during a time slot of your choosing, and everyone can show up empty handed, having already contributed to the shindig.

“Bringing a bottle of wine to a party is something people are already doing at our age anyway,” Runzel says, “so why not pick something and purchase something that the host wanted, whether it be that it goes with the dinner party or it’s her favorite tequila and it’s her birthday party?”

DivvyDown also does on-demand delivery, even if you’re not using their site to throw a party. They’ll bring the booze to you in an hour, but there is a delivery minimum of $45 in Brooklyn.

Right now the service is operational in Manhattan, Williamsburg and Greenpoint, and Bird and Runzel are expanding their party planning into more of Brooklyn this spring. For straight-up delivery without the party planning or cost-sharing features, Minibar and Postsmates, which we wrote about last month, are both good alternatives, if you’re not in DivvyDown’s range.

“We’ve had parties from an eight-person book club to a 500-person New Year’s Eve party that have operated through the BYOB gift registry service,” Bird says. “It really serves all purposes, and we are working on updating the site and making the user experience even better at the moment.”

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