How COVID gutted us, how we recovered, and how we're moving forward.

Bootstrapping, non-technical founder here. And I'm going to take you on a full, transparent journey from beginning, to where we stand today. Struggles and all.

A Lofty Idea

2.5 years ago, I had a realization when traveling to a destination wedding (remember travel??) that there was no great way of seeing who else was going.

A wedding guestlist seemed to be this oh-so-sacred mystery – when it shouldn't be! Everyones going to get drunk and merry and feel like family at the end of it, so why not start the party early? WHY the awkward game among friends of "were.. were you invited to, uh.." ?

Wedding guests spend a TON of money to attend, but it would be a hell of a lot cheaper if they could collaborate as a group, carpool, or share flight/hotel deals with each other.

After returning, I began sketching out what would eventually become Guestboard.co

Taking the Leap

As a designer/marketer with only a bit of front-end skillz, I hired a dev shop ($$) to build an initial version. (Many lessons were learned, and I've since moved on to bringing an incredibly talented dev on board.)

But while that was going on, I (a team of 1 at that point) realized that this wasn't just for weddings.

Early, forgiving users (bless their hearts) began creating events for their bachelor parties.. then camping trips.. then corporate retreats, and upward.

The product quickly revealed itself to be what I've always enjoyed in other products (like Trello, for example)– flexible for a wide variety of use cases.

An alternative to Facebook events, as some have told us. We enjoyed that.

But be warned! If YOU are building something flexible like this, (with lots of use cases) there's a whole host of challenges in not having a closely-defined market. You're basically spinning even more plates than you would with a typical startup. Frankly, you'll envy those who are solving a single problem for a niche audience.

But sometimes you just have to make a decision and forge ahead. And we forged ahead with the wide net.

Pre-COVID Growth:

Being a designer at heart, I'm a bit of perfectionist. "Launch fast and often" is a tough pill for me to swallow, so I achieved the same result in a different way.

I'm fairly well-versed in Google Ads and SEO, and suggest everyone peel off some $ and get familiar with it as well. Look at keyword volumes using something like SEMRush or KeywordTool. I firmly believe that you can get a pretty good sense of a need for a product by diving deep into keywords/volumes.

So instead of a typical full-bore launch early on, I'd experiment with targeted ads for the most popular uses cases. I'd get a couple hundred users in the door, and then turn off the ads (we hadn't begun charging yet).

This basically gave us a little cohort of fresh beta testers to interview, gather feedback from, and improve. We did this every couple of months.

Because i had a decent day job, I found this to be an extremely efficient use of my time and money. You get to see early on what messaging resonates with your audience, and you build the foundation & practice of getting your CPA low and CTR high.

Things were going well, and we planned for a Product Hunt launch! ...at the end of February 2020.... 😑

ENTER, "THE COVID-ING".

Clearly, a product that revolved around planning for in-person events wasn't going to be received well. So we backed off, and re-evaluated.

Initially, we hoped things would blow over (HA!), and watched as virtual conference startups suddenly launched beautiful, VC-backed products. Almost as though they were waiting in the shadows for this pandemic.

This hurt to watch. Do what you can, mentally, to make that pain as brief as possible. (Closing my eyes and letting out a frustrated sigh is all I've allowed myself to do). Move on.

Our team of 4, at this point, believed that we needed to change with the times, but also not lose sight of our initial vision. We were (and still are) self-funded, so we couldn't afford to pivot hard.

We were lucky that the way Guestboard is structured (with pick & choose modular widgets), we could quickly spin up a Video Chat widget that offered some functionalities that Zoom/others could not - the ability to schedule/host multiple (and concurrent) video meetings.

This is particularly useful for breakout sessions for retreats and light-budget conferences, but ALSO fit into our long term vision, in that it can be used for hosting planning meetings for eventually in-person or hybrid events.

Win win.

Silver linings (albeit, concerning ones)

When COVID hit, and prior to our Video Chat release, we saw about a 60% drop in usage of Guestboard. New registrants were delighted by the product, but were merely checking it out for the future. Because, well, you know.

Made sense.

The good news, depending on how you look at it, is that registrations and usage have slowly recovered.

And although we don't necessarily agree with some of the non-virtual events still being planned on Guestboard, we ARE happy to see that it's partly being used to communicate important preventative measures: sharing links to nearby COVID-testing areas, announcements to bring masks, schedule-item RSVPs to make sure not too many people are going to one thing.

More than ever, it has highlighted what we've always believed–that many events require MORE than just an invitation. Guests want (and deserve) to feel included and informed. They want to know who (and right now, HOW MANY) are attending. And we're able to help.

We're looking toward the future, when folks can be happy and healthy and in close proximity again. Until that time, there's always the Video Chat widget on Guestboard :).

👇👇
Thanks for coming to my TED talk... and by the way, we're live on Product Hunt today! 😉 Come say hi.

Abridged list of lessons learned

• If you hire a dev shop who quotes based on the project.. Don't. Change. A thing. Scope creep is how they getcha. Plan everything to a T beforehand and hold them accountable to it.
• You don't need to 🚀💰🔥 LAUNCH 🚀💰🔥 when you're 1 month into a project, but you DO need to get it in front of people early. Don't work in a cave. We chose SEO and Google Ads to achieve this effect.
• Networking is important. But if what you're building takes time, be vigilant about maintaining those connections. You'll blink, 6 months has gone by, and you feel regrettably distant from (or worse, won't remember) someone great you met along the way. Get them on your lists early and often. Check in.
• If you're not spending money, you're spending time. Or vice versa. Spend wisely.
• Embrace the suck. Stay the course.