Hidden Gems: Meet Stephanie Cuevas of Messa Group

Today we’d like to introduce you to Stephanie Cuevas.

Hi Stephanie, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Stephanie Cuevas — Hospitality Journey & Professional Walkthrough

Stephanie Cuevas began her hospitality journey on the ground floor: bartending, serving, and managing in some of Los Angeles’ most dynamic venues. Early on, she noticed a clear disconnect between what venues offered, what clients envisioned, and what most operators believed was “impossible.” Stephanie built her career on bridging that gap—transforming ordinary spaces into high-performance venues and turning ambitious ideas into seamless, profitable realities.

From Venue Developer to Experience Architect

Stephanie’s unique perspective began taking shape when she joined Soho House as part of the opening team for its gallery space. In this role, she learned to think like a venue developer—blending design, programming, and operations to shape how people gather, interact, and experience hospitality. She discovered that great venues are engineered through systems, storytelling, and service, not just space.

Elevating Nightlife as AGM of Delilah Los Angeles

Her next chapter brought her to Delilah Los Angeles, one of the most iconic nightlife venues in the city and a crown jewel of the h.wood Group. As Assistant General Manager, Stephanie helped lead one of the most high-volume, culturally influential rooms in LA’s nightlife scene.
At Delilah, she sharpened her operational edge, mastered high-stakes service environments, and supported a venue known for hosting celebrities, global brands, and entertainment industry leaders. This experience cemented her reputation for show-stopping execution and operational excellence.

Building a Landmark Events Program at Paloma Venice

Stephanie later joined Paloma Venice, where she was entrusted with building an entirely new events program from the ground up. Within months, she transformed Paloma into a sought-after hub for brand activations, private dining, and high-profile launches. Her program attracted clients such as:
• Amazon
• Jeeter
• AM Radio
• Paris Hilton / 11:11 Media
• And top-tier beauty brands across LA

Under her leadership, Paloma’s events division expanded rapidly—matching the creative ambitions of the city’s most innovative companies and influencers. She developed partnerships, built new revenue pathways, and elevated Paloma’s position in the market through strategic visibility.

Connecting Partnerships & Expanding Venue Potential

Across every venue she touched, Stephanie’s strength has been the same:
she connects hospitality, brand partnerships, and operations into one cohesive system.

She notices what others overlook—inefficiencies, gaps in communication, untapped revenue streams—and creates streamlined processes that transform teams and venues. Stephanie builds SOPs, introduces scalable event frameworks, creates partnership pipelines, and ensures every experience feels curated, intentional, and memorable.

Her philosophy:
Anything is possible when hospitality, structure, and creativity work together.

Now at USC: Entering the FIFA Era & LA’s Next Hospitality Wave

Today, Stephanie has joined USC, supporting major university hospitality operations as the city approaches a global moment—FIFA World Cup 2026 and the opening of landmark cultural institutions like the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art.

She now works across some of LA’s premier venues, bringing her expertise in events, partnerships, and venue development to a large-scale institutional environment. This chapter reflects both her growth and her focus: building systems that elevate guest experience, maximize revenue, and prepare Los Angeles for its next era of global hospitality.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Finding Beauty in the Chaos: A Woman’s Journey Through Hospitality

It hasn’t been easy. Being a woman in hospitality is not just challenging—it’s a test of resilience, intuition, and heart. Over the past five years, our industry has faced some of its hardest chapters: raids, wildfires, economic uncertainty, and a hospitality landscape that was shaken to its core. Yet through all of it, I’ve found my purpose again and again.

What keeps me going is simple: the transformation. Watching a venue—any venue—be reimagined into a space where memories are created. A blank room becomes a wedding ceremony filled with joy. A modest patio becomes the stage for a global brand activation. A familiar restaurant becomes an intimate setting where people connect, celebrate, and feel seen. What most of all keeps me going is knowing that we are making a mark in your local restaurant that saw a bleak future, yet now sees the potential of new revenue streams. From the people in the back of house to front of house, my grand purpose

Seeing hospitality, events, and high-level production come together is where my passion lives. It’s in those moments—when creativity becomes infrastructure, when details become experiences, when ideas become impact—that I’m reminded why I do what I do every single day.

The struggles have shaped me. They’ve sharpened my craft, strengthened my leadership, and taught me that challenges are not setbacks—they’re invitations to evolve. And in hospitality, evolution is everything.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Messa Group?
MESSA Group, formerly SoCo Hospitality, is redefining what a modern experiential agency looks like. Founded by hospitality expert and events architect Stephanie Cuevas, MESSA Group stands at the intersection of hospitality, experiential design, technology, and strategy—bringing bold ideas to life for some of the world’s most influential brands.

The name MESSA represents the company’s pillars: Marketing • Experiential • Strategy • Solutions • Agency. These pillars drive a multidisciplinary approach that allows the group to operate far beyond traditional event production. MESSA is known for its ability to merge elevated hospitality with high-level creative execution, transforming spaces and building experiences that feel cinematic and culturally resonant.

A New Standard in Experiential + Hospitality

With a portfolio that ranges from Neon Carnival to celebrity-driven brand launches, private luxury dinners, and large-scale activations, MESSA Group has become a go-to partner for brands seeking unforgettable, hospitality-forward experiences.

Their expertise spans:
• Event Design & Production
• Venue Development & Operations Consulting
• Software + Systems Integration
• Custom Fabrication & Environment Design

MESSA Group is widely recognized for bringing top chefs to unforgettable tables, activating venues in unexpected ways, and building atmospheres where guests feel fully immersed and cared for.

What Sets MESSA Group Apart

What distinguishes MESSA in a crowded industry is its ability to operate in both the creative and operational worlds with equal precision. While most agencies offer design or production, MESSA brings a rare combination of:
• A hospitality-first mindset
• Strategic partnership development
• Tech-driven operational systems
• High-impact creative ideation
• Flawless, detail-driven execution

This hybrid approach allows the agency to not just produce events—but build scalable ecosystems around them.

A Brand Built on Connection & Culture

Founder Stephanie Cuevas brings over 15 years in hospitality, spanning venue development roles at Soho House, operational leadership at Delilah Los Angeles, and major event programming at Paloma Venice. Her ability to merge hospitality standards with high-level production has positioned MESSA Group as a trusted partner for brands, chefs, institutions, and venues across Los Angeles and beyond.

“Our philosophy is simple,” Cuevas says. “Hospitality, when paired with creativity and systems, becomes limitless.”

What Readers Should Know

MESSA Group is more than an events agency.
It is a full-scale experiential partner specializing in:
• Luxury and large-scale events
• Venue development and operational architecture
• Experiential brand storytelling
• Software and reservation systems
• Chef-driven culinary experiences
• High-end fabrications and custom builds

Whether you’re launching a brand, redefining a venue, or creating a once-in-a-lifetime experience, MESSA Group brings the vision, structure, and artistry to make it unforgettable.

MESSA Group: Where hospitality meets imagination.

We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
On Risk-Taking

I’ve learned that risk is often the doorway to expansion. Some people see risk as something to fear—something to avoid until the “perfect moment” arrives. But in hospitality and events, the perfect moment rarely exists. You either build it, or you miss it.

One of the biggest risks I’ve taken was leaving the safety of a corporate environment to step fully into entrepreneurship. Walking away from stability, benefits, and predictable structure to build my own agency required a level of trust in myself that I hadn’t been asked to access before. But I knew I had hit a ceiling, and staying where I was felt like a bigger risk than taking the leap.

I invested everything—time, capital, and heart—into developing others and building a community rooted in hospitality. I poured resources into the culinary world, creating opportunities for chefs, producers, and venues that didn’t exist before. I built systems, opened doors, and championed talent in spaces where they weren’t always seen.

The risk wasn’t just financial. It was creative. Emotional. Personal.
But every time I stepped into the unknown, I discovered new capacities—for resilience, leadership, and reimagining what hospitality could be.

My perspective on risk is simple:
Risk is not reckless. Risk is alignment.
It’s choosing to bet on your vision before anyone else can see it. It’s trusting that your purpose is bigger than your comfort zone.

Leaving corporate life to build my own path wasn’t just a leap—it was a declaration. A declaration that the hospitality industry could be more intentional, more elevated, more inclusive, and more creative. And that belief continues to guide every decision I make.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.themessa.com/
• Instagram: Guestlistbymessa
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanie-c-8290a3bb

Image Credits
SBX beauty launch, Neon Carnival, Dessert Smash at Zenyara, Gloria Calderon annual Galentines with special guests.