According to Crain's Chicago Business site, PartySlate, which is similar to home-building and decorating site Houzz, went live in May. Event vendors, such as photographers, caterers and venue providers, post photos of their work and profiles. Consumers browse the site looking for ideas and providers. More than 2,000 vendors have posted so far on the site, says CEO and co-founder Julie Novack.

The site is free for vendors and consumers. But Novack says it plans to start charging vendors who want premium positioning on the site, using a subscription model. 'If we can get 5 to 10 percent (of vendors) to pay for an elevated presence on the site, we can have a great model,' Novack said.

PartySlate raised $1 million 18 months ago. The most recent financing, completed a week ago, was led by Hyde Park Venture Partners and included Hyde Park Angels, InvestHER Ventures, Los Angeles-based WaveMaker Partners, Jump Investors and Halogen Ventures.

'It's a big market. People spend more than $100 billion a year spent on parties and events, and no one dominates it,' said Ira Weiss, general partner at Hyde Park Venture Partners.

The company has 12 employees, up from five a year ago. PartySlate has expanded from Chicago to Dallas, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Next up is New York. Novack hopes to be in a dozen cities by year-end. Based at 1871, PartySlate has participated in both WiSTEM, an incubator at 1871 for women-led tech companies, and Techstars Chicago, an accelerator at 1871.