Our story
NextSet exists for the rooms where people gather — the club on a Friday night, the mats at six a.m., the hall where two families become one. This is the story of why we build it, and who it’s for.
01 · The beginning
NextSet began with two friends — Jonathan Ellis and Matthew Dauk — and a shared love of live music, along with a shared frustration at how often great nights ran on guesswork.
Anyone who has played a bill knows the feeling: set times drifting, a changeover stretching past its slot, a band pacing side-stage wondering if they’re on in five minutes or forty. The show was always good. The running of it rarely was.
So they built the thing they wished every room had — one live rundown the director, the stage, and the whole venue can see. When the clock, the crew, and the crowd are looking at the same truth, the room syncs up. That moment is what NextSet is for.
02 · The turn
Away from the stage, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu became a family thing. Jonathan’s wife trains, and he and his daughter are enrolling. Watching from the side of the mat, he saw something familiar: gyms running world-class communities on whiteboards, group chats, and the memory of whoever opened the doors that morning.
The people were extraordinary. The tools weren’t. Coaches who could shape a student’s whole life were spending their evenings chasing attendance sheets.
That’s why NextSet’s gym platform exists — so dojos around the world can join a community built around a simple idea: the gym and its students come first. The rounds go up on the big screen, check-in runs itself, and coaches get their evenings back for coaching.
Gyms and their students first. Everywhere.
03 · The future
The more rooms we walked into, the more we saw the same picture. A wedding is a show. A conference is a show. A Sunday service, a festival, a karaoke night — every gathering has a rundown, a room full of people, and someone quietly holding it all together.
So NextSet grew into one platform for all of them — human-powered, run by real people, never on autopilot. Community first, always. We’re built in Edmonton, growing globally, and we’re just getting started.
Whatever kind of gathering you run, there’s a place for you here — and real people on the other end when you need us.