Hello 2020! Learnings from 2019 and what we’re psyched about
At Stanza, we live and breathe calendar. For us, January’s always a time to reflect and to gain clarity for where we’re heading next.
How’d we get here?
When we launched in 2014 as Add-to-Calendar 2.0, the calendar consumer was already changing — millennials were entering the workforce, embracing calendar and there was an obvious need for calendars to do more.
However, nobody — event creators and users — was willing to pay for calendars or event content back in 2014. That’s also quickly changing now.
Our journey has had its ups and downs as we’ve iterated swiftly to align with a changing market and now an evolving business model. It took some big bets along the way but we had a banner 2019 and we’re really psyched about 2020.
Learning #1: Calendars have evolved beyond work-only events
Calendar’s here to stay. However, as millennials spend more time and money on experiences, that’s also being reflected in their calendars.
Not surprisingly, Google Trends shows a correlation between people searching for events and wanting to add more stuff to their calendars:
Learning #2: Free social apps aren’t the only way to engage users
The tech market has also evolved: the saturation of social platforms made it clear that businesses needed new ways to engage users. Event creators are constantly at the whim of social platforms who could change algorithms at any moment. The proverbial rug pull keeps marketing managers up at night.
We’re now in the privacy / SaaS era; paying for platforms is becoming the norm:
2019 Big Bet: Creators will pay for Stanza
In early 2019, with over 10M calendar subscribers and a robust product suite, we felt we had the proof points to ask event creators on our platform to start paying a licensing fee. We surveyed event creators using the free version of our product, rebuilt pricing and rebranded our entire ecosystem. Our focus on quality vs. “move fast and break things” helped us end 2019 with 200+ paying customers — from venues to national sports leagues like Major League Soccer (MLS). We’re on track to pass 1,000 paying customers by the end of 2020.
The kicker: as creators are paying for our products, the calendar experience is evolving to be richer and more useful for consumers.
Big bet for 2020: Users will pay for Stanza
“Why aren’t ___ events on Stanza?”
“When are you going to add ___ to Stanza?”
We promise we’ve kept track of all these requests over the years — we’re doubling down and focusing on growing our ecosystem so eventually you can find everything (not just sports) you care about on Stanza.
We believe there’s an appetite for quality, hard-to-find events. Our next bet is that people are willing to pay for this content IF it saves them time. We’re sailing into uncharted waters but one thing remains the same — we know events belong in calendar.
We’d love to hear from you
Journeys are only as fun as the people you’re on it with :) If you’re passionate about events or mobilizing your community, feel free to reach out to us at learnmore@stanza.co. We’d love to connect and see how we can be helpful.
