Breaking through the
status quo.
The founder validated platonic social connection — filling a gap dating apps and LinkedIn don't touch — by running local activity groups manually. WhatsApp chains, Google Forms, Venmo requests, copy-pasted calendar invites. Demand was real: people showed up, made friends, and came back. But operations were consuming his evenings. Cancellations took 45 minutes of manual outreach. New hosts got confirmation messages only if he remembered to send them. No-show rates sat at 28% because people booked weeks ahead and simply forgot. Off-the-shelf tools like Eventbrite and Meetup couldn't handle recurring sessions, waitlists, host dashboards, or coordinated multi-channel notification flows. Custom was the only path.
Strategic engineering
built for impact.
We designed and shipped HeyMates — a full-stack community activity platform on Next.js 13 and TypeScript, backed by Firebase Cloud Functions and Firestore, with Stripe for payments, Twilio for SMS, Nodemailer with Handlebars templates for email, ical-generator for calendar attachments, Firebase Cloud Messaging for push notifications, and Sentry for error monitoring. Users discover activities, register with structured profiles, pay through integrated checkout, and chat with their group before the event. Hosts get a dedicated dashboard to create activities, schedule sessions, set headcount limits, enable waitlists, and manage cancellations. The notification engine was the core engineering challenge: every booking triggers a confirmation email with an iCal attachment, Google Maps link, and host details. Twenty-four hours before each session, both an email and SMS fire to every attendee. Hosts receive a separate 48-hour SMS. Twelve hours after a session ends, a feedback request goes out automatically. Cancellations notify every attendee within seconds — including the host's contact number and a refund path. No one on the team touches any of it.
Measurable success
at scale.
420 registered users in the first 8 months through word of mouth alone, with no paid advertising. The automated reminder system cut the no-show rate from 28% to 11% — a 61% reduction. Session fill rate climbed from 43% to 74% within 10 weeks of enabling waitlists and reminders together. 68 activities listed across 3 cities, averaging 32 sessions per month at launch. $14,200 NZD processed through Stripe in the first 6 months with zero duplicate bookings or failed confirmation flows. The founding team recovered 4.5 hours per week previously spent on manual attendee communication. Zero manual notifications have been sent since launch.
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