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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
small venues having live music or a local dj is playing they're either paying high fees that are getting passed along to their customers or you know they're covering those fees both are not good for a small business so you know we're able to decrease those prices for them and then really provide an end-to-end service we bring in the users because the tickets right there on the app it's very easy uh to not only use that ticket but then also now you see everything you see your city come alive and you see it breathing
you know, every time that you open the app. Caleb Hartley and Cameron Brown are innovative, forward-thinking entrepreneurs, and the co-founders of Charted. Drawing from their shared vision for connection and community, they are redefining how people discover and experience live events by creating a seamless platform that brings together exploration, social interaction, and real-time engagement.
You're like the live version of that, right? What can I do tonight?
You find something on the map, you find something in your city, you show up and you just have a good time.
My name is Rudy Moore, host of Living the Red Life podcast, and I'm here to change the way you see your life in your earpiece every single week. If you're ready to start living the red life, ditch the blue pill, take the red pill, join me in Wonderland and change your life. Hello and welcome back to another episode. Today, we're going to talk about events, software, growing a software company.
I'm sat here today with the founders of an awesome app.
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Chapter 2: What is the main purpose of the Charted app?
It's for events, bookings, all that jazz. We're going to get into it. But here are the founders of Chartered. Guys, welcome to the show. Excited to dive in.
yeah we appreciate being here yeah thanks for having us of course so so we're talking about it a little you know there's a lot of competition in this space there's some big players right you're growing this sort of new sort of social gathering events app and what i really love and i think my audience will find so interesting is you're taking this different angle you know like those the big booking systems they obviously charge crazy fees high volume but you you seem a bit more like for the business supporting the businesses the ones hosting the events as well
Can you maybe kind of give us an overview if people don't know what chart it is about the app and what it does?
Yeah, so Chartered, we post live local events on a map based on your location in real time. Then we blend social media so that you can find your friends, find communities, and connect, you know, and engage more with those communities in real time.
The goal here is, yeah, kind of, it's a two-sided platform. So on one side, we're serving the average user. They can find things in their own city when they're traveling. You know, a lot of things that you wouldn't normally know existed. And we're really serving the kind of
underutilized events in terms of the small businesses yeah you know a lot of people don't know that karaoke or a small venue is having live music or a local dj is playing so those kind of things you know they're either paying high fees that are getting passed along to their customers or they're covering those fees. Both are not good for a small business.
So we're able to decrease those prices for them and then really provide an end-to-end service where they get promotion, analytics, and everything on top of the ability to sell tickets beforehand.
Yeah, well, it's really cool. Like I was saying, you know, you got these big players, right? Like the Miami Heat has some famous DJ or artist, right? And they go on Ticketmaster. And, you know, even when I book tickets, it's like, you know, you spend $600 on your seat and then another $200 on your booking fees, right? So, and I love anything that supports small businesses.
You know, it's the hardest phase, right? So it's kind of really cool that you're like somewhere in the middle, right? Because you've got the ticket inside, but then also the visibility side, right? And figuring out kind of like, You know, people go on TripAdvisor and they get to a new city. It's like, what can I do? You're like the live version of that, right? What can I do tonight?
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Chapter 3: How does Charted support small businesses in the event space?
And so we started to grow it a couple years ago, and yeah, it's been a very exciting experience.
And what are small businesses finding in terms of when they're starting to use it?
Yeah. So, um, originally, you know, we kind of attacked the ticket pricing just because there are so many fees, like we were just talking to go about that.
So realistically we, we can offer all ticketing for venues, which one gets them on the app, but if anything, it just saves them thousands often, I think on average around four to $5,000 a month, if they offer any sort of, you know, decent amount of tickets and shows, you know, per week. Um,
so that that comes with a lot of ease one in working with the the people that go to see those shows and then also signing up it's like three clicks to do that right and then they have an entire platform where we give them metrics on their tickets um on their shows kind of who's looking at those pages so we kind of start with ticketing to get people in and save them a ton of money and help people get to those shows and then they come and then it comes with the whole entire platform that that anyone can use to find anything around them
And then that was a big thing we heard as well is that, you know, these other platforms, first of all, a lot of these companies rely on their Instagram pages or things like that to market the events, which really is only their existing market that ends up seeing them unless they're paying meta or something like that.
And then on top, they're not really getting any analytics from the actual process when their tickets are processed by these companies. They're not getting any metrics on demographic or the locations people are buying, the typical customer. They're left in the dark. Sometimes they're not even seeing their own profit margin and really basic stuff. So there was a huge gap to fill there.
Yeah, I was going to say, I think it's like... Not only the logistics and the tracking and saving on costs, but like most small local businesses, they just have no clue even how to market their events, right? Like maybe they throw up like one Instagram post with like some crappy text and you don't even know what the event is, right? Or where it is. Yeah.
Like you're trying to figure it out, then you have to figure out where to get the tickets. Right. So, so yeah, I think it's so great. So let's talk about expansion now. Like what's the long term? I know you're in a few cities, like let's talk about how it's grown and what the plan is long term.
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Chapter 4: What challenges do founders face in startup growth?
And the ticketing process doesn't really change anywhere in the US. So we can realistically onboard a business in a day and have things up and running for them.
So how does it look? Say I go to one of these cities. I'm a user. I download the app. I'm there for an event tomorrow. I'm bored tonight. I pull it up and talk me through that part.
Yeah. So you have a few options to interact with. And I'll kind of phase it in three ways. So you have the map version, which is your homepage, which is... You can zoom in and literally just see icons right across the street from you. Click on them. It opens up a page about the event, all the details. There will be live photos, everything in real time comments.
If you buy tickets to that event, you know, you can do it right there on the page. And then we'll have different list views. So just like you would scroll any other social media, you can scroll it by, you know, what's near me happening like right now? What would I be interested in based on, you know, my past usage in the events that I seem to like or buy tickets to?
Or you just type straight into an AI text box right on top of the map. I want to find happy hours near me or DJ events tonight. And it will just give you a list based on your past preferences, based on your location. And you can do it, you know, like that. Or you can actually have it plan out a whole day for you.
You can go to something we have planned my day and you kind of give it what you're looking for. So let's just say like I want to start out, you know, get some food, move to, you know, something more social in the afternoon and then end the night, you know, doing something nightlife like a club or something like that.
And you just give it those categories and it will arrange an itinerary for you to kind of take you through each of those things you want to do. Make sure that, you know, you have adequate time to travel between events and nothing overlaps. And yeah, just sets it up for you.
And let's talk about, you know, the The app's fascinating. I love the idea. Great for small businesses. But this podcast is also, you know, for entrepreneurs, by entrepreneurs. We're all business owners. So I always like to ask the story behind the story. Like, what's it like with, you know, ups and downs of entrepreneurship, growing a software, an app?
You know, I've been involved in those companies. Everything takes 10 times longer than you think. Then it breaks. Then you got to... And you're always, I say, in a hard niche because you've got to get businesses and customers, right? And it's this constant cat and mouse. So let's talk about the ups and downs of this journey.
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Chapter 5: How do user feedback and testing influence app development?
It's good when you have a co-founder. Uh, especially one that, you know, you can value and trust because there are days when, you know, I'm down and I don't know that really moving forward is, uh, in certain directions will be the right thing. But then he says, Hey, you know, I just finished this feature and then I get a new idea and then we just keep bouncing off each other and going.
So we've been doing that for a couple of years now. So you kind of just keep going. You keep your head down. You know, you get a lot of no's, but that just means you pivot your business model so you can fit the market better.
And what about any other lessons like on an app software? I know they're hard businesses to build out.
Yeah, so I'm kind of the technical end here. And it's been a process of using different services, replacing this with that. A fair amount of trial and error. The very first time we released the beta version. We had people using it and from a very tech savvy spot, I designed the app. It was a little complex, not necessarily as intuitive for a brand new user.
And we got some feedback like, this is great. I don't really know how to use it though. So, you know, then it's massive redesign where, you know, now I have to put my frame. OK, what if I never saw this before and it wasn't like my idea? How do I position, you know, the app to where someone can come in on their very first use and be like, oh, this is super simple.
I understand what's happening here. So user feedback is super important. And then just making sure that you have thorough testing. We went through a period where it's kind of difficult to, when you're developing quickly and there's only two of you, to thoroughly test everything.
And next thing you know, some niche bug seems to happen on one specific type of device that you didn't have any idea about. You know, and then you're rushing to get a fix out. So I'd say those are kind of the two places where we've learned the most is just, you know, to make sure you can have a lot of confidence in your product through adequate testing and listen to the users.
And if I could add one last thing, the network. I mean, you always have to keep building your network, right? I mean, we we got here because we worked really hard. But then also you have to keep going out. You have to keep talking to investors. You have to keep meeting people. And then you keep finding other businesses that are startups that are also working towards that same end.
I mean, we've been able to collaborate. even you know pre-revenue with other companies like digi discount for example so we can offer discounts directly through the app for the events um you just kind of continue to build that network uh and you keep moving forward and then you just you know you find opportunities that way
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Chapter 6: What strategies do founders use to overcome the 'chicken-and-egg' problem?
Thank you.