A new company has joined the Charlotte startup scene and aims to make people's lives easier when it comes to scheduling in-person meetings.
Meetify, a software startup that simplifies planning physical meetups, officially launched its services today. Now people have the option to go to one destination to plan face-to-face meetings with friends, mentors, nonprofit leaders, entrepreneurs and more.
The scheduling process takes a few simple steps. First, the user will pick a date, time and location from the app's recommended food or drink spots. Then an invite will be sent with details when the meeting is set.
Meetify was created by Angel and Dan Rutledge, the co-founders of Charlotte-based SignUpGenius. That platform, founded in 2008, simplifies the organizing of volunteer efforts, conferences, pot lucks or any other activity where participants would sign up for a specific task or time slot. The duo sold a majority stake of the online signup tool in 2017 before deciding to launch another business.
Meetify's mission is to help people strengthen relationships. Angel Rutledge told CBJ the idea of creating the startup was sparked as a result of the pandemic.
"During the pandemic, I think we all saw that we were not together in person. And just with relationships with people we care about a lot, it was easy to find the things we disagreed about, and all those things still exist," she said. "But, I think when we meet in person, it feels like common ground is a lot easier to find. We just think life is better when we do it together."
Angel Rutledge said she and husband Dan realized it's complicated to get people back together physically. She remembered a time when it was difficult to meet a group of friends who resided in different areas of the Queen City for dinner.
"We ended up causing so many streams of text chats, and we're all so busy during the day that we'd just get to the point where we wouldn't meet very often or it'd take forever," Angel Rutledge said.
The couple knew they could make the process easier based on their previous experience with SignUpGenius.
"We both are very much organizers and get very frustrated with something that is difficult to organize," Angel Rutledge said. "We both said 'Okay, we're the people who could fix this.' We knew this was right up our alley."
All Meetify features are free through December and available to everyone, according to the company's website. Starting in January, all user accounts will default back to its starter level. There are annual or monthly subscription signups available to plan in-person meetups.
Angel Rutledge said the initial launch of Meetify is the beginning of their journey, and there are many things the founders seek to add to the platform.
"I'm just not really interested in running a business that is just a technology tool or even something that has a potential to make a lot of money. Those things just don't get me really excited," she said. "But, building a tool that could make it simpler for people to build better relationships and impact their community, that's what gets me incredibly excited."
