Nola: Empowering stadiums, theme parks and retailers to optimise operations, elevate customer experiences, and enhance crowd safety

Nola has evolved rapidly from a simple queue wait-time solution to a comprehensive crowd analytics platform, tackling key operational challenges in Australia’s hospitality and entertainment industries. By leveraging cutting-edge AI technology, Nola utilises a venue’s existing CCTV systems to extract actionable and anonymised insights from the visitor journey. Today, Nola is successfully helping stadiums, theme parks and retailers to optimise operations, elevate customer experiences and enhance crowd safety.

"It's all about customer experience. We focus on increasing average spend per visitor, enhancing the customer experience, and improving operational efficiency. We deliver insights either in real-time or historically, to help businesses achieve these goals," said Victoria Zorin, Founder, Nola.

Fueling a passion for emerging technologies through experience

Zorin attributes her career journey as the catalyst for founding Nola. Her professional path began at a leading Australian e-commerce marketplace, where she was among the first ten employees. During her time there, she witnessed the company grow from a scrappy startup to a team of 100, generating over $40 million in revenue.

“Being part of that early growth phase taught me how to bootstrap a business from the ground up – how to be scrappy, stretch every dollar, and find creative ways to grow with limited resources,” Zorin shared. “I also saw first-hand the intense pressures founders face in building something from nothing.”

After transitioning into the B2B technology sector, Zorin spent four years at a cloud software distributor, now known as Crayon Channel, where she served as Global Marketing Director. There, her passion for emerging technologies deepened.

“It was during that time I really saw the power of AI and computer vision to transform industries,” she explained. “One of the earliest examples that stuck with me was how computer vision could deliver real-time data to automate operations in sectors like agriculture.”

With over a decade of experience in both high-growth startups and B2B technology, Zorin brings a unique blend of commercial acumen and technical curiosity to her role as founder of Nola.

Entrepreneurial at heart

Zorin was driven by two powerful motivations: a lifelong desire to build her own company and a personal experience that exposed a clear gap in the market.

“I was at a music festival, waiting in line for eight hours in 40-degree heat. I remember thinking, why does this keep happening? There has to be a better way,” she recalled.

Entrepreneurship wasn’t a new ambition – it was part of who she was. “Becoming an entrepreneur was always part of who I am. It’s just in my nature,” said Zorin.

Having spent over a decade in both high-growth startups and B2B technology, including four years as Global Marketing Director at a cloud software distributor, Zorin had developed a strong commercial foundation – alongside a growing fascination with emerging technologies like AI and computer vision.

“I was always drawn to how emerging tech could solve real-world problems, especially in environments where traditional tools fall short,” she said.

With that passion driving her, Zorin interviewed around 80 industry professionals across sectors like retail, events, stadiums, and manufacturing. A clear pattern emerged: there was no effective solution for observing and understanding crowds in complex, high-density environments.

“There were retail people counters, but those are ceiling-mounted and simply not viable in open-air festivals or stadiums where you can’t mount anything overhead,” she explained.

She initially focused on retail, where the market was more ready for adoption. “In 2020, we spent about 18 months building a system that could accurately measure entries and engagement in retail spaces,” said Zorin.

But in a serendipitous turn, a New South Wales music festival approached her – and became Nola’s first customer and MVP.

“That was our launchpad,” said Zorin. “From there, we raised pre-seed funding, completed more pilots, and secured our first paying customers.”

With entrepreneurial grit, a passion for emerging technologies, and a strong commercial backbone, Zorin launched Nola to reimagine how we understand the movement of people in physical spaces—starting with the industries that need it most.

The solution: Turning existing CCTV into valuable insights

A key differentiator for Nola is its ability to plug into existing CCTV systems at scale — a move that was always part of the plan. “My goal was to make this technology affordable and make the most of the infrastructure already in place. It was already installed, so we just tapped into their systems,” said Zorin.

What starts as a simple integration often evolves into a long-term solution. Nola is built as a flexible platform with no ceiling in terms of capability, allowing it to adapt and expand as customer needs change. Whether it’s adding new use cases, scaling across locations, or integrating with other systems, Nola stays relevant – not just for the season, but for the long haul.

Backed by deep experience across stadiums, amusement parks, and snow resorts, Nola has developed custom machine learning models tailored to the unique movement patterns and operational challenges of each setting. These models turn anonymised footage into real-time, actionable insights, delivered through intuitive mobile and web apps. With features like live dashboards, historical reporting, and push alerts, Nola helps teams stay ahead of issues as they emerge. In stadiums, for example, it enables operators to monitor gate activity and queue build-up – helping them manage crowd flow before bottlenecks occur and ensuring a smoother fan experience.

Balancing privacy, ethics, and data richness

Zorin believes there is no trade-off between privacy and ethics, and the richness of data. This is why Nola doesn’t store footage or use facial recognition. “We have built an anonymous-by-design system. Instead of facial recognition, we use object detection to collect information.”

Zorin is incredibly passionate about the ethical implications of using AI facial recognition technology. “I think as an emerging technology where there is a lack of regulation, it’s important to be a leader and set the tone for what is acceptable in the industry.”

“Some businesses may use facial recognition as a method to determine total time spent in a venue. I think they should be asking – is it really necessary to take stamps of people's faces? Or is there a different approach that you can take to ascertain time spent?” said Zorin.

ASTN: Empowering the next generation of female founders

Victoria Zorin is an active member of the Australian Sports Technologies Network (ASTN) and participates in a number of panels and initiatives that celebrate women driving innovation in sport. Zorin has spoken at events including ‘Women-Led Design’ during Australian Sports Innovation Week in Melbourne, and Cremorne Tech Week.

“I’ve loved being part of the ASTN network and I have found a huge benefit in finding a community of like-minded founders. As a proud female founder in a male dominated industry, it’s empowering to meet other women who are having similar experiences on their entrepreneurial journey,” added Zorin.

Amy Crosland, Chief Operating Officer, ASTN says that founders like Zorin are incredibly important in inspiring the next generation of female founders. "In the sportstech industry, women founders are estimated to make up less than 10 percent of all startups. We are making strides as an industry, but we’ve still got a long way to go.”

“We’re improving; with recent cohorts of our early-stage accelerator program having a 50:50 gender split – which has taken targeted efforts to bring women into the sportstech sector. This is why founders like Zorin are so important in helping to influence the next generation of female founders,” added Crosland.

Goals firmly in place for future growth

What’s next for Nola? Zorin envisions Nola being integrated across every stadium, snow resort and theme park to revolutionise their daily operations and transform the way they conduct their business.

“At the end of the day, Nola is about people. We want to see some tangible impact that we’re making within their business and It's about making their lives easier,” said Zorin.

It’s this kind of synchronicity and care that is guaranteed to open doors for Zorin in the future as she sets her sights on expanding to the U.S. market, one crowd member at a time.

For more information on Nola visit https://www.nolahq.com/

Listen to Victoria Zorin on Sports Cutting Edge.