Step In.Link Up.
The people beside you love the same night you do. From the front row to the back of the lounge, GateMate helps you actually meet them — check in, see who's here, and say hi.
The scene we're built for
How it works
Three taps from stranger to scene.
Step In
Arrive at a venue and check in to the live GateLink. You're instantly part of tonight's room — no adding friends, no searching.
Connect
See everyone who's here right now. Browse quick profiles, spot your kind of people, and send a connect with a single tap.
Say Hi
Break the ice before the lights go down. Keep the conversation going long after the encore — your night, now a network.
The app
Built for the moment you're in it.
Check in the moment you arrive
One tap places you in tonight's GateLink. The room opens up the instant you walk through the door.
See it in motion
This is GateMate, for real.
A first look at the actual app — the gate opens, the room lights up, and the people around you are one tap away.
The badge system
Every great scene rewards the regulars.
Badges live on every GateMate profile — venue and attendee. They're the proof of belonging, the reason to come back, and the reason venues love the crowd we bring.
For the people who show up.
Earn badges just for being present. Rare ones for the first 100 waitlisters and one-of-a-kind moments at launch.
Founding 100
One of the first 100 people on the GateMate waitlist. Permanent.
Earn: Sign up in the first 100.
Squad Builder
Helped connect three or more groups at live events.
Earn: Form 3 groups via GateLink.
First Nighter
Checked in on the opening night of a venue's first GateLink.
Earn: Check in on a venue's launch night.
Deep Ellum Regular
Five or more check-ins in the Deep Ellum neighborhood.
Earn: 5 check-ins in Deep Ellum.
Uptown Regular
Five or more check-ins in Uptown Dallas.
Earn: 5 check-ins in Uptown.
For the venues that make the night.
Venue badges are earned, not bought. They tell your crowd — and every guest who lands on your GateMate profile — that this is somewhere real.
Verified Partner
Official GateMate partner venue. Verified and vetted by our team.
Earn: Sign a partner agreement.
Community Loved
100+ groups have formed at this venue through GateMate.
Earn: Host 100 group formations.
Squad Magnet
Top 10% of venues for return-with-friends visits.
Earn: Top 10% squad-return rate.
Buzz of the Week
Highest new check-ins of any DFW venue this week.
Earn: Weekly rotating top spot.
Founding Venue
One of the first 25 DFW venue partners. Permanent perk pricing.
Earn: Sign up in the first 25.
The manifesto
The room is the network.
Every event is a temporary city of people who chose the same night. GateMate makes it legible.
Presence over profiles.
You don't need a bio to matter. You need to be there — and to be reachable while you are.
The night shouldn't end at the exit.
The best connections deserve a second act. We keep the thread alive.
Why GateMate
Social media made us lonely. Presence fixes it.
Real-time, not a feed
GateMate only matters when you're actually somewhere. No endless scroll — just the people in the room with you tonight.
Ephemeral by design
The GateLink lives for the event and gracefully fades after. You control who you keep.
Your kind of people
Shared taste is the filter. The crowd already chose the same night — we just help you find each other.
Made for DFW nights
Built venue-by-venue with the Dallas-Fort Worth scene — from Deep Ellum concert halls and arena games to Uptown rooftops and late-night lounges.
Real connections
No lost usernames in a dark, loud room. Meet in the moment, keep the thread after.
Loved by venues
Turn a one-time ticket into a returning community. Partners get a social layer their crowd actually uses.
For venues & operators
Why the best DFW venues say yes.
You already have a POS, a ticketing platform and reservations. GateMate isn't replacing any of that — it's the engagement layer that turns tonight's atmosphere into next month's repeat revenue.
Zero install
No hardware. No POS integration. No staff training.
Your GateLink is a code and a QR poster. Set it once, it lives at the door. You keep your reservations, ticketing and POS exactly as they are.
New customers
Every check-in becomes a marketing event.
When a guest checks in and makes new friends at your venue, their whole crew now knows your name. GateMate turns tonight's crowd into next week's return visit.
Repeat visits
Squads come back. And they come back together.
People who make real friends at your venue treat it like their spot. We measure a metric no POS gives you: how many groups that formed here returned within 30 days.
Measurable metrics
A dashboard your POS will never give you.
Check-ins per event · Return-with-squad rate · Groups formed · Peak-hour crowd overlap. Real signals about atmosphere, not just receipts.
See the return visits your POS can't currently see.
Your POS counts individuals. GateMate counts groups that formed at your venue and came back together. Estimates below use a 25–40% squad-return rate and an average squad size of 3 — actual numbers show live in your dashboard as your GateLinks run.
Projected monthly impact
Groups formed / month
69
Return visits from those squads
52–83
Invisible-to-POS revenue*
$2,340–$3,735
*Revenue your POS attributes to "walk-in" or "unknown" — because POSes see individual receipts, not the group that formed here last week and returned tonight.
Venue dashboard preview
Numbers your POS will never show you.
Check-ins tonight
184
+22% vs last Fri
Groups formed
12
3 squads of 4+
Return-with-squad
34%
top 15% in DFW
Peak crowd overlap
10:40pm
116 concurrent
Weekly squad returns
How GateMate is different
Not another consumer app. Not another POS report.
There are meet-people-at-events apps. There are POS analytics platforms. Neither gives you what atmosphere-driven venues actually need. Here's the honest map.
Consumer apps we've studied include Radiate, EventBuddie, Friendstival and ConcertBuddy. POS analytics platforms include SevenRooms, OpenTable Reporting and Bloom Intelligence. Comparison is directional — we're happy to walk through it in a call.
What we don't do
The guardrails, so you know what you're actually agreeing to.
We're not trying to be everything. Here's the honest short list of things GateMate won't touch.
We don't touch your POS.
Nothing to integrate. No IT ticket. Your existing setup keeps working exactly as it does today.
We don't push discounts.
No 2-for-1 promos, no loyalty punch cards eating your margin. Our loop is connection, not coupons.
We don't sell guest data.
Guest connections belong to the guest. We share aggregate patterns with you, never individual profiles.
We don't fix your labor problems.
Staffing, cost control, insurance, licensing — those aren't our lane. We're the atmosphere layer, not the operations layer.
We don't require hardware.
No kiosks, no tablets, no beacons. A QR poster and a code — that's it.
We don't gate you behind a contract.
$0 until you see measurable impact. Leave whenever. We earn our seat every month.
How we'll make money
The core venue dashboard stays free forever for our first 25 Founding Venues. Beyond that, a light per-check-in fee kicks in only once your GateLink drives measurable results.Never guest data. Never a cut of your bar. Never discounts eating your margin.
Founding Venue tier
The first 25 DFW venue partners get the perks that never come back.
- Permanent Founding Venue badge on your GateMate profile
- Free forever pricing on the core analytics dashboard
- Featured placement in the "Discover" feed at launch
- Direct line to the founding team for feedback and requests
$0 until you see measurable impact.
Download the Venue Playbook (PDF)
Founder
Meet Dr. Dominique Hilliard
A researcher and community builder, Dr. Hilliard founded GateMate after one too many nights surrounded by thousands of people — and no easy way to meet any of them. His work sits at the intersection of behavioral science and belonging, and GateMate is the product of that thesis: presence beats profiles, every time.
Venue partners
Bring GateMate to your venue.
Concert hall, lounge, rooftop or club — request your own GateLink and give your crowd a reason to connect, stay longer, and come back together.
- A live GateLink your crowd actually uses
- Turn one-time tickets into a returning community
- Zero setup — we generate your venue code
Insights
The GateMate playbook.
Investors
Own a piece of how the world meets.
GateMate is pre-seed and building the social layer for live events, starting in DFW. Request our deck to see the market, the model, and the roadmap.
$30B+
US live music market
Top 5
fastest-growing US metros
FAQ
Questions, answered.
Everything you need to know before you step in — whether you're coming to a show or running the venue.