- Joined
- Dec 30, 2019
- Messages
- 174
Rep Bank
$1,030
$1,030
User Power: 220%
Alright guys, here it is. I'm just gonna put it all out there.
Backstory
Right before the pandemic, I moved to Venice Beach in LA and had a problem. I didn't know anyone. I had a good job, but I wasn't particularly friends with any of my coworkers. I wanted an easier way to make friends in tech outside of my work.
Idea
I had the idea to build a solution to this problem. It'd be a software application that connects people in the tech community. It would automatically match small groups of people based on similar interests and location, then send them all an invite to a coffee shop or happy hour spot at a convenient time.
Execution
I tested the idea by doing customer interviews. I reached out to a bunch of people on LinkedIn that were in tech and lived in LA. The feedback was good so I spent some money on branding and built a landing page. I got a good number of signups.
Then, the pandemic hit. I decided I would just build the software so that when it was over, I'd have everything ready. It took me about 4 months to build everything.
Then, I shelved the project because the pandemic was lasting much longer than I anticipated.
Re-Birth
Almost a year later, I decided to bring the project back to life. I thought of a better name, re-branded the website and re-vamped the software. I also decided to host my own public tech meetups under the company brand in order to promote the application. It took a lot of work to do the meetups, but it was worth it. About 25 people came to the first one. It was a success. I made a bunch of friends and got a lot of feedback. I also found about 20 people to do early-stage beta testing.
Launch
About a month later, I set up another tech meetup for the official launch party. About 35 people came to this one. It was also a success. About 10 people signed up for the app without me having to ask them. I just put banners around the meetup venue with QR codes on them.
Current
I've been working like a dog to test new features and promote the brand. I hired a startup growth advisor that has been really helpful. She's expensive, but her understanding of marketing far surpasses mine. She was the marketing manager at Uber for a few years before moving to work at a VC firm for several years.
My goal is to get to 1,000 monthly active users by the end of the year. To me, a monthly active user is someone that attends at least one hangout per month. The hangouts are what gets created automatically by the app.
It's called TechSocial for those that are curious.
I'll aim to post weekly updates here.
Also, I'm bootstrapping this thing until I get to 1,000 MAU. At that point, I'll start raising a seed round.
Then I'll create a new thread: Chapter 2.
Backstory
Right before the pandemic, I moved to Venice Beach in LA and had a problem. I didn't know anyone. I had a good job, but I wasn't particularly friends with any of my coworkers. I wanted an easier way to make friends in tech outside of my work.
Idea
I had the idea to build a solution to this problem. It'd be a software application that connects people in the tech community. It would automatically match small groups of people based on similar interests and location, then send them all an invite to a coffee shop or happy hour spot at a convenient time.
Execution
I tested the idea by doing customer interviews. I reached out to a bunch of people on LinkedIn that were in tech and lived in LA. The feedback was good so I spent some money on branding and built a landing page. I got a good number of signups.
Then, the pandemic hit. I decided I would just build the software so that when it was over, I'd have everything ready. It took me about 4 months to build everything.
Then, I shelved the project because the pandemic was lasting much longer than I anticipated.
Re-Birth
Almost a year later, I decided to bring the project back to life. I thought of a better name, re-branded the website and re-vamped the software. I also decided to host my own public tech meetups under the company brand in order to promote the application. It took a lot of work to do the meetups, but it was worth it. About 25 people came to the first one. It was a success. I made a bunch of friends and got a lot of feedback. I also found about 20 people to do early-stage beta testing.
Launch
About a month later, I set up another tech meetup for the official launch party. About 35 people came to this one. It was also a success. About 10 people signed up for the app without me having to ask them. I just put banners around the meetup venue with QR codes on them.
Current
I've been working like a dog to test new features and promote the brand. I hired a startup growth advisor that has been really helpful. She's expensive, but her understanding of marketing far surpasses mine. She was the marketing manager at Uber for a few years before moving to work at a VC firm for several years.
My goal is to get to 1,000 monthly active users by the end of the year. To me, a monthly active user is someone that attends at least one hangout per month. The hangouts are what gets created automatically by the app.
It's called TechSocial for those that are curious.
I'll aim to post weekly updates here.
Also, I'm bootstrapping this thing until I get to 1,000 MAU. At that point, I'll start raising a seed round.
Then I'll create a new thread: Chapter 2.
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