Why Venu has no chat
We left messaging out on purpose. Here is what we built instead, and why it gets people out the door.
Every group plan we have ever made started the same way: a chat called something like "Friday???", forty messages about where, and three people who never answered. By the time anyone decided, the night was half over.
When we started building Venu, the obvious move was to add chat. Every social app has it. We decided not to.
One page instead of eighty messages
A plan on Venu is a single page: the time, the place, who is going and who hasn't answered yet. Friends accept or decline with one tap. Nobody has to scroll back to find the address.
We want Venu to be the place you check before you go out, not another place you talk about going out.
Updates, not threads
Hosts still need to reach their guests. So instead of a thread, they post an update: the buzzer is broken, we moved to the bar next door, bring a jacket. Everyone going gets it as a notification, and it lives on the event page.
Leaving chat out means you spend less time planning and more time there. That is the whole idea.
