Cloudgenda
A complete membership management platform for organizations.
This is the first (of I hope many) posts to come on Indiehackers.
Some time ago, the administrator at my local judo club came out of his office to ask a few of us judo practitioners whether we have paid our membership fees.
The next week, that same administrator came out of his office to ask us the same question about the membership fees.
I thought that was strange. "Isn't he supposed to know who paid their membership fees, who didn't, who owes a balance, etc. ?".
I went to see the administrator after class to better understand how he tracks this kind of information.
The answer? Pen and paper.
For the past forty years, the judo club has been functioning in a pen-and-paper fashion for everything: legal forms, membership dues, attendances, etc.
I won't go in details about that fragile framework on getting things done for a business, but one can easily think what would happen if a fire or flood reach the office. Or if a thief decides to target the office.
One evening, I took some time to search on the Internet for a working solution that could help my local judo club. I couldn't find a good solution that would fit what they do and how they do it.
"If a solution exists, use it. If one doesn't, create it and sell it." That is my mantra when it comes to solving problems. I don't like to reinvent the wheel, but if a wheel doesn't exist to transport a business to where it's supposed to go, then building a wheel might be the best decision to consider.
I therefore decided to build such a platform.
After a few months of development, Cloudgenda was born and is being used exclusively for the time being by my local judo club (my primary beta user). I'm about to make Cloudgenda open for all very very soon, but for the time being, organizations can register after a quick introduction meeting with our support team.
A few things that I'm thinking on top of my head that I will share here on Indiehackers are success stories about the product, technology decisions (whether good or bad) that were made along the way, etc.
So this a quick post to say hello 👋.
Cloudgenda is here to help as many membership-driven organizations as possible to more effectively manage their businesses, and in return better serve their members. And I'm doing this in a direct collaborative way with my customers because listening to them, understanding their problems, and helping them with empathy is what developing Cloudgenda is all about.
Cheers everyone.
Brian
Founder of Cloudgenda
Montreal, Canada 🍁
26 Comments
Can you say a bit more about this: "One evening, I took some time to search on the Internet for a working solution that could help my local judo club. I couldn't find a good solution that would fit what they do and how they do it."
From the description you give, it sounds like the software you're judo club needed ("legal forms, membership dues, attendances, etc.") would be similar to the software used by thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of judo studios, martial arts centers, or for that matter basically any health club in the world.
I did a quick search myself and found a number of likely candidates, such as https://sales.vagaro.com/pricing or https://www.reddit.com/r/judo/comments/aitlsl/membershipclub_management_software/
So if I had been in your position, I would likely have concluded that this is a solved problem.
Perhaps you can offer those standard services more cheaply? Perhaps what your gym needs is so special/niche that they really can't solve it using those existing tools? Or perhaps you think you're reinventing the wheel to a large extent, but that's okay because there must be lots of other judo/martial art/health clubs that still haven't gone digital so there's room in the market for more competition and success?
This is not meant to be a challenge to you as much as a learning opportunity for me. As I say, if I were in your position I would likely have decided there are lots of products out there that already do what your club needs, and I would have stopped there. I want to learn what you saw during your search that made you move forward.
@MichaelKatz Thanks for taking the time to share your reply with me. I was going to write how there's a fine line between using an existing solution or creating one, but I don't believe there is.
The idea behind Cloudgenda is not to be a membership-management platform solely for martial arts clubs, but for any membership-driven organization, such as a church, a club, a school, a babysitter business, a pet-walking business, etc.
If the solution was to be applied to a niche community like, for example, judo clubs, then I totally agree with you: might as well use something that exists and could even be "just good enough" for their needs. Life's too short to reinvent the wheel, unless reinventing the wheel brings something good or pleasurable in one's life. Personally, I would prefer to go out fishing on the lake or ride my bike outside.
One thing that I forgot to mention in my post is that my local church was also looking for such a platform. And yet again, we have a similar problem that requires a similar solution. However, that's not entirely the case. In Canada, and more specifically in the province of Quebec where I live, software has to support both English and French languages because some administrators/organizations don't conduct business solely in English. So there's the language issue. Cloudgenda takes care of that (with Spanish being in the works). Then there's the money factor, or more specifically the issue of currency. Asking organizations to charge their Canadian members in USD wouldn't go well for the organizations that Cloudgenda targets. So we have the language and the currency. Cloudgenda currently supports USD and CAD, but will support whatever is being supported by Stripe too. And I'll finish with another one (though I'm sure there are many other options, but it's almost my time for bed): I wanted to provide them with a platform that would be highly customizable. Through the use of custom fields, any organization can define the attributes that are important to them and their members. In other words, custom fields are what distinguishes one organization from another even if they' re operating in the same industry.
When I did my search two years ago, I couldn't find any solution that would provide those minimum requirements at an affordable price and that would be intuitive to use. Is there another solution out there that does what Cloudgenda does? Problably. But I don't know of any.
I miss fishing by the lake. I miss riding my bike on the hills. I think I may have gone fishing and cycling at most five times this year. Sometimes I wish that I didn't have to work on Cloudgenda, but then again everytime that I'm sitting behind the keyboard to implement the next feature, it gives me such a joy and pleasure (the architecture makes it pleasant to build upon and evolve it too), that maybe I would've started Cloudgenda even if there was another solution like it on the market. The only difference would probably be the uniqueness of the platform. But then again...each platform is unique because each creator is unique too.
Hehe...I'm remembering a t-shirt that I saw an older gentleman wearing on the bus a few years ago. It was printed: "I'm unique...just like everybody else." :)
Michael, I appreciate your comment with all my heart. And thank you so much for pointing that typo on the landing page. I'm grateful to you for pointing that out (and I'll correct it before going to bed). I hope to have many more good conversations with you in the future.
Some more landing page fixes:
"Better server your members and participants with data that you can easily understand about them." ==> "Better server your members and participants using data that helps you understand them."
"Creates, automate, send, track and receive payments for invoices with a few clicks." ==> "Create ..."
"Programs are the services that your organization provides to its members. You can define program fees and understand which brings the most profit." ==> bring
"Each member gets access to a private portal where she or he can update their profile, access invoices, and more." ==> remove the final comma to be consistent with other text on the page.
"Create, track, manage, link, understand and make sense of your business data with just a few clicks. Cloudgenda provides you an intuitive dashboard that helps you navigate where you want, so that you can stay on top of all the incoming information in your organization." ==> would say "easily" instead of "where you want"
Thanks for the additional info. It's nice to have two customers with specific needs that you're trying to provide for. What is your plan for finding further customers?
Great post.
Honestly, I think that those of us that are makers see the world in a specific way.
We Google, and see that said solution already exists.. therefore we shouldn't attempt to build it. But sometimes we fail to see that there's a personal touch to the product: one that you demonstrated very well in your post. You approached things from the right angle from the outset.
You started a conversation, engaged your first user(s), and got to know your market. And that mentality you have is now a part of your product. You're not only selling your product - you're selling your customer first mindset, and your deep research.
Sure, you can find some series of products that seem to have the features that they need. But none of these products speak to your customers. They don't understand it. Or, they never even bothered to look - which outlines another problem you're solving.
Really love your post OP, looking forward to seeing you around more!
Also: typos on the landing page:
Members Portal
Each member gets access to a private portal where she or he can UPDATE THEIR profile, access invoices, and more.
Congrats! Good Luck on the venture - hope to read hundreds of your success stories!
Thanks so much @arniemckinnis! 👋
hey
solid read Brian! thanks for this share
Congrats! Good luck with the venture!
Hey! This is really thoughtful. I hope the beta testing goes well so that other clubs and businesses can access Cloudgenda :). Def keep us posted
How are you planning to market to "offline" customers?
Unlike customers who are perpetually online, they're harder to reach organically.
Amazing. I am also new here. This is also my first post. I hope there will be a good time spent. And please visit https://www.aimarketinglogin.com/
Nice story and good beginning I wish you more progress in your startup 👌
Based on the self-reported revenue, I'm assuming you're charging a flat fee of $500 a month?
Oh, no. I put a random number there to complete the process for my product page. The MRR is not constant because besides the monthly subscription fee, Cloudgenda does take a small percentage fee on online payment transactions, and that varies per organization and period/season as well.
Awesome job. I heard something similar from the person that owns our dog groomer.
They schedule all of their appointments using an online calendar of some sort, but they keep their customer contact info in a ….. stack of index cards. All hand written, only one copy, super inefficient.
This amazed me! There’s opportunity everywhere
Thats crazy they were tracking it like that for 40 years: just goes to show you that oppurtunity is everywhere!
Incredible story! I can’t imagine the feelings you must have had. Like “it’s a golden ticket, this thing doesn’t exist (!?).”
When you think about it, there must be 2 to 3 dojos in every small town, without counting the similar businesses using the membership model. This can just grow like crazy!
Not everybody is a 24hr Fitness with a million dollar app/tech/checkout system made available to every location. You are probably helping those small businesses by removing a huge stress for them.
Plus the extra features you can add are endless. Like since the owner has all email addresses, it’s now easy to send newsletters and offers for product and service updates.
Then you can also move into the Loyalty Program like what BoomerangMe does (found about it on AppSumo: https://appsumo.com/products/boomerangme/)
Anyway, really happy for you for finding your path! I’m definitely curious now and looking forward to read more about how the business evolves! Subscribed!
Heya @AdrienVillez! 👋
Thanks so much for your comment.
That idea with the loyalty program...it's brilliant! That would indeed be helpful for organizations to provide something "more" to their members for being loyal to the organization.💫
I subscribed back. You're awesome.
Je te souhaite beaucoup de succès et la meilleure des bonnes chances avec tout ce que t'entreprendras sur ton chemin. Prends bien soin de toi Adrien. 😊
Hey! J'ai zappé la region du Canada, hello le Quebec! (Jamais eu la chance de visiter mais je connais beaucoup de personnes de mon village Belge qui sont partis vivre et étudier au Quebec!)
Merci beaucoup, je travaille sur deux petits projets en ce moment. J'en ai beaucoup de trop en tête vraiment... Quasi 10 même... on va commencer avec un et on verra par la suite!
Je dois prendre mon courage a deux mains et commencer a écrire ici aussi!
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Hey, I skipped the area from Canada, Hello Quebec! (never had the chance to visit it but I have a couple of friends from my hometown who did move to live and study there)
Thanks so much, I also work on 2 small projects as we speak. I have a lot in mind really... maybe 10... but I'm gonna start with one really and see for the rest after.
I need to take a leap of faith and start posting here too!
bravo ;)
Great job man, cheers from Montreal.
Sweet! Thanks @deifos. You're my first IndieHacker that I meet from Montreal. 🍁
Well, they say that the world is small...Montreal is smaller. Hope to bump into you at a conference or some IH 5-à-7 one of these days.
Take good care of yourself, and Go! Habs, Go! :)
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